12 Fatal Instagram Mistakes You Are Probably Making, We made most of them, So you don’t have to! Podcast and Video Tutorial!
This article on Fatal Instagram Mistakes to avoid was first published on November 9th, 2015. At the time, my Instagram game was on fleek and I loved it, although not as much as Pinterest. In 2017 disaster struck and my account got a shadowban, no clear reason why! It was like the sun stopped shinning on my IG account month after month and I lost followers from 6000+ to under 2k at that point, I lost interest. Today I have a new found love for Instagram due to an amazing IG coach. And, I am also noticing the same mistakes I made then, being made by Instagram marketers. Let’s end your pain, shall we?
Do you keep posting your amazing images, quotes, and tips on Instagram, yet see crickets? And you are losing Followers like flies daily!
Like no one seems interested in your pure value.
Then your friend Jane shows up on IG, gets with 200 followers in seemingly days, and gets 100+ hearts on every blessed post! 🥺
I know the feeling, see I know what your friend Jane is possibly doing. And I am sure you want to know too, right?
First, let’s fix the Dropping Follower count. GO to my Instagram, FOllow and Check out this post here for our solution.👊💛
View this post on Instagram
Well, we are all about getting more entrepreneurs generating more leads and making more sales with us or otherwise.
So today we just wanna tackle the Instagram mistakes we made or learnt, just so you don’t! You too are probably making these same Instagram mistakes somehow!
Let me guess, you’ve been on Instagram for several months even years now. Yet, you’re scratching your head thinking
“Why am I not getting more followers? Why aren’t my pics getting more heart loving and comments?”
Like most Instagram users when I first started, I had unrealistic expectations about how to create a successful Instagram for business account. Somehow you think that if you just push a bunch of pretty images out onto Instagram you’re all set…Wrong!
Listen to the Podcast below on Instagram mistakes as you carry out other tasks on audio. I encourage you to Subscribe to our podcast too for your weekly dose of Audio Tips and tricks to make more sales!
In the beginning, I literally grew from 0-100 followers in a click of a button…Of course, that was down to linking my IG to my Facebook account. Still, I rapidly grew to 200 within 2 days…
I used to use hashtags like #ff, #followforfollow, #instafollow …these worked or so I thought…The first Instagram mistakes I made!
See, I wasn’t attracting the kind of followers that I was looking for.
Getting top engagement on Instagram is no different from other social platforms.
You must build relationships just like offline or real life and that takes time. Do your research on WHO your ideal Instagrammer is and craft content just for them.
Do your research on WHO your ideal Instagrammer is and craft content just for them.
Check out some statistics for Instagram from 2015. Notice the growth of the two visual marketing platforms Instagram and Pinterest at the time? LinkedIn dropped and Twitter stalled a little!
Today, Instagram boasts over a billion users per month as an offshoot of Facebook. While Pinterest boasts 350 million monthly users as a Search engine as well as a social platform.
The challenge for many entrepreneurs, marketers, and content marketers; is we think that we can just wing it.
Duh, has hope marketing ever successfully delivered huge results for you? Everyone including private/personal accounts is competing for eyeballs, attention, and targeted followers on Instagram & any social media for that matter.
So today I want you to stop mailing it in, avoid the Instagram mistakes I made and start playing to win!
Before we go any further, do follow me on Instagram here.
Everyone including private/personal accounts is competing for eyeballs.
You want to be able to break the ice and move the conversation from, Hello to Yes
I want to See your Products or business info?
With every Kalungi Group article, we share a resource you can implement immediately to help grow your business faster now. Today’s offer is our Social Media Ice Breakers. You will find the scripts so useful for your Instagram Messaging Game. Get our Social Media Icebreakers here today.
Short Video Tutorial on Instagram Mistakes you might be making:
By the way, You Can Download this Definitive Guide to Instagram Marketing Below:
With this Downloadable checklist and guide, you can always check as you create or spruce up your Instagram and reference it for More targeted followers, leads, and sales!
Still making these 12 fatal Instagram mistakes?
Instagram Mistakes #1 Not Having a strategy or plan.
Starting on Instagram without a strategy is another of the Instagram mistakes I made! This is akin to wandering through a foreign city heading to a specific destination without a map.
Why would you seriously do that? Your Instagram journey needs to start with a cohesive plan. And I got mine more recently from an amazing IG coach Paula Jones. For your free pro-Instagram tips, follow Paula here.
Do you know IG belongs to Facebook? And as you noticed FB changes constantly. Trust me no amount of blog posts will teach you the best practice or full list of Instagram mistakes to avoid.
Yet, this one is pretty on the money! 🤷🏼♀️
Solution: Here is what to do, sit down, and write down your goals for Instagram.
What you hope to achieve through Instagram for your business?
If you’re not sure where to start go to this blog post I did on List Building using Instagram. And you will get a pretty comprehensive idea of where to start for free. 
Complete with a video tutorial, a great foundation, the best way to start on Instagram for businesses.
I have found that there is a lot of science that goes into Instagram success, avoiding the Instagram mistakes we made is one of them for you!
Instagram Mistakes #2 Buying followers for “Social Proof”
Well, I almost made this Instagram mistake, but it went against every grain in me!
Buying followers to look good is a serious no-no on social media. It is the most artificial way to build influence online. There is NO Relationship built, so how can you “Influence” these people?
Buying followers to look good is a serious no-no on social media. Advertising is different.
Having learned from the best April Marie Tucker and Amy Porterfield I refused to go down that route. Plus believe it or not, Instagram doesn’t really encourage people to sell followers, yet they do.
Google “buy Instagram followers” and you’ll see dozens of sites that do sell. I also see several people on Instagram, twitter etc. brag about how many followers they’ve got after they bought a package of some type to get more followers…
How do you turn these unknowns into sales for your business? And if it’s a personal account, to what aim is that?
People follow and buy from people they like/admire and/or trust. This holds true on Instagram. Build up your following; it takes time esp. in the first few months. Below is an example of what not to do!
I remember when we first moved to our home/neighbourhood or even when I landed a new job, It took me a while to actually get to know my neighbours or make friends with them. At work, you won’t have masses of friends in your first week!
Similarly,
Your bought followers have no intention of doing business with you. Most are bots or someone in a cubicle with multiple personalities clicking on your link.
I have come across many accounts that are obviously fake…Don’t let yours be one of them! You won’t attract your target audience!
Solution: Follow your target audience and niche big guns and engage with them by liking and commenting on their content. Do this daily for about 15-30 mins a day max. You will soon attract them or some of their followers or both!
Instagram Mistakes #3: Poor Timing!
Don’t go on a photo posting frenzy….This goes back to strategy!
We all love the easiest and quickest way to do things. But if you think that posting a bunch of pictures is going to bring you more followers – it won’t. As a matter of fact the opposite happens.
Your insta photos simply disappear down the newsfeed.
So find out when your target audience & followers are online and post your images…do the above i.e. engage with others and you will get back in buckets full!
Solution: Post at least 3 times/day, but spread out your posts to give yourself more exposure. Post your images say every other hr. Post all at once & I guarantee you 100% a lot less people will see them.
In addition, you can have the greatest images but if you’re posting when your target audience is not Instagram then it won’t matter one bit. I use Facebook Creator Studio as my scheduling tool.
I love how I am able to post to my page with one click.
Research when your target audience is online so you aren’t glued to your computer all day posting for the accounts you manage. Also, check out SocialExaminer’s list of Tools for Scheduling Instagram, these could help you avoid one of the mistakes you are making!
Super tip, Use IFTTT to create a recipe and post your IG images to Pinterest as well…Two birds one stone. #YW 
Instagram Mistakes #4 Not Leveraging Video:
Did you know that videos will actually attract your targeted audience on Instagram? Esp. if you #hashtag them right! So why are you missing out on your 60 seconds of fame?
That’s the Max allowed video time frame on Instagram stories. Now you can do IGTV and post a longer video. Or Do an Instagram Livestream.
I have been making this mistake for 2+ years. not bothering with Video on Insta. Its an Instagram Mistake not using the 60-sec Insta-videos to drive traffic to your content! or even an Instagram story similar to TikTok!
Instagram Mistakes #5 Too lazy to add descriptions
At the end of the day, you want your Instagram activities to drive more traffic to your website right?
Without traffic, there’s no real engagement or transaction! Are you crafting eye-grabbing, attention sucking post descriptions for your images?
Well, neither was I until a recent Challenge I attended where it was emphasized that a paragraph or two that described what you want your audience to decipher as your image aim will do the trick.
One of the biggest Instagram mistakes I now notice people making ignoring the above, and just add a bunch of irrelevant hashtags.
Describe, share your pains and experiences, people connect with that! Fast!
See hashtags are as effective as the related info and image. I often just see hashtags, or one-liners, or even just one word. I find it so much more fun now to post images with descriptions, yes it is more work!
Who said it was gonna be less, but it’s fun yes?
Solution: Use that image esp inside IG Stories, to entice followers to engage, like, and comment.
Check out Kevin Curry of “Fitmencook”. This guy actually gives a description in English and Spanish and how he attracts the audience with his dishes…over 10k likes and hundreds of comments. He has over 1.6 million followers..woot!
The image screams out:
What’s so special about these dishes?
What do you love about it?
Goat cheese frittata you kidding me?
How is that for a follower and click through magnet! You never lack for meal plans, gorgeous, tasty, yummy, healthy meals…!
Instagram post descriptions are more important than ever before. Powered by user supplied hashtags, captions and comments, Instagram categorizes your posts based on your hashtags & post descriptions. One of the most powerful & important ways to improve your search results is to sharpen your post descriptions.
Super tip: How about you add more targeted hashtags as a comment straight after posting your image. Sometimes your Fans may be faster than you lol.
Instagram Mistakes #6 it’s all about you, not enough useful posts.
Instagram isn’t all about you, unless you use it for own personal purposes.
Practice the 80/20 rule which means 80 percent of your images should be content that your target audience wants, needs, and would love.
How does the info you share help them solve their pressing problems?
Are you posting with a caring heart?
It’s all about them, other PEOPLE.
Stop talking about you so much! Share quotes, slide decks, grids, images linked to awesome information, training, and in fact separate your personal from your business Instagram account.
This is an Instagram mistake we made at the start. Have separate accounts!
By the way, follow my lifestyle Instagram account @Pkjulesworld 
Instagram Mistakes #7 Poorly Set Up Profile.
One of the most common Instagram mistakes and supposed tactics that I’m sure you’ve noticed too is that you’re advised to follow others so that they’ll hopefully follow you!
While I totally agree with this strategy it’s not a set in stone tactic. Many people are out to just get followers and un-follow you soon after you follow them back…their loss! Or they just don’t understand the Law of Reciprocity. Or just aren’t regular online!
So make sure your Instagram page is properly set-up before you start following or inviting others to check you out.
Take a look at the image below. This person followed me but didn’t give me a good reason to follow them back? WHY?
Unfortunately, as much as I would love to reciprocate in some way I was turned off immediately by their kind of marketing. DON’T DO THIS Below.
They have 1 theme with posts all flashing money. I’m actually surprised they even received over 500 followers, won’t judge!
Inviting your contacts to check out your Instagram page is like inviting your friends to a party. Can you imagine going to a party and only to find no place to sit and only a few packets of crisps served?
If you’re to go to the trouble of opening up an Instagram business account make a commitment to do it right.
Clearly this person has no clue what they’re doing. By the way, I reached out to them and they said they are good! 🤷🏼♀️
If you think that by following several accounts you’ll get more traffic and drive sales to your offers, you’d be sorely mistaken! Unfortunately, we got lots on social media with such an attitude.
Instagram Mistakes #8 Are you a hashtag maniac?
I come across lots of Instagram posts with 30+ hashtags, they max out the allowed amount…
Yet have absolutely no engagement! Many join engagement pods and some even buy clicks to look awesome…sad! Throwing good money after bad!
I see so many Instagrammers who use lots of images of women in swimwear, and should be getting lots of likes & comments right…! Wrong!
Because instead of detailed descriptions they use a ton of hashtags. Are you kidding me?
Solution: In fact, hashtags may not help you rank higher on Instagram’s search. According to the CEO in his January Update, instead, focus on sharing Value content and use a max 6 hashtags & your keyword in your post descriptions.
Instagram Mistakes #9 Your Instagram is All over the show!
Trust me I made this mistake in the beginning! I often see many accounts that are just all over the show, no clear pattern or target! Stop confusing your audience. Are you about food, or is it shoes, maybe its making money! We can’t tell!
What I mean by that is…
I look at your Instagram account like I’m walking into a store, a museum, an exhibit and hey even your closet.
Solution: Your images represent your brand, products & quality so be selective in what you share and merchandise them in such a way that they flow nicely.
Giving the audience and potential customers a flavour of what they could get buying from you or working with you. A better shopping experience so to speak.
Failing to correct this Instagram mistake could undermine your brand value.
2: I have found that we need to arrange our images in such a way they are like Glossy Magazines! (A work in progress – our videos in one column, quotes blogs, articles or Inspiring images on either side.) Just like moneyteamkingz does…cool!
Check out our layout 2015 & 2020 below, incl Name change.
You could colour code it as PaulaJonescoach does! Check her Instagram and follow her too!
Instagram Mistakes #10 Not tracking/measuring your Efforts.
How do we really know if what we’re doing on Instagram is working? Why is this important?
Because we want to know if we should continue with current Instagram marketing plans or if we are making more amateur Instagram mistakes and need to change direction.
Okay here is the deal, last summer I went on a lifestyle change inc. meal plans. Despite my earlier denial, I had to weigh myself daily to keep track. I actually had an online tracker for that. It greatly helped me see if I was making progress…if the lifestyle change was working?
For your Instagram for Business, you must track your efforts & results the same way?
In fact your blog or Facebook, Pinterest is no different; if you want to drive more traffic and sales to your offers, tracking your efforts and results doggedly is extremely important.
Solution: Use Iconosquare to access your Instagram’s analytics which will provide you with some basic metrics like who’s unfollowed you. The percentage Likes, comments and overall engagement of YOUR followers with your content.
Clearly I needed to rev it up a notch in those areas. See I told you I wouldn’t be holding back my Instagram mistakes either!
If you’re not sure you’re doing it right on Instagram then get help from an expert who knows what they’re doing. If you want to get a serious ROI then you need to make an investment.
Don’t be cheap about self-development connect with Paula Jones for your Instagram training!
I highly recommend you take her course that is up to date because Instagram makes changes all the time.
What might work yesterday may not work today. There are rules you need to keep up with and the features you want to make sure you are using to give you the best results your business deserves.
Instagram Mistakes #11 Not Investing in your Self-development!
You’re looking to earn more, then you’ve got to skill up and learn more. We’ve given you a couple of resources on this blog post to help you out.
Do yourself a favour and avoid the beginner’s Instagram mistakes we made by winging it and grow faster.
If you prefer deeper Social media Marketing, then consider The winning Entrepreneur’s Nation. This Mastermind doesn’t only give you a superb foundation for Social Media Marketing including LinkedIn.
You receive a Daily Action and step-by-step processes to teach to manage your Home Businesssiness effectively beginning with the basics.
As you progress you’ll learn more and more advanced techniques. Those techniques are built upon the foundation laid from successfully completing the basics which are taught by Implementation and Creating success week on week.
Learn More about the Mastermind Here
Instagram Mistakes #12 Not owning your Own Platform.
One of the mistakes most entrepreneurs make is not having their own Premium Online real estate from which you can get an endless source of images to send to your Instagram and Pinterest pages.
And drive traffic back to your website…So yes it is one of the Instagram Mistakes.
Solution: Enter Pinterest Growth Academy: the most powerful “All-in-1 solution” to launch your Digital Marketing Assets Including Your Instagram Growth. It has as one of the Bonuses a list of over 100 Royalty-Free Platforms to tap into whenever you cannot be bothered to Take Fab Pics or Create them.
If you are brand new online, this is exactly what you need for your digital growth and images bank. You will learn everything you need to learn about traffic getting in record time. Others will think you paid $1,000 for your success.
See because we post a blog weekly… And we have an endless supply of images to share on our digital assets including Instagram. So how about you avoid the Instagram mistakes we made at the start today. You don’t have to take the longer route we did!
If all this sounds overwhelming and you feel you are going around in circles and not getting anywhere fast, you definitely need this resource
OR contact me about our social media management services for your business.
Remember, Instagram is supposed to be spontaneously used. More of impulsive Kodak moments. So don’t schedule everything. esp, your stories.
Your followers don’t expect you to be on Instagram all the time, but they do expect you to be consistent in your posts! So, avoid the above Instagram mistakes, will you!
Recommended Resources:
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Your Turn
Sure you know some additional Instagram mistakes you see others make, wanna share? As always if you found value we encourage you to like, share, and let us know your insights! We love to hear from you! And do drop your Instagram Handle so we can follow you too.
You do deserve more…
Live. Learn. Love!
Julie Syl Kalungi
I am a Business Transformational Strategist. The International Best Selling Author of three books, including The Art of Pinterest Profits and The Winning Planner. Each week, I send out a free newsletter with my best tips on Social media and Digital Marketing, Personal Branding, and a Winning or Leadership mindset to help your business or enterprise succeed.
Email: Julie[@]Juleskalpauli.com
Facebook: facebook.com/RisewithJulie.Paul.Kalungi/
PS: IF YOUR UPLINE DOES NOT HAVE A STEP-BY-STEP BLUEPRINT FOR SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SUCCESS, CHECK THIS OUT (UNLESS YOU ALREADY HAVE TOO MANY LEADS) – CLICK HERE FOR INSTANT ACCESS.
Love this post. I have tried to market on instagram with no luck at all but I really love doing graphics and know with these tips I can give it another try!
Thank you so much for sharing these.
You are most welcome Michal, Glad you found the info useful!
J&PK~
Great post!! I have built my entire business primarily from the organic traffic that I get from Instagram, so you definitely hit on all the mistakes that one should not do when marketing on Instagram. Great job!
Much success to you,
Danielle K Howell
Hey Danielle,
Awesome Testimony, Massive congrats to you! 🙂
Instagram is amazing ad those that have found the narrow passage to its gold are raking it in.
Glad you found us 🙂
That is really awesome Danielle!
I absolutely love your content Julie. I’m not currently using Instagram and now I realize that it’s a great way to build a brand online. I will come back to this video/blog post as I open up an account. Great content by the way Julie. I am sharing this post on my Facebook.
Thank you for sharing.
Sephane
Hi Stephane,
We are so glad you love our content and we are glad to serve.
Let us know if you need some help with your Instagram Strategy.
Pauli
wow, I didn’t know you could purchase follows. sounds dirty LOL
Bwahahaaaa Mr Krivda tut tut…. 🙂
It sure does sound low. And No one with an ounce of integrity should even bend that low.
Awesome post on Instagram Julie. Full of value. I wouldn’t buy lead for any social network. When I first started on line in 2006 and didn’t know anything, I barely knew how to turn on the computer our son had just passed away he was the one that was teaching me how to use the computer. The leads were cheap and pretty much worthless, I haven’t paid for leads since then.
Ohh Liz, our Condolences on he loss of your son! No parent should ever go through that. So sorry to hear that.
Yet you have risen above that pain and set yourself to learn whatever it takes and build a residual income online. I salute you.
Instagram is pretty fun when you get to see its potential. I know it. So hope you leverage it too.
Julie
Top notch post to warn of the pitfalls in using Instagram. It seems simple enough, but there’s a lot to be aware of. Some people are getting fabulous results with Instagram — their businesses have sky-rocketed. A lot faster than some of the other social media!
Thanks for the informative post Julie.
Its very true Carol,
Funny how some people dont even bother to follow you. They just like your image, use the link in the post or
Follow the link in your bio, optin and you have a new sale or team mate. Others follow you for a bit and then take the leap…
Others just follow for the follow 🙂
Others just spam your images with their link lots of interesting characters on there.
Still great fun to leverage! thanks for your comment!
wow Julie you absolutely covered it all and your tips were spot on and awesome value, thanks so much for sharing
Glad you found value LuAnn 🙂
Julie
WhenI post on IG, I write stories and # within the stories! 😉
Thats the spirit and I love your stories GiGi.
I love your sense of humour. Keep rocking!
Julie
Excellent post Julie. All very good points esp. the one about not buying followers. NEVER buy followers for any platform. A small targeted following is worth so much more than a greater number that is just that, a number.
Good Point Jo,
what a pleasure to hear from you! Thanks for your comment!
Julie
I presently do not use Instagram for work, only for personal sharing. But after reading your post i can see that it has immense potential. I will share this with my friends who use it for professional purpose.
Hi Priya,
Thanks for sharing. You too could leverage it by creating a business profile and focus on using it for your business.
People love food, recipes, healthy living, and a success story in that area etc.
Try it you will be pleasantly surprised.
Julie
Julie you share a boatload of great tips on how to grow your Instagram profile. All of these are definitely valuable for anyone trying to grow their platform on Instagram
Thank you Saidah.
We always aim to over deliver as we know just what we have been through and we would love to help someone/s
shorten their journey!
Thanks for stopping by!
Awesome advice!
Thanks for your comment Brittany!
I have Instagram but I hardly use it and when I do it is for family stuff. Too many other social media stuff going on to add this to the mix right now.
Hi Claudette,
You dont have to use a resource you find tedious.
Its always best to focus on a strategy or two and master them.
Spreading yourself thin wont get you far.
Thanks for checking out our post though!
Wow Julie!! You have absolutely over-delivered with this post! I even found some mistakes that I was making. Thanks so much for this amazing article!!
Hello Jelena,
Glad you found value and thank you for your kind comment!
Julie
Wow Julie!! Thank you so much for this Instagram Training! You rock and I appreciate this very much!
Hey Coach Tara the feeling is mutual.
Glad you found value and thanks for stopping by! 🙂
Julie
Wow! Definitely bookmarking this for easy reference to go over again. We can see there’s a few things we’d like to improve upon and these nailed it. Now following you guys on there too! Thank you so much for the value you provide to help others avoid making these Instagram mistakes and instead be successful in their endeavors. Appreciate you immensely!
Hello B & Flea,
We appreciate you too, your support is awesome and we’re glad you have found value in our Instagram Mistakes to avoid post!
Julie
Great tips for Instagram Julie, Very helpful and good to know especially when your just starting and you dont really know to much about how to use instagram.
Hi Ashley,
Glad you found value in our post on Instagram mistakes.
You can learn some more about the basics of Instagram in related post if you use the Search bar at top of side bar by Social Media category!
Julie
Wow I had no idea so much work went into a successful social media profile! some good tips here, thanks for sharing.
It sure does Samantha,
Glad you found Value and you are most welcome. 🙂
Julie
I am not on Instagram or Pinterest! I have enough keeping up with Twitter, FB and G+. This does sound like it will help the Instagram user get noticed and garner lots of followers who will actually stick around!
Thanks for your comment Michele!
What a great list! I like the idea of 3 – 5 posts a day. I’ve made many of those mistakes, however, the one I am so proud of NOT doing is buying followers. I refuse to do it. I want to earn my followers myself.
Maggie You so rock, and I am glad you resisted buying followers too.
3-5 posts a day targets different audiences who check in at different times, plus it keeps your IG fresh too.
Otherwise your one post a day disappears down the Insta-feed with maybe 2-3 random likes and a comment if you are lucky!
Julie