12 Fatal Instagram Mistakes You Are Probably Making, We made most of them, So you don’t have to! Podcast and Video Tutorial!

 

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!

So let me guess, you’ve been on Instagram for several months now and 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. Check out some Statistics for Instagram. If you are not leveraging Instagram yet eat your heart out…Notice the Growth of the two visual marketing platforms Instagram and Pinterest? LinkedIn dropped and Twitter stalled a lil! 

 

 

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 are competing for eye balls, 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 by all means do follow me on Instagram here, I will definitely follow back…Okay that’s done!

 

 

Here is a short Video Tutorial on the 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, optins and sales! 

 

 

Are you 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 wondering 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.

IG belongs to Facebook and as you know FB changes constantly. Trust me no amount of blog posts will teach you the best practice or full list of Instagram mistakes to avoid. But 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 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 in social media. It is the most artificial way to build relationships online. Having learnt 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 and/or trust. This holds true on Instagram too. 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!

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 you target audience and niche big guns and engage with them by liking and commenting on their content. 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 -5 times/day, but spread out your posts to give yourself more exposure. Post your images say every other hr.  Post all 5 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  Schedugram and Viraltag scheduling tools. I love how they help me post when my target audience is on line so am not glued to my computer all day posting for the accounts I 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.

 

 

Instagram Mistakes #4 Not Leveraging Video:

Did you know that videos will actually attract your targeted audience in 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. Its an Instagram Mistake not using the 60 sec Insta-videos to drive traffic to your content! or even an Instagram story similar to SnapChat! 

 

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 Mastermind 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, 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 its fun yes?

Solution: Use that image to entice followers to engage, like and comment. Check out Kevin Curry of “Fitmencook” profile and image below. This guy actually gives a description in English and Spanish and how he attracts the audience with his dishes…over 7k likes and 20 Comments. He has over 1million 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! Follow him on link above and never lack on Meal plans, gorgeous, tasty, yummy, healthy meals…! Buy his No Cheats Needed Recipe book on Amazon here. Amazing! 

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.

 

 

Instagram Mistakes #6 it’s all about you, not enough useful posts.

Instagram isn’t all about you. 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, 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 personal Instagram account @sylkalungi

 

 

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! suffice to say they hardly have any likes on their images! 

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 they think that by following several accounts they’ll get more traffic and drive sales to their offers like that they are solely mistaken! Unfortunately we got lots on social media with similar attitude. 

 

 

Instagram Mistakes #8 Are you a hashtag maniac?

I come across lots of Instagram posts with a multitude of hashtags, they max out the allowed 40… Yet have absolutely no engagement! Many buy clicks to look awesome…sad! Throwing good money after bad!

Or on the flip side if you check the southernswim instagram account, they use lots of images of women in swimwear images, and should be getting lots of likes & comments right…! Wrong! Because instead of detailed descriptions they use a few hashtags. Are you kidding me? Yes they do get likes, but in comparison to their Follower count…Almost no comments! Weird! 

Solution: In fact hashtags may not help you rank higher on Instagram’s search, instead focus on 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, may be 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.

Solution1: 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 customer 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: My rule is try to arrange our images in such a way they are like a Glossy Magazine! (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 new layout below! 

You could colour code it like Emily La Grange does! Check her Instagram and Follow her too!

 

Instagram Mistakes #10 Not tracking or measuring your results.

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, in the 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 are 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 some basic metrics like who’s unfollowed you, The percentage Likes, comments and overall engagement of YOUR followers with your content. And Clearly I need to rev it up a notch in that area. 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 grab your premium Instagram training here!  I highly recommend you take this or a 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 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 beginners Instagram mistakes we made by winging it and grow faster.

The resource below don’t only give you a superb foundation for Social Media Marketing Including Instagram. You receive a step by step formula to teach you how to manage your Instagram business account 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 April Marie Tucker the Instaqueen!

 

 

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 MLSP Sites: the most powerful “All-in-1 solution” to launch your WordPress hosted blog to the world in less than 48 hours or less. You don’t need to know coding, or be technical. If you are brand new online, this is exactly what you need.  You will learn everything you need to learn in record time and set up a blog yourself and others will think you paid $1,000 for a designer to do it. 

• Enterprise grade super-fast hosting for an awesome blog user experience– We had to pay over $500  to get this and you could easily pay that a month separately for such a level of hosting! 
• 89 paid-for professional plugins pre-installed for you– We had to learn by trial, google and error which ones work. You got all this done for you! You get it all for free.
• It took us 2 months, you will Save yourself a lot of confusion, and tons of time on setting up your blog and all the plugins and settings– EVERYTHING is done for you What are you waiting for. Take a 10 day trial run and see for yourself here

See because we blog 3 times a week via our website….we have an endless supply of images to share on Instagram. So how about you avoid the Instagram mistakes we made at the start and get you an MLSP Site here now! 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 contact you definitely need this resource OR contact me about our social media management services or to learn more about our training for your business.

Remember, Instagram is supposed to be spontaneously used, more of impulsive Kodak moments. So don’t schedule everything. 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:

Your Instagram Marketing Success Cheat-sheet – Download It here

The Ultimate Blog Bundle – Learn more

Learn how to Build Links Using Instagram – Learn More

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

Skype: Julie.Kalungi1
Email: julieatJuleskalpauli[dot]com

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