As the social media platform that reportedly boasts the highest engagement rate of them all, Instagram is a coveted space for influencers, marketers and brands alike. While there will never be any sort of magic bullet approach to Instagram, or to any content-driven platform for that matter, there are some obvious mistakes you’ll want to avoid when trying to extend your reach, maximize your potential, and grow your presence on Instagram.
1. You Lack Consistency in Posting
The importance of consistency is (at least) two-fold. First, just as you should decide on a reliable publishing schedule for your blog — editorial calendar plug-ins are great for managing that — you should also be mindful of how frequently you post on Instagram too. You really need to avoid unleashing a flurry of content over a couple of days, only to have the account go almost dormant for weeks. Be consistent. Ideally, you want to have a new post on your main feed at least once every day or two. This keeps the grid looking fresh and active, and it surely helps with the algorithm for organic reach too.
2. You Don’t Maintain a Consistent Style
Second, just as you will likely stick to a certain format for your blog, the same is also true with Instagram. While you may not need to set hard and fast rules, you will want to develop something that resembles a signature look. This might include choosing certain color palettes, sticking with certain font choices, or applying the same small number of presets. It’s about managing and meeting expectations, and establishing a brand identity.
3. You Focus on Yourself Too Much
I know that this can sound completely counter-intuitive in the context of social media, especially since Instagram very much leans into a “look at me” kind of approach. I get that. And it’s true that the overwhelming majority of the things that you post on Instagram are probably going to be about you and your experiences in some way. What I am saying, though, is that you need to think about how you can frame this content so that it’s not just about you. It’s also about how this can benefit your followers.
Think about your audience and how you can best satisfy their wants and needs. If you’ve got a food-centric page, then remember to include pertinent information in the caption, like the name of the restaurant, name of the dish, and what makes it special. How can you inspire through choice quotes or provide guidance with helpful tips? What purpose are you serving?
4. You Stick Only to Squares
It’s true that you want to maintain a consistent style with your Instagram posts. And it’s also true that Instagram started out by forcing users to post only square photos. However, that limitation is no longer in place. In fact, while the grid on your profile will default to squares, the actual posts themselves do not need to retain the 1:1 aspect ratio.
Instead, you may find that it’s in your favor to utilize a slightly taller aspect ratio, like 3:4 or even 2:3. The advantage here is that your post will take up more vertical real estate as users scroll through their Instagram feeds. It’s also advantageous to leverage video or carousel posts upon occasion too; your carousels can consist of taller photos too! It makes no sense to use the “photo grid” style of post anymore.
5. You Don’t Capitalize on Your Bio
Until you reach 10,000 followers, you’re not going to have the “swipe up” feature in Stories. Since your bio only allows for a single link — hence why everyone uses the “link in bio” approach — you might think that your bio functions in much the same way as a Twitter bio or the byline bio you might have in an author box on your blog. Not so! There are many creative ways you can maximize the impact of your Instagram bio.
Instead of writing out a single line of plain text, consider leveraging line breaks in a creative way. Think about how you can integrate emojis too; travel bloggers oftentimes put the country flag emoji of where they last visited or where they are currently. And while URLs in bios aren’t “clickable,” you can include easily memorable short URLs (301 redirects on your own domain are an easy way to do this) for key pages you want to highlight.
6. You Forget About Stories
Ever since Instagram “borrowed” this feature from Snapchat, Stories has quickly risen in popularity among users. Whereas IGTV hasn’t gained nearly as much traction, Instagram Stories are a great place to engage with your followers in real time, providing more of the “between the posts” type content that isn’t necessarily as polished or curated as your main feed.
In addition to posting to your main feed every day or two, ideally you’d like to add new content to your Stories every day, several times a day. You don’t want to overwhelm your followers, but you do want to keep your brand front of mind, and this means pushing your Stories out so you remain near the beginning when they open the app. Take advantage of questions and polls to encourage greater engagement.
These are just some of the basics when it comes to finding some success on Instagram. What other major pitfalls should users avoid?