5 Things You Should Not Do On Instagram
There are tons of techniques that will help you do well on Instagram. Sometimes, however, it helps to understand what not to do to ensure you create better content or build a better community with your Instagram followers.
There was a time when you could use certain tactics and gain a lot of followers within few days. Some people found follof4follow or buying followers practical but that doesn’t work anymore.
Let’s say that Instagram pods, buying followers, and becoming famous just like that are over.
If you’re guilty of doing any of these things, I recommend asking yourself WHY you’re doing it in the first place. None of these things will actually grow your business, beyond maybe getting you more followers or more engagement — but these followers and these people engaging, they’re usually not the right people. They’re not the people who are going to buy from you or work with you.
Here are the 5 things NOT to do on Instagram:
Not including a bio for your Instagram profile
Not including a bio for your Instagram profile. The description in your bio is an easy place to tell new people on Instagram who you are. Your bio can say anything you want about who you are, what you do, what you’re known for, and so on. Take the time to write something that will help you to connect with new people who find you on Instagram. Add links, emojis CTAs etc.
PRO TIP
- Include a Description of Yourself. The best Instagram bios tend to have a self-description
- List Your Interests. To make a good first impression, you need to connect with your audience
- Share Your Contact Information
- Add a Call to Action
Not using captions
No caption needed = I do not need to describe the picture; you can look at the picture and understand it without an explanation. IS THAT WHAT YOU THINK? If yes-STOP IT
Instagram is a visual platform, designed around photos and videos, both in the feed and in stories. It wasn’t designed for lots of text or long blocks to read through. And although a photo may say a thousand words, a good Instagram caption can drive interactions with your followers. Start your captions with questions, add emojis.
Instagram captions provide context for the post while showcasing your brand’s personality and providing an opportunity for your followers to engage with you. Even a short caption can work hard for your brand, elevating your post beyond what a photo or even a video could do on its own.
Posting low-quality content
Your posts on Instagram should give your followers some information about you. You can choose to post a video or an image. Whatever you decide to post, make sure that the quality is super high and that it reflects your brand. Visual content gives you the unique opportunity to decide how you want to show your brand. A huge advantage of sharing images on Instagram is the wide range of filters. Use different filters to give a different look or emotions through your images, using them to attract new followers and customers.
Sometimes a regular phone does not provide quality. To have high-quality photos you can use professional cameras or have high-quality live videos and stories going live on Instagram from your PC or Mac using YellowDuck.
Not Posting Consistently
One of the biggest challenges marketers face is posting or sharing content consistently. Assuring you are consistent helps your audience engage with you in the long run as they come to expect certain types of content from you. Additionally, large gaps in your feed also mean less exposure. So don’t forget to post content! On the other end of the posting, spectrum is accounts that post way too often for comfort or post too many promotional images.
Buying Followers or Likes
It’s not a good idea to buy Instagram followers. The purchased followers are likely bots or latent accounts, so they won’t engage with your posts.
It’s not technically “safe” to buy Instagram followers, but there’s a caveat. Yes, you are putting your account at risk by breaching Instagram’s terms of service and gaming the system. Not to mention that most of your new followers will be bots or fake accounts that might unfollow you in a few weeks.
Whether it’s Instagram’s best practices or tips and shortcuts, there are a lot of ways to use Instagram effectively. However, there are a lot of things you might be doing which will limit your success.
