Instagram happens to be one of the fastest growing social media platforms today! As of spring 2014 there were over 200 million users! It is a great place for visual based markets like clothing companies and the food industry! This mobile only platform is great for the businesses that have pictures of products that they sell. If your business sells a service you can still use Instagram to get in touch with your market there but in a different way. I am going to go over 3 pitfalls that cause businesses to fail on Instagram ( or atleast not get much out of it!)
1) Too many or Too little hashtags– First let me start off with skipping over the pitfall of no hashtags…if someone isn’t using any hashtags they aren’t even trying nor do they understand social media at all. Too Little hashtags will not cast a large enough net for two reasons. One two few doesn’t touch as many people as possible. Two, the hashtags used not only need to be relevant but also need to be something searchable by enough people to make an impact. When in doubt use the generic #igers or #picoftheday just to get the general population looking. Too many hashtags is simple because it just makes you business look desperate and no one wants to work with a beggar. So keep it simple and shoot for no more than 7 hashtags.
2) Flyer board-Its easy for picture relative businesses to skip this and even harder for service businesses to avoid this. Basically don’t turn your Instagram into a page filled with pictures that are more than 50% text. No one wants to follow a page that every picture is some pushy attempt to sell you on something. You can see how this may be difficult for businesses who have no pictures. This may become challenging but get creative and find real pictures that relate to your business and use the unlimited text space to make you sales pitch. It will be better received by your followers and looks more natural.
3) Poor Response time– Instagram has almost the expected response time close to twitter. This is because Instagram will only show a certain amount of notifications and also the time line is limited just the same. All comments should be responded to within 24 hours at least. You’re notifications should be checked this frequently as well. Not doing this can cause possible business to be over looked, negative comments to remain up, and decrease engagement.
If you are able to steer clear of these 3 major pitfalls you will find yourself with a quickly growing Instagram page. Soon you’ll be turning those followers into dollars!
