Happy Friday! It's hard to believe it's almost August!
This week I'm going through some of the most common mistakes I see small businesses making on Instagram.
1. Using Instagram Promotions instead of Facebook Ads Manager
Instagram is really trying to push its Promotions feature recently. You may have noticed that you are getting notifications like the below from Instagram regularly.
I recommend running your Instagram ads using Facebook Ads Manager, instead of Instagram Promotions. Facebook Ads Manager allows you to create more targeted ads and get a stronger return on investment.
2. Not using Instagram Stories
Instagram recently reported that brands post an average of 2.5 Stories per week. I was so shocked by this stat because Stories are such a key feature within the Instagram app. As a business, you should focus on making sure you are posting on your Stories at least 5 days per week. Use the interactive stickers like polls, quizzes, question boxes and the emoji slider sticker to engage your followers and convert your audience from a cold audience to a warm audience.
3. Not having a hashtag strategy
A lot of small businesses don't use hashtags correctly. I always recommend putting hashtags in the first comment instead of the caption on Instagram. I also recommend using 30 hashtags. Create some hashtag categories and alternate between these for each post. Be careful not to use hashtags that have too many posts in them e.g. avoid using hashtags like #beauty or #food because these have millions of posts in them so you likely won't rank in these because you have a small account. Instead, use more targeted hashtags like #dublinbeauty or #pastarecipes.
4. Not including a call to action in captions
A lot of small businesses forget to include a call to action in their captions. At the end of your caption remember to include a call to action asking the reader to take an action. Some examples of a strong call to action are:
- Send us a message if you have any questions
- Check out our website for more information
- Tap on the image to shop
5. Posting videos instead of Reels
I have seen so many businesses still posting 15 or 30-second videos, instead of filming these in a 9:16 ratio and posting these as Reels. Instagram is really (reel-y) pushing Reels at the moment in an effort to compete with TikTok. If you want to get more eyeballs on your Instagram page Reels is the easiest way to do this.
If you have any questions about Instagram marketing for your small business you can send me an email below, or send me a message on Instagram.