Social Media

Building your Business on Instagram: 12 Common Mistakes to Avoid

Instagram is one of the best social media sites if you want to extend your network and showcase your business. There were 1.28 billion users in 2022. There is no doubt that it has huge potential to help you build your business, unless you commit these mistakes.

Let’s start with the first six!

1. Your Instagram handle or name is either too common or too difficult to remember

Your username should be consistent with your branding and help define what your business can offer. It can help your business increase awareness and help your current clients tag you and refer other people to your business.

Avoid using unknown symbols to maintain a professional image. If possible, use keywords to help new clients find your account much easier. It’s best to make this consistent across your other social media channels.

For instance, anyone looking for Apple's official Instagram account can quickly search for and locate Apple. If you're trying to establish a community for cat lovers, it's very simple for other cat lovers to find @catloversclub by simply typing in "catlovers."

2. Your Instagram bio is incomplete or not maximized

You have 150 characters to introduce your business and lure in a potential follower. Optimize your bio to raise awareness about what you have to offer and what content this new visitor can expect from your Instagram feed. Build your first impression well and write a bio that will introduce your business effectively. Optimizing your bio for keywords is a great idea too.

3. Missing out on directing followers to relevant and important links

An introduction is not enough. Potential followers and customers could be well-engaged by your bio to make a purchase, sign up for a class, or read more about your services. Utilize a link that collates important additional information about your business, like Linktr.ee, Shorby, Pallyy, Tapbio, and InstaURL. Through these link-in-bio tools, you’ll be able to direct them to your email, a product page, press releases, a sales page, your event sign-up details, or even just a more detailed About Us page.

4. Publishing too many posts in a short period of time

Many people have emphasized the necessity of posting every day. But the majority of the time, business owners who are constantly attempting to generate social media posts for their businesses become exhausted from posting daily. It results in the creation of content that is uninspired and does not benefit the followers. Less posts should be written, but they should be of higher quality.

5. Sharing irrelevant content

This point also echoes the previous one: we can reduce the number of posts to about 3 per week. But what do we need to do with these three posts per week? Ensuring quality and high-value posts is a must.  

6. No value creation

If the content we publish is good but does not provide any value to the reader, then the audience may find it interesting at first, but gradually they will leave. You can check whether our articles are able to provide education, entertainment, thinking, or emotion, so that the article can let our audience learn.

This is what we should consider first so that we can connect with our personal brand while providing the necessary value that will benefit both our followers and new ones, giving us more opportunities to gain new followers instead of losing old ones.

So we’ve covered the first six mistakes, and I hope you’ve been able to pick up a lot of things to apply on your respective Instagram accounts for building your business.

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