5 Instagram Mistakes You Must Avoid - part l

Hey there! If you're new to Instagram or in general don't understand why your Instagram account doesn't grow, perhaps you're doing these simple mistakes that prevent you from growing your audience. While managing two Instagram accounts - Student Survival Guide page and my own - @madara.magicalflowers, I still see a pattern of common mistakes that other accounts make.

So here I am for the rescue and I want YOU to avoid making these mistakes too.

1. Failing to establish your niche

Know what you're good at and be passionate about it. Many of us create content around popular topics within traveling, beauty, health, etc. Who doesn't like to drool over delicious food, explore new places, and follow cute kitten photos, right?

Yet, you must not forget your focus! Try to build your audience on something small. If you've seen my Instagram account, I don't post sudden kitten photos or me enjoying a slice of pizza (leave those for your stories!) I focus on something very specific. As I'm interested in photography, I post flower photography with a magical touch (my signature).

If you're doing photography just like me, focus on one thing that you excel at (you can still be a beginner of course). It can be portrait photography, macro, landscape, etc., anything you're VERY passionate about. You can always experiment - start your feed with landscape and move to portrait photography, experiment! I did exactly the same until I found my niche. The best way of learning anything is simply just by doing!

2. Using the wrong hashtags

I honestly had the urge to write the headline in captions. I see this so many times! And, I hope - you, after reading this, will use hashtags in the right way.

Using the right hashtags for your business and your profile is a powerful tool that must be used accordingly. If I create a post of a flower photography, do NOT, I repeat, do NOT use huge hashtags such as - # flowers. By that I mean, don't use a hashtag that has been used 285m times or 50m times.

Using big hashtags is useless and won't help you with your reach.

Your post that you put so much effort into will simply be under many other. Make sure to do a keyword search to find relevant hashtags that will bring you engagement and reach. Meaning, see what others in your niche are using, use relevant hashtags that describe your photo/product/service. Try looking towards those hashtags with fewer posts - from 50k - 500k.

Using hashtags with 50k-500k reach is much better for reaching a new audience

Most importantly, some of the hashtags you might be using are even banned by Instagram. I used the hashtag "# cph" (short from "Copenhagen") for Student Survival Guide Instagram page and I couldn't understand why it wasn't performing so well. It turns out - one of the 30 hashtags I used - is banned.

How can you find out when the hashtag is banned? Simply type the hashtag in the Instagram's search and when clicking on it, you'll see an announcement - "posts for # cph are hidden because some posts may not follow Instagram's Community Guidelines". Another way of seeing that you should NOT use this hashtag is the no "follow" button. You're not given the opportunity to follow this hashtag. Instead, once again, use a hashtag that is algorithm-friendly.

The hashtag "copenhagenlife" fits much better with our audience for Student Survival Guide's Instagram. The hashtag is not banned, has a low post usage and your post will stay longer on the "recent" page after posting.

Do your research, make sure the hashtags you are using are not banned and has a "follow" button

TIP: Do your research. Collect all the relevant and useful hashtags into your Word document, Excel, or anywhere else that you can quickly open and copy-paste into your post. The more collected hashtags you have, the better. It's wise not to use the same hashtags over and over again. Meaning, using the same hashtags - won't help you reach a new audience. For this reason, spend that hour every day to add a new list of great hashtags that will help in your reach.

3. Not engaging with other users

And no, I don’t mean asking – “follow for follow” or "can you like my posts" – (I’m honestly surprised this still exists). What I mean is, Instagram - it’s a SOCIAL platform, you’re supposed to communicate with others. We all are human beings behind the screens, so the next time you see a picture, content, a video you really enjoy and find useful - let them know! If you’re doing photography just like me – comment on other photography accounts. Give genuine and thoughtful feedback or a nice compliment. Create new relationships and strong friendships – be part of the community. This helps not only for your engagement - it also creates loyal followers. Because remember, it's not about how many followers you have, it's about those loyal souls that truly enjoy what you do and want to support you in the best way they can, so don't ignore them!

TIP: There are many ways how to engage with your existing audience and potentially a new one, which I will cover in my future articles. Yet, one tip that I definitely want to mention and will help your engagement is - before posting, spare 10-15 minutes by engaging with 5 big accounts you follow, 5 medium and 5 small accounts.

4. Not using Instagram Stories full potential

If Instagram Stories exist - they are there for a reason. If you only post on your grid then you miss out on something important. It's another way how to reach your existing audience and to notify them about your new post or simply share other useful insights in your daily life/work/progress etc.

Although Instagram itself does not value shared content on your stories, we do! Sharing is caring, so don't be scared to share other creators'/photographers' content (of course don't forget to mention/tag them). It does wonders. Why? Because this is an organic strategy to grow. Especially within photography creators. At least once a week, I share stories with my "This day's favorites". A lot of them appreciate the exposure and thank me for sharing my mention in their stories. Try this, and you'll see that other users appreciate seeing new photographers to follow by tapping on the usernames you shared. (Your followers are curious about the shared mentions and will tap on the usernames, which you can see in your Insights).

Feel like your stories don't grab the attention, no engagement? Don't forget to use stickers! Every time I've used a poll sticker or a swipe sticker, my story has been viewed by many more users. Meaning, when users engage, the algorithm helps to push this story to many more of my followers. I will cover a whole topic about IG story hacks in the near future that will double your views, so stay tuned!

TIP: You might think that there are not so many stickers to choose from on Instagram stories. But as we all know - Instagram loves keywords. Meaning, the beauty hides in word combinations to find stickers for your liking. If you type "arrow" in the search, you'll be given a very limited amount to choose for your liking. Instead use colors, such as - "white arrow", "blue arrow" etc. Do you want flower stickers that match your picture? Once again, write "blue flowers", "rainbow flowers" etc. The possibilities are endless.

5. Avoiding reels, reels and again...reels

Since TikTok has become quite a favorable platform for content creators, where only a video format is present, Instagram doesn't want to be left behind, understanding the potential and growth of video content.

This is why you shouldn't underestimate the power of Instagram reels. The best way to start is to …just start. Don't be scared to fail or not reaching as many people as you hoped for. In many cases, you might not reach over 2k, yet suddenly, after two weeks your reel is reaching more and more people. Why does this happen? Well, I have my own guess.

If you want to succeed though, I suggest focusing on trends. As a photographer, I noticed there are many trends for photographers that can be adjusted to your niche. My first successful reel (Check it out here) was "Hey photographers, show me your favorite photo, your most liked photo and your most challenging photo", which has reached more than 400k people (and still counting).

Tips for higher reach:

• Use the original music that currently is trending;

• Do NOT reuse TikTok video on IG reels because of the TikTok watermark. IG has said it themselves - just don't. Meaning, IG wants you to stay on their platform and create the reels there - so do it!

• Use everything that IG offers. I've noticed if I use external apps to stitch together my video, they perform a little bit worse than the ones I've created via their interface. I know what you must be thinking, "but hey, I can't import pictures on IG reels!" I know, I know. This is why I convert each picture to a video in the external app (I use Inshot) and then stitch those videos together in IG.

• Make it savable! SO people can re-create or come back to it to watch again, you can always remind them - "save this for later"

• Make it personal! It's great to follow trends and copy the concept, but add your "cheery on top". For instance, show your face, people want to know who is it behind the account.

• Keep your text visible! It's a bummer, I know but when you share your reel on your feed it crops the whole video to fit into the newsfeed in a 4:5 ratio, more commonly known as ‘portrait’ (1080 X 1350). You’ll want to ensure the main visual of your content is lined up within the 4:5 ratio area from the beginning.

There benefits of using Instagram reels:

• Spreading awareness about your photography/brand/service etc., in a captivating/entertaining way

• Outstanding visibility and increased engagement - Instagram has its all focus on video content - use the opportunity!

• Shine on the Explore page - making it onto the explore page is something IG will help you with and every creator aspires to do, and reels are certainly your best shot.

• Creating quality content in a few seconds! Some of the trends are only 10 seconds long!

• Boost your creativity - inspire and entertain!

Instagram reels are a must if you're considering to grow your brand and online presence. It's easy! All you need to do is to start.

Keep in mind: If you're on Instagram not just for fun and actually want to focus on the business side - remember, you need a strategy. You can't blindly create posts, whenever you "feel" like it and you have the time. Be clear on why are you using Instagram - for awareness, to drive your sales or generate leads? Each post you plan has to have a goal and a strategy to achieve it. This is why - research, plan, schedule and analyze each one of your posts. I'll talk more about this in part ll. I hope you enjoyed this article. If you have anything to add, don't be shy. Share it in the comments!