5 ways you could be doing a disservice to your social media & brand

There’s a few red flags we look out for when prospective clients first come to us. Our aim is to improve the accounts of our clients, not only to boost sales but also to promote brand awareness. The following factors are things we greatly discourage when using Instagram to promote your business, and we’re sure to nip these things in the bud when the management of socials is outsourced to us.

You may not even realise you’re doing some of these things, so let’s get real about how you could be disserving your social media for business purposes. It’s time to be a savvy marketer for the longevity and prosperity of your brand.

1. You’re using bots:
   We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again – buying followers or likes is doing a major disservice to your Instagram account. Quality over quantity is paramount, and this is only achievable through organic growth. Think of it this way – is there really a point in buying 20k followers if not one of them is genuinely engaged in what you have to say? They don’t trust you, your brand or what you stand for. As a result, they’re not going to buy anything from you. Fudging the numbers in this way is quite frankly, fake! You’re doing your social media and business a disservice by building an account based on lies and inauthentic numbers. It’s quite delusional and it’s a scam.Using bots to engage will also penalise your account in the long term. Your account can get completed banned or deleted by Instagram – so all that money spent on fake comments or following will be all for nothing! Doing this also significantly reduces the reach and engagement rate of your content as well. Think twice about using bots or buying likes! Sometimes, we refuse to even work with accounts who have had a history of doing this, because often the damage is irreparable.

   

2. You’re not engaging:
   Instead of using bots to do the hard work of engaging for you – you should be doing this yourself. Spend 15-20 min per day (if not, longer) genuinely interacting with likeminded accounts within your industry. If you’re not engaging, you’re doing a disservice to your socials because you’re missing out on a very big networking opportunity.You’re not building trust within your brand if you’re not engaging with others. People will be less likely to buy from you if they haven’t interacted with you in some form or another, via commenting, asking questions or through a direct message. There’s many ways to engage with others on the ‘gram – it’s a matter of finding the time to commit to this.

   

    

3. You’re not planning / don’t have a strategy:
   Posting on the fly for your business is a big no-no! By all means, do this on your personal accounts, but when using Instagram for business, posting on the fly is doing your brand a major disservice.We plan a month in advance for all of our clients, but we understand this may be too much to ask if you’re handling your own account management. At a minimum, you should be planning two weeks’ worth of content (both images and captions) so you can develop a strategy which alternates between your content pillars. There’s no strategy when posting on a whim and it’s not best business practice. So download a scheduling app like PLANNPLANN and get planning!

   

4. You’re using poor quality imagery:
   There is no excuse for using blurry images on your business profile! Doing so makes your social media and brand look unprofessional and lazy! If you can’t take the time to invest in some quality product photography, or to source lovely filler images from stock photography sites, what does this say about your commitment and passion to your own brand? Your social media is like an online brochure – you wouldn’t print a distorted image – so don’t post one!It’s also important to note that keeping a visually consistent feed is very important. Planning your content will help you to curate the feed according to your style and branding.

   

5. Your captions are vague, boring or non-existent:
   Images catch their attention, but captions capture their heart! If you’re posting one word captions which don’t offer value, you are doing your social media a major disservice. This goes back to wanting to build trust and a community around your brand. You can’t do this by posting one word captions. You need to do this by encouraging discussion, sharing your own personal experiences and asking for feedback within your captions.

We hope these points have helped you to attune to what you might be doing wrong when posting on your social accounts – particularly for business use. Make sure to implement a better strategy, and stop doing a disservice to your brand and Instagram account. With numbers of Instagram users increasing daily – it’s a big market that you want to tap into. Make sure you’re doing it the right way!

Need a hand? We offer Instagram audits to help highlight the pros and pitfalls of your current Instagram strategy. Get in touch today for more information.