According to research, Instagram has more than a billion users but people are still surrounded by some common myths and misconceptions regarding it, especially when it comes to Instagram marketing. It is these business owners who are deprived of the benefits that Instagram provides to businesses today in social media marketing.
Know these myths and do not let them hold you back if you are seriously thinking of using this popular photo and video sharing platform for your marketing endeavors. Use it properly so that you get the highest level of engagement on this platform. The best way to do that is by stopping believing these myths. Here they are.
The most common myth about Instagram is that – likes do not matter anymore! This is utterly untrue even though Instagram has recently removed the like counter from the posts. The fact is that:
- Users can still like the content of each other and
- The owner of the posts is only able to see it.
This means that likes do matter for Instagram marketing and there are several reasons to say so.
- Likes help owners to gauge the relevance of the content according to their respective target audience. When you get more Instagram likes it means that you are doing things right.
- Likes are an important factor for engagement which is a critical aspect considered by the Instagramalgorithm to determine how a content should in the newsfeeds.
- Likes are very useful to retargetin ad campaigns as you can create these campaigns based on the recent engagement with any particular post.
This means that removal of the like counter will not affect Instagram marketing. However, it will affect social proof.
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Myths regarding posting on IG
There are also some misconceptions about posting content on IG. Most people think that you need to be very active on every social media platform to make your brand noticeable and your company successful.
This is only partially true to maintain a social media presence but only on those particular social platforms that matters. It depends on:
- The type of business
- The type of some social media channel and
- The place where your audience spends most of their time.
When it comes to posting, people also believe that you can post at any time on social media and expect the same result. However, this is not recommended because every different social media platform is different in needs and requirements and most importantly have different times when they attract the customers. To know the best time to post on Instagram you will need to:
- Analyzed data of previous marketing campaigns and
- Use Google Analytics.
Also, make it a point that you do not follow the common belief of posting more to get better results. On the contrary, it will annoy your followers with such aggressive marketing. It will not make you popular and you may even end up being unfollowed and make money with instagram affiliate marketing.
Therefore, limit the number of your posts and post them on a specific and normal time frame such as on:
- Mondays
- Wednesdays and
- Fridays
Also make sure that when you post a content it is substantial and something that will provide value to the followers. Visit sites like https://blastup.com for assistance.
About the time
People also believe that It takes a lot of time to grow a business using Instagram. Once again this is not true though it is right that results will not come overnight. You will need to be patient, just like any other good things in your life to happen, but that does not mean waiting forever. It all depends on:
- How well you strategize your marketing campaigns
- Your goals and objectives and
- The level of reach and engagement desired.
You can control the time and even bring down to weeks from months if you invest a lot of time and thought in your content creation. This, in fact, is the trickiest part in Instagram marketing because your posts must be appealing and interesting enough to the followers so that you can grab the attention within the short time window of a couple of seconds!
Number of hashtags matters
People also possess this wrong notion that it is better to use fewer hashtags in Instagram marketing. Few of them even are very specific and say that no one should use more than seven hashtags though they are allowed to use thirty hashtags. They say so because of two specific reason. These are:
- Using too many hashtags will make a post look spammy and
- Instagram will limit the reach of the posts that have too many of these.
Well, the reality is that there is no perfect number of using hashtags in Instagram. It can be 5 or 15 and since Instagram allows using 30 hashtags, there is no good reason why you should not use all of them.
Yes, you do not need to use all 30 but the pint is you can use all and people will not unfollow you simply because you have used 30 hashtags.
Interaction and possibilities
Most people also believe that the options to interact on Instagram is very limited. Not really, even though it is a mobile app and is an entirely photo and video sharing app unlike other social channels. Yes, it is true that you will not have any text option available but there are plenty of other options that will help you to interact with your followers, increase your possibilities and drive more organic traffic to your site. These useful options include:
- Tagging an image before sharing to draw in more followers
- Mentioning by using the @ symbol and tagging other users in the comments or captions
- Liking a photo by double-tapping it or hitting the heart button
- Commenting by hitting the comment button located just next to the like button and
- Direct messaging by using Instagram Direct to communicate in a private mode.
Therefore, if you thought until now that Instagram provided with no real advertising possibilities, now is the time to make that change and start using Instagram and its multiple features for your business benefits.
