Outdated Instagram Tactics
So you’ve got your business Instagram account up and running, you have your content themes mapped out, and now you can set it & forget it, right? Not so fast! Your Instagram strategy is never finished and your presence should never be left on autopilot. Social media moves fast and you could be using outdated strategies or missing out on new, useful techniques if you take a back seat. There’s always more you can do to make sure you’re ahead of the curve. Here are a few pro tips you can refer back to when you want to keep your page in check.
First, let’s look at a few things you should stop doing that may be hurting your page or, may just be wasting precious time that you could be using on more lucrative things:
Follow/un-follow: this tactic was an effective hack in the early days of Instagram when gathering followers, no matter the source, was the main way to achieve high standing with the algorithm. This is not the case anymore. These superficial follows are often not from your target audience, and you now risk being flagged as a spam account by Instagram. Why spend time trying to attract followers that are not interested in your product or service? It’s now all about quality, not quantity.
Engagement Groups: In the not-too-distant past, engagement groups (you agree to like, comment, or share each other’s Instagram posts) used to be very helpful in building followers and engagement, therefore helping you gain more “real estate” on the Instagram feed. These days, Instagram actively tracks engagement pods or patterns of activity that look like engagement pods. So using one may cause Instagram to limit your reach or even ban your account.
Group Giveaways: Contests are a great way to get your target audience to engage on your page and get them excited about a new product, event, or service you may be offering as long as you follow Instagram's guidelines, but group giveaways often hurt more than they help. It encourages artificial engagement by attracting followers from people who only want discounts and deals, and they’ll either unfollow immediately or damage your engagement ratio by ignoring your posts.
So what can you do to update your strategy once you eliminate outdated practices? Start with the very basics like your name, links, and bio, and work your way to your posts. Here are a few ways you can do that:
Optimize Your Instagram Business Profile: Keep your bio fresh and aligned with your vision. As your business grows, so may your goals and target audience so you’ll want to make sure you’re communicating any changes to your followers. Use your bio to talk about the value you offer to followers and give them a clear call to action. Use the link in your bio to share a lead magnet that matches your current business goals such as selling a new product or getting email subscribers. If you want to share more than one lead magnet, use a link-sharing service such as Linktree, but keep it to five links or fewer. Don’t forget to keep your profile photo, account type, and display name up to date as well!
Update Your Evergreen Content: Highlights are a very useful way for potential followers and customers to get to know you, so make sure you keep yours organized and easy to navigate. Categorize your highlights based on your business goals or content pillars. For example, you might have separate highlights to showcase services, products, and customer reviews. You’ll also want to customize the thumbnail images for your highlights with recognizable colors and small, simple logos. Keep your highlight titles simple. One word should be enough.
Mix Up Your Content: Stories and Highlights are some of the most valuable content formats for converting people into Instagram followers and even customers, but that doesn’t mean you can ignore Reels and standard feed posts; you never know when a format might have a resurgence. As a general rule, Instagram feed posts are aimed at existing followers, Stories and Highlights help you communicate with new followers, and Reels can help Instagram users discover your content and profile, so mix it up to cover as many bases as you can!
If you’re not sure where to start, reach out to us and we can help you get started on auditing your own page, or even help you clean it up if you need a hand!
