Insta-Hacks
Insta-Hacks
Things have changed in Instagram due to the growth of new social media and the passing of time; simple as that. Instagram has adapted to new trends in its content and tools. Here are 5 important mistakes that harm the effectiveness of your digital strategy.
Not using reels:
With a few exceptions (photos of personalities, models, and influencers), photos show poor performance compared to reels or videos. Since the appearance of TikTok in the social media market, Instagram, Facebook and even YouTube have migrated to short videos as the main source of content. Some of the most relevant characteristics of videos are:
- Easy to watch
- More information per minute can be included
- Humanizes our brand
- Best way to show processes.
Think only about our followers and likes:
The number of followers is an attractive KPI at a first glance, but it should not be the main goal; it is rather a consequence of a good digital strategy. We must create relevant content that can result in more saves and shares. It’s important to discuss this issue with our clients since the very beginning, since the KPIs of marketing departments tend to be follows and/or likes. It is our job to change the paradigm before starting or we will end up with an unsatisfied customer.
Using irrelevant hashtags:
Customers, or even agency creatives, tend to request this, but brand or campaign hashtags like #Christmastogether #thefreshestveggies or #thebestprices do not offer anything to our content, but rather damage it. Hashtags are a segmentation tool that can be based on interests or geographical elements. When using hashtags, it’s better to think which ones fit our type of content; for example, a recipe should have hashtags like: #food, #recipe, #foodie. By using them, our post will be suggested to people that have liked other posts with the same tags.
Irrelevant stories:
Stories have become so relevant that now they can even be advertising. The reason for that is that they are the most organic and natural part of content, one that has great potential for reaching big audiences in a natural way. Sadly, most stories are thought of as advertising tools. They might take a lot of work hours and be ineffective. Metrics don’t lie; most stories from advertising accounts are seen only a few times.
Post too much and post irrelevant content:
Posting every day or several times a day might not be good for our brand. Let’s look at three possible scenarios and three additional recommendations:
The content we post is highly relevant: it is seen by many, and our audience interacts with it; that means we have great knowledge of what our target segment consumes. Even then it is advisable to allow content to “breath”; adding a lot of relevant content could be
damaging since no post reaches 100% of its potential. Remember that in the “followed” section we compete with many other brands and profiles; neither we nor our content is alone out there.
Some content is relevant, and some isn’t: maybe this month we are trying to implement a different strategy or deal with a topic that is not aligned with the core of our brand. That’s fine, not all content could perform the best way possible. In this case, it’s important to take
notes and learn from contents that do well and reconsider or implement these strategies with content with lower performance.
All content is irrelevant: this is the scariest scenario. Our content does not perform well without advertising, and this is our most common situation. But it’s not as bad as it seems. We need to reconsider our digital strategy following our core. By avoiding the mistakes just
mentioned we can create a fresh digital strategy, one that is aligned with our brand and that offer tangible results.
Federico Mora
Lead Designer