Don't do another thing on Instagram
until you watch this video because I'm going to share with you the top 10 biggest mistakes.
I see sellers make all the time.
Hi, my name is Mei and I helped makers artists
and designers make a living from selling their handmade products online.
I didn't even include this number one mistake to avoid in my top ten,
but I'm just going to say it before I get started mistake number zero
would be spending like six hours a day on Instagram
because you are running a business.
Your top priority is making sales and clicking around on Instagram.
All day is not the best use of your time for doing that.
You want to check out my other videos for tips about how to be successful on short amounts of time.
But today specifically I'm talking about some Instagram technique mistakes that you want to avoid.
So let's get started mistake.
Number one having a lame by.
Oh, okay. The bio is what people see at the top when they look at your profile.
So first of all, you want your bio to be captivating you only get a few sentences to tell people
what you do and you have to make it.
Punchy have a call to action in there tell people what you want them to do,
right? For example get 10% off if you sign up
for my newsletter because
even if someone likes her Instagram account the Instagram
algorithm only shows your post occasionally,
so you may think oh, you know that person liked my account they'll see all of my updates
and posts from now on.
No, unfortunately, they won't they will see yours once in awhile buried under a lot of other stuff.
So you want to make sure your harnessing your Count to get people off of the platform
and get them following you in other places
as well Instagram mistake number two using the wrong sized hashtags.
So with hashtags, your goal is two things one.
You want to be seen by other people when they search the hashtag.
So you want your post to come up in those hashtag feeds
and you want your post to appear as high up on the hashtag feed as possible.
So you want to avoid getting your post very too quickly,
which is exactly what Happens if you use a hashtag that's too popular to you would
love love love to be featured in the top nine posts.
Those are the top posts that are constantly rotating.
So if the hashtag is too big you are never going to be selected in the top nine
because being selected is based on popular engagement
relative to the other posts that are being selected
and you have to compete with influencers who have a ton of followers already
so you don't want That are two popular
or too unpopular if you're using a hashtag that's way too popular like hashtag weekend Vibes
or hashtag America those have 20 to 40 million posts
as of this recording your posts aren't going to get seen at all
because it's too crowded and competitive
and it's very unlikely you'll get into the top posts on the flip side.
If you're also using these hashtags that never get you noticed.
It's not great for you and the algorithm no one's looking
or following those hashtags that are too small
or Niche to which means it doesn't matter if you're in the top posts because no one's looking at it.
So what you want to do instead is when you do hashtag research,
it tells you how many posts that use that hashtag right pick one that's mid-sized
or something that you know,
you can compete in and that is going to be different
for everyone mistake number three using hashtags that are only four other makers not your customers,
so Before you start using a hash tag search it and look at the posts that show up for the hashtag.
If you're a jewelry designer using hashtag handmade jewelry.
It seems really intuitive. But it only attracts other jewelry designers.
Like you people don't go on Instagram to shop.
So hashtags don't get used in the same way that a customer uses keywords to search for something.
They want to buy on Google or Amazon or Etsy.
This is why when you use hashtags like #makers gonna
make or hashtag watercolor art you only seem to get likes comments
and follows from other makers sellers shop owners
and other artists while there's nothing inherently wrong with that just realized that
it's not likely those people are going to be people that buy from
you because the crafty just like you
and they will probably just make it themselves mistake number four not responding to comments.
This would be like sitting at a dinner table with someone and Them saying Oh,
I love your necklace. Where'd you get it? And then you just ignoring them.
You would probably never ever do that in real life.
So why in the world would you do that to a customer who might actually be interested in buying
but I see this happen a lot on Instagram potential customers asking sizing
or shipping questions and then never getting an answer from the shop owner.
Those questions are coming from someone who is very eager to buy your work,
but if you don't respond in A timely manner you might have lost that sale
comments are a pathway to opening up more conversation.
And I know it can get difficult and time-consuming to answer all of these comments,
especially when you start to grow your following
but that's the point where you need to think about hiring a virtual assistant
or just hiring some help which is what I've done for my business accounts.
You can't just stop answering comments
because it won't look good to other potential customers
as they'll see it as you not giving good service and you're also missing out on Initial sales,
so make sure that you're answering those comments mistake number
five not having a consistent posting schedule.
So super quickly about how the algorithm works when you have a post.
Basically what Instagram does is it puts it out to your group of the most loyal
and engaged followers first.
So like your mom and your customer who buys everything
and this other customer who likes absolutely everything you do
and the algorithm says do these people like it because If not,
the post isn't good. I mean if those people didn't even like it why
bother showing it to anyone else who follows you
and then the post just dies there.
But if those people like it then the algorithm says okay.
This might be something let me show it to the next level of followers.
So these followers are people who like your post some of the time
and then it just keeps making decisions about how many people it's going to show it to based
on how much responds it's gotten in those first few minutes.
Or ours. So now if you post at 3:00 a.m.
No one's going to see it and no one's going to like it.
What's going to happen is that other posts in different time zones are getting liked more than yours
and your three am post isn't going to get
as much reach as if you're posting at a time where your audience is available
and that's consistent for you.
If you want to see where most of your audience is,
you can go into your Insight
and look at your Audience by City chances are it's going to be Pretty close to your geographic area
and your time zone because it's actually natural for most of us to post when we're awake.
And when we're doing certain parts of our routine,
like during lunch break or after dinner, so get to a consistent posting schedule.
This also means posting either every day or every other day consistently.
Okay, it doesn't mean like posting seven times on one day
and then nothing for a week
because then your posts aren't getting filtered out through your audience in a consistent fashion.
I have another video talking about the overall Instagram strategy that you should be using
and I'll link that right here.
But basically post consistently mistake number six not writing engaging descriptions.
I see this all the time and I know you probably follow some gorgeous photography feeds
and they post epically gorgeous photos.
And then the caption is like a DOT and they have like a million likes I get it.
But that is The Fringe case of posts that have gone viral or their influencers with me.
Millions of followers for the rest of us little people.
We need to do the best with everything we're given.
Okay. So you need to practice writing engaging descriptions that people are
interested to read you want to make people enjoy reading your posts.
You want to tell a story make it emotionally grabbing
or fun or witty or share some value in some way entertain them educate them.
Ask questions. You also want to encourage them to follow through on
your calls to action you want them to On your bio
and go to your website and sign up
for your email list or make a purchase and they're not going to do that.
If you don't have good descriptions telling them exactly what you want them to do.
You can't expect them to read your mind. Okay,
mistake number 7 not making the first line of your description standout
copywriting is all about grabbing a person's attention with one line.
So they read the next and the next line grabs them to read the next and so on.
So, why would they keep reading? It's a first line is all boring.
When people are scrolling through their feed. They only see the first two lines of your description
and if it's not captivating enough,
they're not going to read more.
So you may as well not even bother posting anything else because it's not going to be red.
So make sure you spend extra energy putting thought into
what goes into those two sentences think
of it as like writing a headline to a blog
post or article or a subject line to an email that you're going to send to a very busy person.
Mistake number 8 is posting the same kind of thing over and over again.
You want to have diversity in your posts? Right?
So if every post is a sale post or you're only doing lifestyle photos,
then it becomes predictable
and people aren't going to engage with it the same way
as when your pattern interrupting which is a great way to get people engaged mix
things up a bit like show them a photo of you working in your
studio and then show them the product
as it's finished in a A separate
post and then you're showing it on a Model you can see how they're all different settings
and styles of photos.
Like maybe you're working behind the scenes photo is more raw and unfiltered.
But your model photo is more polished.
So make sure that you have diversity in your posts
because two reasons one it makes your feed more interesting
and to it also serves as an experimental ground,
right? So if you're only posting the same thing all the time then how are you going to know?
What works best? For you,
but if you post sales posts lifestyle photos
and behind-the-scenes work and maybe you can throw in a quote post from time to time.
Now, you have insights and statistics on four different kinds of posts
and you can see what works better.
Okay, so great. You're getting a ton of engagement on your behind-the-scenes posts.
Okay. So now let's dig a Little Deeper do people like seeing your hands in the
photo or do people like this kind of lighting or that kind of Color in your photo,
the diversity allows you to explore
what kinds of posts are more successful
and then you can continue to tweak your posts from there to be
posting the content that works the best
for you mistake number nine is totally mixing up personal and business.
Now, I'm not saying that you can't post a photo of your personal life on your business account,
but it's the same way that maybe we did see a photo of Steve Jobs
sitting at home on a sofa in his turtle.
Once in awhile personal insight into your life thing is fine,
but that's completely different from photos of your dogs all the
time and the drama about your plumbing bursting and your fight with your partner.
So this is not only for what you post but also how to use Instagram.
So if you log on to your business Instagram
account and you like your niece's graduation photo
and you like some dog photos and all of this other stuff as your business page,
the algorithm is going to Keep showing you more and more of what it thinks you like.
So if you're not using your page truly
as your business that is pursuing ideal customers and working on business relationships.
And all you're doing is just liking personal things.
It's going to keep showing you stuff that's personal stuff
because it's learning by your behavior what you like?
So I suggest you split up your personal
and business pages and use your business page essay like an employee in your shop.
Would use your business page right?
So if you have an employee
and you gave them directions like this
is what our Instagram page needs to do to succeed in terms of Engagement.
And in terms of posting, what would they do and that's what you should be doing as well.
Which brings me to number ten number ten biggest mistake is not going out and engaging.
I'm going to refer you back to my Instagram strategy video again,
but if you just post and run away and log off on the app,
you're not going to see the same kind of results
as you do as if you post and then comment on some of the other posts using that hashtag
and like some items in your feed and it's also these comments and these likes on other people's.
Profiles that will make them come back and look at your page.
And then when they see your awesome posts
and your great bio and if they like what they see in other words if they are your ideal customer,
then they will follow you
and then they'll start seeing more of your posts in the future and it's a cycle that happens.
So make sure you're going out and engaging in doing Outreach.
That's the most important thing that not enough people are doing on Instagram having said
that just remember that there is a balance between doing Outreach.
And then also not spending all of your time on doing Outreach strike a balance.