Being one of the most popular social media platforms, Instagram has also become a very popular place for doing business. With 25 million brands being active on Instagram, the number of businesses willing to share their services and expand the number of followers continues to grow every day.
But even though Instagram has reached 800 million active users in December 2017, there are still many people who want to promote their business, doubt the ability of Instagram to effectively advertise their products or services. They believe in so-called myths conspiring that Instagram is both ineffective and cannot be trusted with doing business there.
Let’s check the validity of the 10 most popular myths about Instagram for business, described by Proessaywriting in their infographic, and dethrone them to reassure you about the role of Instagram for your brand.
- Instagram is ineffective for service-based businesses
Some people believe that only if you’re offering your followers some products, you can benefit from Instagram, which is absolutely not true. Both product-based and service-based businesses can benefit from Instagram, as the primary goal of this platform is to tell your story through visual media.
There are many ways how your service-based business can use Instagram, and it can be as successful as for product-based businesses, as long as you know how to get your followers interested and engaged.
- Only professional photos should be used
By professional photos it’s often meant using expensive equipment and pricey software to create photos for your Instagram page. But did you know that photos taken with your iPhone can look even better?
For sure, the content posted on Instagram should be of a high-quality, as you want your followers to clearly see what you want to show them. But that doesn’t mean that you need to spend an insane amount of money on expensive equipment. And with all free photo editing apps, you don’t need expensive editing software.
- Follow others to be followed
Following others is an organic way to get more followers back, but it’s not necessary. Besides, if your business account follows too many Instagram users, people may think that your account is spammy. The best way to get more followers is to create engaging and unique content people will get inspired by. So invest in your content if you want to get more followers.
- I don’t need a strategy for Instagram
Without a proper Instagram business strategy, your account is just a random Instagram page where you post photos. If you want to promote your business on Instagram, the first and the most important thing you need to do is to elaborate a proper strategy of advertising your products or services.
An Instagram page should be properly managed and all types of content you’re posting on Instagram should be properly elaborated. If you want to benefit from Instagram, you should take it seriously.
- Marketing results are unmeasurable
The biggest misconception of using Instagram for business is that any results you get from posting content or placing polls on Instagram stories are unmeasurable.
There are various online tools like Iconosquare in order to do analytics for your Instagram and Facebook accounts and make statistic completely effortless for you. So it is absolutely possible to track activity on your Instagram account.
- You can’t get leads from Instagram
There are lots of ways to get leads from Instagram, including using hashtags, posting links and also live streaming from your Instagram account. Hashtags have proven to be the most effective, as they categorize your posts and make them visible to all Instagram users, who click on this hashtag.
- Posting once a week is an effective strategy
Posting so rarely on Instagram will actually make all your followers leave. Instagram users don’t appreciate someone being so inactive, especially if they follow your business because they are interested in your products or services. They want to see more content from you, so posting once a week is definitely an ineffective strategy to promote your business on Instagram.
- A lot of images produces engagement
And on the contrary, spamming your followers with lots of images can also scare them away. Develop a strategy for your posts, where you will use both visual and textual content together. Textual content can also be engaging, as long as it’s relevant and coherent.
- Small account cannot reach target audience
You will realize that this myth is nonsense once you understand that people don’t follow others for their huge Instagram following base, but for the high-quality content they’re posting. Even if you’ve just started with your Instagram account, you have all the chances to make it grow. Just post engaging content and build trusting relationship with your followers.
- Can make money only with a huge base of followers
Again, the amount of followers you have is not a deciding factor in the success of your Instagram account. But also, if you have a big Instagram following base and want to make money off it, make sure that you understand the needs of your followers, because it’s their needs and vision that create the goal for all your content.
Concluding thoughts
You should hesitate when it comes to creating an Instagram account for your business. Instagram has proven to be very effective for promoting business due to the many features it offers to its users. But you should be consistent with your Instagram strategy. Figure out how it can work for you and commit to it. You’ll see the positive results right away!