INSTAGRAM MISTAKES | How to grow on Instagram 2023 | Instagram growth 2023

1. Avoiding Banned Hashtags on Instagram
2. Balancing Instagram Posting Schedule Realistically
3. Creating Content for Audience Engagement on Instagram
4. Building a Deeper Connection with Your Instagram Audience
5. FAQ

Avoiding Banned Hashtags on Instagram

Hi guys, welcome back to my channel. My name is Jade, and I create content which is designed to help you grow your online presence and start profitable businesses. So today's video, I'm talking about mistakes. Mistakes that people are making on Instagram specifically. And the reason why I'm talking about mistakes is because I have noticed over the past few months that the mistakes that people are making on Instagram tend to be evolving ever so slightly. Like mistakes that people were making one year ago are different to the mistakes that people are making now. So I thought why not make a list and share these mistakes with you guys so that hopefully I can prevent you from making any of these mistakes in the future. So let's not dilly-dally. I hate when I use that phrase because it's so lame. Let's not hold and hang about. That's not even better. Let's just get straight to it. Okay, so the first mistake that you might be making on Instagram without you even being aware. I've gotta get this out the way. I've gotta get it said super quick 'cause I know some of you drop off really quickly on videos. And if you're gonna drop off, just make sure you listen to this one first, okay? Banned hashtags. Now, I have spoken about band hashtags a couple of times on my channels before. But they've evolved ever so slightly over the years. And one thing that I feel like I've never been able to truly get across is the fact that if you use certain hashtags on Instagram which have been banned by Instagram, your channel will be restricted. And you will not be able to reach as many people as you would like. Now, the main thing to bear in mind about this is the hashtags which are banned change all the time, okay? Let me just say that again. The list of hashtags that Instagram have banned right change all the time. And I don't know what the frequency is, but honestly, it could be every day. As far as I'm aware, it's not something that Instagram have openly come out and spoken about. But essentially, they can ban a new hashtag whenever they like. And you guys will be absolutely none the wiser. So for example, a hashtag which used to be banned and which was super popular was hashtag beauty blogger. So imagine how many beauty bloggers out there were using the hashtag beauty blogger without even realizing that by using that hashtag, their content was being restricted. Okay, now where the newer evolving bit has come in is the way in which you actually identify a hashtag as banned. Like this is actually far more complex than it needs to be. What you need to do first of all is to make sure that any hashtags you are using, you have manually searched for them on Instagram. This is the only way for you to actually know whether or not that hashtag is banned at the moment of you using it. So what you want to do is you want to get up your phone and you want to go onto Instagram and you want to search for the hashtag that you're about to use. The example I'm going to use is hashtag DM because that has been consistently banned for at least a year, okay? So if you're ever wondering, "How do I actually check? Am I looking at the right thing? I need to see a hashtag that's banned." Search for hashtag DM because that is always banned, right? Search DM, click on the hashtag, and what you're going to see is a notification appear at the top of the screen. And what this notification is going to say is, "Recent posts from hashtag DM are hidden because some posts may not follow Instagram's community guidelines." And then there's a button that says, "Learn more." Now, that's a very obvious notification there, right? It's telling you posts, what have you used this hashtag, have been hidden. But it also means that the other posts that these other creators have shared are at risk of being hidden too, because Instagram now believes that that creator who used hashtag DM is in breach of their community guidelines. Now, sometimes that notification doesn't appear. It's appearing now, but honestly, every now and then, I check over the past, like, year, sometimes it doesn't appear. The biggest telltale sign that you want to look for is when you search for a hashtag, if it's okay to use. So, I'm going to click on another random hashtag. So, this one, for example, I know for a fact that it's okay to use because there is a blue follow button there. Regardless of whether or not Instagram changed that notification, whether or not they decide that they're no longer going to tell you if a hashtag is banned or not, which for a few months, they stopped telling you. There was no notification, just nothing appeared right. How I was still able to tell if the hashtag was banned is because I would search, and if there was not a blue follow button, then I knew the hashtag was banned. Okay, so that is the first mistake that people are making on Instagram, and if you are one of those people who are doing that and making that mistake, I would like you to stop.

Balancing Instagram Posting Schedule Realistically

The next mistake that people are making on Instagram is definitely a new one, and it's not one that you're gonna hear many people say, right? And the mistake is that people are trying to commit themselves to an unrealistic posting schedule, and I think this is basically the result of the idea of being consistent on social media being rammed down our throats for the past three years. And do not get me wrong, being consistent on social media will lead to your growth. Being consistent on Instagram will lead to growth. Being consistent on anything in life is going to allow you to achieve and see results, okay? That's just a fact. So by no means, and I'm saying that consistency is not important. However, what ends up happening when people are kind of constantly being told, "You've got to be consistent. You've got to post every single day. You've got to post three times a day," what happens is that people put themselves under a lot of pressure to commit to an unrealistic posting schedule. And if you're sitting there thinking, "I think I'm victim to this, but I'm not really sure," I want you to ask yourself, "How often does a day come around that you're supposed to post on Instagram and you miss it because you're busy? Because the time you're supposed to post doesn't work for you for whatever reason? How often does that happen? If you're gonna be honest with yourself and say that this happens to you once a week, then there's a big chance that you're falling victim to this mistake. And instead, what I recommend and urge you to do is to reevaluate your posting schedule. So how often you're posting during the week, what days you're posting, and what time you're posting. I want you to reevaluate your schedule and instead, I want you to come up with a schedule which works for you and your own life and your priorities and your commitments. Which works for Instagram. And by that, I just mean posting as much as you can during the week without burning yourself out. And the third one is, make sure that it works for your audience. I think a lot of people create a schedule based on what their audience wants and what Instagram wants, and then end up burning out or not sticking to your schedule anyway, and then becoming incredibly inconsistent. Consistency, in this context, literally just means posting on the same days the same amount of times per week. It doesn't mean posting twice a day every single day. Like, consistency can be set to whatever works for you, your audience, and for Instagram.

Creating Content for Audience Engagement on Instagram

The next mistake that you might be making is a bit of a controversial one. There's gonna be people who listen to this and they are not going to agree. I feel like I always have some kind of controversial thing in my videos, like some kind of thing that's going to ruffle some feathers, you know? Just stir the pot, don't I? So, this mistake that you might be making is that you are consistently sharing content which is for you and not for your audience. So, what does this look like? You know, when you go out and you take a photo of you and your friend and you've had a few drinks and, you know, you're on London Bridge and you're like being tourists for the day, I'm literally speaking of memories, and you're like, "Oh my God, yeah, let's take a pic outside London Bridge, blah, blah," and the picture's blurry, like you can't really see anything in the background, but it's such a good memory. You love the memory behind that photo, and you wanted to share it to your Instagram. That is a photo for you. You took that photo, you love the memory behind that photo, and you wanted to share it with your friends and your family and your audience. So, that is a photo for you. A photo or content which is for your audience is content which is designed to provide value to your audience. If you are a fashion blogger, then it is content which is showing a really great outfit that you just picked up, and it's got all of the outfit tags, and you can see all the features of the outfit. Like, that is a valuable piece of content for your audience. For me, a valuable piece of content for my audience would be a carousel or a graphic which shows my audience or tells my audience how to achieve something, right? And this will be different for everyone. It's really important to know what your audience wants from you and what your audience sees as valuable. But any content which is providing value for your audience is a piece of content designed for them and not for you. By no means am I saying that you can never share content for you. I'm not saying that at all. It's actually nice to share pieces of content like that every now and again. It adds a different layer to your content strategy. And you know, your audience could very well love it. However, if you are consistently only sharing content which is for you and for your own memories and you're treating your Instagram page like your own like photo book, which arguably is how it's supposed to be treated, what's going to end up happening is that you're going to lose interest from your audience. Because in today's day and age and because of the way that we now use Instagram in order for someone to stand out amongst other people on the platform, they need to provide value. And in order for someone to continue following that person, they need to feel like they're getting valuable content from them on a regular basis. There's a real value exchange now on Instagram, which arguably didn't really exist as much like five years ago. Okay, so as I said, this doesn't mean stop sharing those blurry photos of you and your mate on London Bridge. I'm just saying make sure that if you're going to do that, you're balancing it out with content that you know your audience want and need. Another tip which might help you if you're anything like me is create a separate account which is just for your personal content. Like I have a personal Instagram account which I literally upload between one to five posts per year on. I am not Miss Consistency over there, but that is like my personal photo book. I'm sharing those photos because they're memories and I like to share them with my friends and my family who follow me on that page. And that is the purpose of that page. And I'm happy for that page to be separate from my other ones. It's completely down to personal preference, but it's something you might want to consider.

Building a Deeper Connection with Your Instagram Audience

Now, the final mistake that you might be making on Instagram is not taking the time out to bond with your audience. So in order for me to explain the value in taking time out to bond and communicate with your audience, I feel like I need to break down your audience into two different parts. So on the top level, you've got followers who are following you because they like your page. So this is like a shallow level of engagement, okay? So they are following you because they liked your bio or they like that reel that you just did. They like the aesthetic of your feed. And they've seen that and thought, "Oh, I like this person's content. I'm gonna follow them." Right? Absolutely nothing wrong with having a bunch of followers on this level, by the way. That's totally normal. Your next level, however, and these are like your deep followers, shall we call it. These followers, they don't follow you because they like your content. They follow you because they like you. Okay, let that sink in. They're not just following you because they like your content or they like that one reel that you did or they found that carousel you posted really useful. They're now following you because they like you. This kind of engagement and this kind of follower is so hard to get. They are hard to get, especially if you're not taking the time out to speak to them. Like, it's almost impossible to get someone down to that level unless you're Beyonce. And if you're not taking the time out to bond with your audience, but also these group of followers, right, if you watch my videos a lot, you know for sure what I'm gonna call these followers. Your advocates, okay? Your advocates are the essence of your successful Instagram channel. It is not just about having a bunch thousands or 10 thousands, hundreds of thousands of followers on this surface level. If you don't have any who are on a deeper level who truly support you and what you're doing, so just let that sink in. And as I mentioned, in order for you to get people down to that level, you really want to listen to them. You want to speak to them. You want to respond to their comments. You want to respond to their DMs. If you feel like you're not getting any engagement from your audience and therefore it's hard for you to open a dialogue, then ask for engagement. Like close off your captions saying, "Comment below what are your thoughts on what I've just shared," you know? Ask questions in your stories. Tell people to DM you. Sometimes all it takes is asking for it to give a few people just that final push they need to actually reach out to you and open a dialogue. So that concludes my video. I hope you found it useful. If you did, I recommend checking out this video. It's all about my top Instagram growth secrets for 2022. Thank you so much for.

FAQ

Q: What is the first mistake mentioned in the content about Instagram?
A: The first mistake mentioned is using banned hashtags on Instagram.
Q: What is the second mistake mentioned in the content about Instagram?
A: The second mistake mentioned is committing to an unrealistic posting schedule on Instagram.
Q: What is the third mistake mentioned in the content about Instagram?
A: The third mistake mentioned is creating content that is more for the creator than for the audience on Instagram.
Q: What is the fourth and final mistake mentioned in the content about Instagram?
A: The fourth and final mistake mentioned is not taking the time to bond and communicate with your audience on Instagram.