Dispelling Instagram Myths

To say Instagram is one of the most important social media sites for business right now is an understatement. Instagram has everyone’s attention.

INSTAGRAM HAS 500 MILLION ACTIVE MONTHLY USERS!

Yeah, that statistic alone is pretty incredible. I have been using Instagram with our clients for quite some time now and had
found some pretty great success with it.

It is hard to believe people still push back about using Instagram for their business but they are still out there. If you are one of them, here are the most common objections that I hear and my reasons why it is just not true.

Only Millennials Use it

While a majority of millennials do use it, it is not just for millennials. Not surprisingly,55 percent of all online 18- to 29-year olds in the U.S. are using Instagram, according to the Pew Research study. The next largest Instagram age demographic is 30 to 49 years-old at 28 percent usage followed by 50 to 64 year-olds at 11 percent. That is still a pretty significant number of users that are above the age of 30 using the social media platform.

How you use Instagram will depend on your target audience and the value you provide to them.

You cannot Generate Sales From It

This myth comes from the fact that you cannot have links in your Instagram posts. The only section a link will work is on your bio page.

According to Instagram Advertiser statistics, 50 percent of Instagram users follow at least one business, 60 percent say that they learn about a product or service on the platform, and 75 percent of Instagram users take action, such as visiting a website, after looking at an Instagram advertising post.

I am huge into statistics, and it seems that if you are looking to increase brand awareness, sales, and your customer base, Instagram is the way to go!

You Have To Have A Fun Product

Sure, Instagram is mostly visual, and I can understand why many businesses might think this.

“I sell tile. People do not want to see pictures of nothing but tile.”

You are right. That would get boring, but there are so many other ways you can add value to your audience and customer base.

Here are a couple of pro tips:

• Document Over Create (Credit Gary Vaynerchuk on this one)
• Showcase customers
• Show employees in action
• Engage with users
• Search hashtags to give advice or praise
• Give your pro tips!

I will Look Spammy

Yes, there are easy ways of looking spammy on Instagram. If all you do is throw pictures on your account saying buy this or buy that, it is going to look spammy.

Instead, change your strategy to make your first goal to add value to your audience. Without them buying something, how can you add value?

I cannot Schedule Posts Automatically

Technically you cannot, and this is for a good reason. Take a look at Twitter, see how noisy it is and how easy it is to get lost in the tweets. However, there are programs such as CrowdFire and Hootsuite that let you preschedule and set up the posts for you.

You Need To Be A Professional Photographer

No way! All you need is a decent smartphone that takes a good quality photo. As long as your Instagram account is there to add value to your audience, the images you take or use do not have to be professionally taken.

Take some photos and upload them to your account!

Summary

So there are the most common objections that I hear and my reasons why they are just excuses to get started. Hopefully, you’ve jumped on the bandwagon mid post and have already begun building up your Instagram account!