3 Instagram Marketing Myths That You Need To Know About

Instagram has undoubtedly become one of the most influential social media platforms in the past decade. In 2012, Instagram only had 30 million users. Today, Instagram has more than 1 billion active monthly users. As you can see from statistics alone, the potential for growth on the platform is immense.

Originally intended for users to share pictures and videos the platform has quickly become one of the top platforms for brands to use to garner brand awareness and customer interaction. After its advertising function was launched in 2015, Instagram has solidified its position as one of the key marketing channels for many companies and businesses.

However, with Instagram’s rapid rise to popularity in the world of digital marketing, there has been a lot of misconceptions surrounding the platform. We’ve taken 3 of the most common Instagram marketing myths and explained how they could be holding you back from growing your business.

Instagram myth #1: You Need to Post Daily to Stay Relevant

Instagram has always valued quality over quantity, so even if you only post 3 times a week, that is totally fine. As long as your content is done well, you won’t be penalised by the algorithm. Of course, regularly posting high-quality content to maintain your feed is important. However, there are tons of scheduling tools such as Later and more, that can help you manage when you post on your feed.

With tools like Later you can schedule Instagram posts to your feed at specific times in one go. This will not only help increase your posting frequency, but can also effectively help you organize your feed, videos, and more. On top of that, scheduling can collect audience insights and other useful data that can help you improve or re-think your marketing strategy.

Instagram myth #2: Buying Followers Is a Good Way to Grow Your Account

Don’t fool yourself into thinking that buying followers is a loophole to competing with similar businesses with a larger following. Artificially inflating your follower count can actually hurt your business by decreasing your engagement and even ruin your reputation. When you buy followers, all you are doing is buying “fake accounts” that won’t interact with your post in any meaningful way, which in turn will affect your account’s performance data.

Moreover, in recent years Instagram has taken a harsher stance on fake accounts by actively deleting them. Using third-party applications or even services to increase your account popularity is not only frowned upon, but also violates Instagram’s community guidelines. If you violate it, Instagram will definitely delete all activity related to the fake follower, and any likes and comments left by said account. We recommend sticking by the book, by using tried and tested methods to grow your account.

Instagram myth #3: Avoid Repeating the Same Hashtags Over and Over Again

The Instagram algorithm is smart and can recognize accounts that are trying to outsmart the system to get more likes with spammy behaviour. It’s a common misconception that using too many of the same hashtags will affect the user’s reading experience. While there is no penalty for repeating the same hashtags, it won’t benefit you either if they are not relevant to the post. Nor will the Instagram algorithm classify your post as spam.

The original purpose of hashtags is to help users find content that is related to their interests. In other words, the more relevant your hashtags are to your content, the better. You can use up to 30 hashtags but no matter how many you use, Instagram will not penalize you for using too many.

Remember that the purpose of hashtags is to make it easier for people to find your content, and quality is often better than quantity. The best practice is to know which hashtags are the most relevant to your post, otherwise you risk leading people to the wrong type of content.

Got more Instagram marketing myths you are not sure about? Don’t hesitate to let us know and we will be more than happy to debunk them for you.

Want to know other methods you can use to increase your follower count on Instagram? Read our previous blog post “8 Ways to Increase Your Brand’s Instagram Followers”, to master all the ways you can increase your Instagram presence.

Want to use Instagram more effectively to increase sales? Contact our digital marketing experts today to receive a customized solution for your business!