Beiruting News

If you want your business to be the next Instagram sensation, then don't make these seven Instagram mistakes.

1. Having a private account

I'll never understand this. You have an account setup for your photography business so that you can show off your work, then you set the page to private so that no one can see it? The majority of users are not going to send you a follow request just to see if they like what you are posting.

2. Posting too many personal images

You have a business account for a reason. To show people your professional work and abilities. When people click to view your profile, that's what they are going to expect to see. They don't plan to see a bunch of cell phone images of your food, sunsets, and pets.

3. No location in your profile

I see this mistake not only within Instagram, but also on people's websites. You have got to tell people where you are located. Not only does this tell potential clients that you are a valid option, but you will also get followed by people just because you're a professional in their home town.

4. Using multiple images to create a large gallery image

Not only does this not bring in new followers, it will cause a lot of people to unfollow you. The majority of people following you will only see your images as they come across in their news feed. When you post six small images to create one large gallery image, your followers don't see the large galley image, they only see the six small images.

5. Too many posts per day

This kind of ties in with the above, but followers will get frustrated if their feed is getting clogged up with only your images. I have seen users who post 10 - 20 images, one right after the other.

6. Not being consistent

This is a big one. People need to know what they are going to get if they follow you. If you're a portrait photographer and all of a sudden you start to only post landscape images, you will start losing followers. Likewise, if a user looks at your account and can't figure out what type of work they can expect, they may lose interest in following you.

7. Don't beg for likes and follows

This includes commenting on images asking them to follow you, tagging people in comments asking for likes, and any other begging process. Not only does it not work, but it will just get you blocked by almost every person you try it on.

fstoppers