We’re gonna talk about three major Insta fails that we see business owners make all too often! These mistakes may seem like they’re helping your account, but they’re actually doing more harm than good. And as your marketing cheerleaders, we’re here to cheer you in the right direction.

Mistake #1: Buying Followers

I know it’s tempting to make your account look like it’s poppin’ with a bunch of followers, but buying them is just as fake as Christina Aguilera’s hair extensions. Not only are you wasting your money, but you’re also hurting your engagement rate. When you buy followers, you’re buying bots that aren’t interested in your content. So when you post, you won’t get any likes or comments. This lowers your engagement rate and makes it less likely for your posts to appear on the explore page. Plus, if you get caught buying followers, Instagram will be as mad as Avril was at all those boys and could penalize you by reducing your reach or even deleting your account.

Mistake #2: Engagement Pods

Do you remember the days of waiting for your Tamagotchi to hatch? Well, engagement pods are like that, but way less satisfying. An engagement pod is a group of people who agree to like and comment on each other’s posts to boost engagement. The problem is, the engagement is not real. It’s like when Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears wore matching denim outfits. They may look good together, but it’s all just
an illusion. The likes and comments are just forced and insincere, which doesn’t help your engagement rates at all. It’s better to focus on creating quality content and engaging with your real followers instead of wasting your time with engagement pods. You can read more about it here.

Mistake #3: Following and Unfollowing Tactics

Remember when Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie were BFFs on The Simple Life? Well, following and unfollowing people is like when Paris and Nicole had a falling out. It’s just not cool. This tactic is super annoying and shows that you’re more interested in getting followers than building a genuine relationship with them. It’s also against Instagram’s terms of service, which could get your account flagged or even banned.

So why are these mistakes so bad? Well, Instagram’s algorithm values engagement. The more engagement you get, the more likely your content will be seen by new people. If you’re using these fake tactics, you’re not building real relationships with your followers, which leads to lower engagement rates. This means your content won’t be seen by as many people, and your account won’t grow.

In conclusion, let’s avoid these Insta fails like we avoided the Y2K bug. Instead, let’s focus on creating quality content that resonates with our real followers. Let’s build genuine relationships with our audience, and let’s keep it real like Justin and Britney never did. Need a little more help growing your follower count genuinely? Check out our Oh My Digital All-Stars. We gotchu.