Content creation may seem easy at first — snap a photo of your precious furkids and share them with the world. So why aren’t you doing as well as other pawpals on Instagram? Here are some pitfalls you may have made and how you can work around them!
No.1: Feed spamming
We’ve emphasised it a few times in our previous article but we must emphasise — do not flood your Instagram feed with multiple photos. More than anything, you want your audience to remember you for quality content, not excessive content. Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, recommended posting 2-3 times a week, and no more than 1 post a day. If you want to share more pictures and videos of your furkid, you can always consider Instagram Stories.
No.2: Losing that personal touch
When making sponsored posts, it is easy to get lost in the products’ details. Yes, this new brand of pet food is made with high-quality ingredients. You sold the product, but you didn’t sell us the experience. How did your pawpal react to the product? Will they want it more now? The photos you take and the captions you write must tell a story to engage your audience.
No.3: Making loooooooong captions
On top of being a place for short-form content, Instagram is also an app that puts a lot of emphasis on your pictures. Let your photos do most of the work (see above, “photos must tell a story”), and keep your captions short and easy to read. If you want to hold a follower’s attention, it should not be to read a wall of text. Remember, brevity is the soul of wit!
If you’re adding hashtags, it’s good to know that Instagram limits your posts to a maximum of 30 hashtags. It’s even better to know that using all 30 hashtags makes your post look cluttered. What we recommend is to throw all your hashtags into a single comment so that your caption is neat and emphasises the story itself.
No.4: Ignoring comments (completely)
Now that you’re making content, you’re sure to receive more comments on your posts! You may receive comments from people you may (or may not) know, so be sure to reply to them. This is the best time to engage with your audience, as it shows that communication is two-way, rather than just you sharing information top-down. A pawpal that replies and converses with their followers leaves a longer-lasting impression than a pawpal who only posts pictures and nothing more.
There are many other pitfalls we did not include, but these are probably the most important ones. With this, we hope that you’ll combine these with your insights to create more engaging content.
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Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels