Instagram Do's and Don'ts: How to Effectively Show Up on IG
Something I’m asked about a lot is how to be successful on instagram. How to build your business on social media in a powerful, authentic way. how to show up, post valuable content anD REMAIN CONSISTENT. And, what not to do. this is something I’m super passionate about, because I’ve seen firsthand how incredible an instagram community can be when it’s built and maintained a certain way. I’m tagged in posts every single day (hair before & afters, screenshots from group trainings, etc.) and some of them are really great examples of engaging content (and others, not so much). So let’s dive in.
DO use your own name as your IG handle.
Easy to remember, they know who you are, and it starts building the relationship with your consumer early on.
DON’T make your username generic, vague, OR with lots of symbols.
If your business is a direct sales business, I highly discourage putting the name of your company as your IG handle. It is less personal, harder to find your page, and harder to connect YOU as a person to your brand.
DO use your own photos and words.
This speaks for itself. Creating your own brand means you must be willing to create your own content. Hire a photographer once a quarter for fresh new content. Take a beginner photography course to lean the in’s and out’s of photography and what you can do yourself at home. Most of my content is taken with my iphone, don’t overthink it! And when creating captions, use your words, no one else’s. Your voice matters. Sometimes it takes me an hour to write a caption out before hitting “publish.” Sometimes it takes days! But I want to make sure my words are my words. Always do the same.
DON’T copy/cut/paste photos or captions to your feed or stories.
Let’s agree to stop doing that, shall we? Cutting and pasting and copying photos from corporate/wholesale photos (think online boutiques, etc) is the lazy man’s way of doing things. It tells your potential customer/consumer that you aren’t all in, that you aren’t creating a brand unique to you, that you don’t have anything personally to offer them of value, and you only post content that other people/your company has put together. If you want to build your sustainable business, you must post your original content.
And please please please don’t ever take someone else’s words or captions to pass off as your own. Honestly, it’s best to not take them at all! It took me weeks of notes, a whole day of writing down feedback from my IG followers and four hours to write this blog post. Respect me and my work by never copying/plagiarizing it. If you think I said certain things well? Thank you! If you found value in my work and voice, whether it’s on Instagram or the blog, the best thing you can do is share from its original source.
DO be willing to learn.
A quick google search opens up a world of knowledge when it comes to Instagram stories, IGTV, flat lays and graphics. Want to know how I became so successful? I do all my own stunts. When I started IG a decade ago, did I know how to post or what hashtags meant? Nope. Was I willing to learn? YUP. When IG stories rolled out, did I know what I was doing? Nope. Was I willing to learn? YUP. We all start from square one. If you don’t know the answer to something, google it! Research it! Download apps and watch tutorials. You must be willing to learn by yourself. Regularly sliding into DMs and asking questions that are easily searchable should never be your first move.
DON’T screenshot and copy someone else’s graphics.
IG stories. Let’s talk about it. I probably receive 20-30 DMs a day from others asking if they can “screenshot and repost” my IG stories/graphics/videos. Here’s the thing y’all. Listen closely.
Can you copy and paste? Yes.
Should you? No.
Even if you tag the owner of the story? Still shouldn’t.
Why not? Because your follower are there for YOU. They chose to follow you for a reason, not me or anyone else. Plus, if you can do it yourself, you should. Being self employed and creating your own brand doesn’t start by taking the lazy route. It starts by you making the choice to build your brand. Create your content. Put your face out there. Sharing your thoughts. Your tips and tricks to add value to your followers. Do the work.
DO build relationships.
If you have any sort of e-commerce business, the relationships you build can make or break your business. Relationship building is what social media was created to do. Follow and engage with feeds and accounts that inspire you. Reply or “heart” comments left on your posts. Ask open ended questions, take polls, be available. Some of my closest friendships were built on social media, and if you are trying to build a business on social media, you must build trust. To build trust, you must build relationships.
DON’T cold message.
I don’t care what you’ve been told. Stop the madness. Have you ever been turned onto a company or product from a cold message that you know has been sent to 500 other people? Honestly? I built a hugely successful brand without cold messaging, not one time.
If this is what you’ve been coached to do, I don’t care.
If this is what your upline or business mentor said to do, I don’t care.
If you read an article telling you this may work for your business, I don’t care.
I’m saying right now, times are changing. The days of cold messaging are over.
If you’re involved in a direct sales company and want to stop adding to the stigma of direct sales, this is one of the best ways to do it! Stop it already. No one wants your blatant disregard clogging up their DMs.
If you own your own company and want an influencer to partner with your brand, don’t clog up their DMs. Be a professional. Send an email after building a relationship first.
If you aren’t willing to let the vacuum cleaner salesman into your house for a two hour pitch, you should never be willing to invade DMs with a generic, cut and paste business pitch.
What’s the better, more sustainable option? Attraction marketing.
DO tag the business you’re sharing in your actual post.
If you purchase a product from the imaginary “Sarah Hill Boutique” and tag my business in your Instagram post, I would be able to go back to that tag via my tagged photos. If I loved your post, I can easily remember who you are and finding you easily to reach back out for a collaboration at a later date. You’re honoring the business in this way.
DON’T only tag that business/person in your caption.
If you know anything about IG accounts is that captions only scroll with notifications. If “Sarah Hill Boutique” is only tagged in your caption and not in the actual photo itself, I may never even see the notification. Surprise! I don’t have IG notifications turned on. And because of that, I only see caption tags when I’m scrolling notifications in the app instead, which is rare. If you tag me (or any business) in a caption only, chances are much, much higher that the business will never be able to scroll back far enough to see your mention, especially if they have a ton of followers.
DO use captions on IG stories.
If you’re going to put your face on IG stories, chatting about anything at all, you have to put a summary of what you’re saying in text form on each story.This is so important. The main reason you should do this regularly is because there’s a huge deaf community on social media. You’re trying to reach them, too! Don’t exclude them from being a part of your community. The other reason is because if you are going on and on and on (and sometimes I go on and on some more), people are way more likely to skip your entire series of stories altogether. Much of the time, people are scrolling stories without the volume on, and if you want to get your message across, make it easy! Add that text.
DON’T post to IG stories without a clear cut message.
Guilty! I’ve done it, you’ve done it, we’ve all done it. An IG rant. A passionate post. A longwinded message. And all of a sudden, there are 40 IG stories with no text anywhere to summarize your point, no one is listening. There are IG feeds I love and follow and truly respect and admire, but if I see them pop off in stories with no consideration for the audience, I skipskipskip right through. Another option? IG live straight to IGTV. A post with a long, thought out caption to go along with it. Be more in tune with your followers and consideration for their time and create a more clear cut and easy to follow message.
DO answer DMs.
I have to admit, this was a hard one for me to come to terms with. I didn’t like it. I still don’t like it some days. Struggle with it. But, it’s important. The reasons it’s hard for me has to do with the delivery. The more followers a person has, the more frequent the rude DMs can be. I receive at several DMs a day that say nothing other than “shirt.” “link” “where’d you get that.” It’s frustrating, to say the least, but we’ll get deeper into that in a few minutes when we talk about boundaries. The delivery aside, the reason this is an important thing to do is because as I’ve said before, connecting with your community and your followers matters. Take the time to answer them. Should some people be more polite? Yes. Should some people google before messaging you? Absolutely. But, keep offering up that value, keep taking the time to respond. I’m personally a one woman show, and I’m the only person with access to my IG account. I know some people hire assistants to manage social media, but I don’t. And even so, I can take a little time every day to respond.
DON’T ignore your followers.
Engage. Thank them. Reply. Drop an emoji. “Like” their comment. Acknowledge the effort. Reply to those DMs. Appreciate the fact that out of the seven billion people on earth, they’ve chosen to join your little corner of the internet. Don’t ever discount that. You have influence and you matter, I don’t care if it’s 70 followers or 70 thousand. Same goes for them. They matter too.
DO set boundaries.
Boundaries!So, so important. My mentor and friend John Maxwell said once that for anything to be considered a relationship, it has to be mutual beneficial. As someone with a mildly large following on social media, I have to set boundaries. My priorities are family, friends, team, followers. In that order. If you’re a taker on social media (posts, captions, IG stories, asking questions without using “please” or “thank you,”), you aren’t holding up your end of the relationship. Don’t be a taker. If you are on the receiving end of that, set your boundaries and stand firm. Decide what your non-negotiables are, and stick to them! Here are mine:
Notifications are always turned off. I set specific times every day to check DMs, emails, etc.
No phones at the table. Nothing makes me want to punch a wall faster than my husband replying to a FB message during dinner. I’d hurl lasagna at him if I could. This is a hard and fast rule. I don’t care if we’re sitting together for a quick five minute inhale of fast food before a soccer game, no phones.
If the answer is no, it’s no. I’m asked to give a lot to people on a regular basis. People I don’t necessarily owe anything to—the takers. The ones who don’t ever say “please” or “thank you for your time.” The one who refuse to acknowledge their responsibility in attempting to find an answer via google or my highlights tab before blowing up my DMs demanding things from me. If the request comes down the line, and my answer is no, it’s a no. It doesn’t mean I’m being rude or dismissive, it simply means no. “No” isn’t a bad thing, it’s a healthy boundary.
If it’s a yes, it’s a yes. If I’ve promised to do or offer something, I follow through, every time.
Strong blocking game. No apologies. I’m all for constructive and even difficult conversations, but if there’s no mutual respect, I never engage.
DON’T try to please everyone.
You can’t. You can’t win everyone over. Not everyone will like you. Not everyone will want what you’re selling or sharing. Not everyone will support you. Not everyone will care about you. It’s time to be okay with that. We’re all different with different strengths and different flaws. We all bring something different to the table. You will never please everyone, so stop trying. Offer value, tips, tricks, helpful information, build your community and allow those that want to be there to feel seen and heard. For those who tell you to piss off, bless and release.
DO share things other than your business.
You’re so much more than your business. Maybe you’re a husband or a wife or a law student or a doctor or a mental health advocate or a foster mom or a triathlete… the list goes on and on. If you’re creating a brand on Instagram, the last thing you should do is cut out other parts of your life that are important. Share other parts of your life! Do you have to share everything? Nope. But being a well-rounded influencer who shares more than just what she does for a living is so important. Can you imagine going on a date with someone and only talking about work for three hours? How boring. Share your wonderfully amazing self more often!
DON’T make your IG page a 24/7 infomercial.
As I said before, the last thing you need to do is create an IG page solely for business (this is specifically for those in direct sales). It will inevitably turn into a never ending informercial, and no one wants that. There’s a reason informercials are only on TV between the hours of 3-5 am. Be a well rounded resource for your followers.
DO influence.
Use your platform for good. Provide value to others. Speak on things you’re passionate about. Ask your followers for feedback and calls to action to engage with you in conversation. Keep working on building your community. It’ll always be worth it.
DON’T play the comparison game.
What I do isn’t exactly what you need to do. What she does isn’t necessarily what you need to do. What works for her may not work for you. If you can’t get out of the comparison trap, it’s time to do some major self-development work and start thinking about why you follow the feeds that make you feel badly about yourself. The only Instagram feeds I follow are friends and family and influencers who truly inspire me, make me smile, make me think, and offer value to my life. If I ever feel “less than” based off what someone else is doing on Instagram, it’s a hard stop. This takes intentional action, but you must do it. Unfollow. Mute. Block. Hide stories. Snooze for 30 days. Whatever it takes to shift your mindset. Out of sight, out of mind. You can value people for what they bring to the table, but if you aren’t walking away feeling excited, happy, thoughtful, inspired or generally good about yourself, bless and release.
That’s it! I know this is a lot of information and a lot to process for one blog post. But I know that if you take it, implement it, and do the work, you’ll see major forward movement in your business.
