When it comes to building a fashion brand, social media cannot be overlooked. Brands have grown their customer base and ‘blown’ just by using social media mainly to promote their brands. With social media, it is easier to get in the sight of your target audience and to show the world the magic you create with your brand.
One of the most popular social media platforms with fashion brands is Instagram. Using Instagram right can work wonders for fashion brands. While some brands thrive on the platform, others barely survive because they are making costly mistakes when using the platform.
This week, we reviewed a video by Brand Strategist, Beth Fayemi, on Instagram mistakes to stop doing in 2020. In it, Beth highlights the reasons brands are not growing based on what they publish on their Instagram pages.
The video aims to show entrepreneurs mistakes that they are making that could be hindering the growth of their business on Instagram. It also highlights better ways to do handle their social media platforms so they can grow on the platform.
Our review will cover:
- useful points fashion entrepreneurs can learn from,
- important points missed out, and
- the usefulness of the information provided to fashion entrepreneurs.
Now, let us get down to it.
Useful Points for Fashion Entrepreneurs
1. No Structure
If you are on Instagram to make money, you have to be structured. You have to know what you are doing per time. You have to know what you are posting, why you are posting it, and when to post it.
If your page lacks structure, it will hinder your growth as a business. You need to be intentional about everything – from your user name to your bio, feed, captions and everything else on your Instagram page. You have to be structured in the way you put things on your page.
When your page is unstructured, people will not see the sense in following you, this will, in turn, affect your growth.
2. Not Socialising Enough
Instagram is a social media platform. Its purpose is to socialise. If you feel like you are just a business page and you do not need to interact with other Instagram users, you will not grow.
You have to socialise enough. Let Instagram know you are using it. Try as much as possible to engage with others on Instagram. Engage with pages you know your target market is on, engage with your target market, create engaging pictures that will make others react to your posts.
Engaging helps you rank on Instagram’s algorithm.
If you do not engage with people and socialise on Instagram, nothing on Instagram will go well for you. It favours those who use it strongly.
3. Inconsistency
It is very important to be consistent on Instagram. Instagram wants you to be consistent with it. If you are inconsistent, it will not favour you because it favours those that have are most active on it and are more likely to introduce more users to the platform.
Instagram rewards consistency.
To grow on Instagram, you have to create engaging content consistently. Try as much as possible to post multiple times per week, you can even decide to post once per day, or a maximum of twice per day.
For you to become top of mind of your customers, they have to consistently see your brand and find what they see to be relevant to them. This means consistency is a must for businesses looking to grow on Instagram.
4. Lack of Authenticity
To grow on Instagram, people have to feel you and connect with you. You cannot afford to try to be like any other business owner on Instagram because it is you people want to see. They already love those people for who they are, so make them love you for who you are.
You have to be authentic. Let people see your personal or brand personality when they visit your page. To make your brand different from other brands, you need to show who you are because there can only be 1 you.
5. Stealing Content from Others
Never steal someone else’s content. It is a complete no-no. if you steal content from others and they report your page to Instagram, Instagram can deactivate it.
If your customers find out that your content is stolen, you will lose credibility in their sight and end up hurting your business.
If you want to grow your brand, you have to post real content that your brand made. If, at all, you want to post someone else’s work, give adequate credit to that person or page.
6. Your Mindset
Your mindset matters a lot in building your business and in personal life. If you feel like you can’t get 100,000 followers on Instagram, you will not get them. Your mindset determines what you do and how well your business grows.
Put off every negative mindset about your brand and go for what you have. Put in the work others that have huge followership on Instagram have put into growing their brand and you will grow too.
7. Posting Too Much
Nobody wants to see only posts of you when they are scrolling through their timeline on Instagram. Any page that posts too much will most likely get an unfollow or get muted.
If you want to grow your business on Instagram, post moderately. Posting more than twice in a day is already being spammy so you need to tone it down.
Important Points that were Missed Out
1. Having Poor Visuals
Instagram is filled with beautiful photos so if your photos are not of good quality, no one will want to patronise your brand. You need to make sure that every picture and video you post have high resolution.
Not only should your pictures have high resolution, but they must also tell a story that is relatable to your target audience. Don’t just post pictures of a skirt or a pair of shoes, post pictures of someone who fits into your brand persona relating with that fashion product.
Finally, on visuals, your pictures must visually fit into the theme of your page. No matter how cute you think a photo is, if it does not fit in, do not post it.
2. Not Using Hashtags
Hashtags are a must for fashion entrepreneurs looking to grow their brands. The trick when using hashtags is to not use a hashtag that is too widely used but to use hashtags that are a bit narrower.
Use hashtags that will make people find your brand more easily. Using #fashiondesigner is way too wide with 18.7m posts, you can try #fashiondesignerlife has 45,000 posts. This will help you not get lost in the crowd.
3. Not Making Your Feed Shoppable
Many people will not do anything unless there is a call to action. To get people to engage more with your brand on Instagram and to grow your followership, you need to make your feed shoppable.
You can either add a clickable link to your bio, which will take people straight to your website to shop or, you can make your feed shoppable directly with Instagram’s shoppable function, Instagram Shopping.
4. Using Photos Alone
Using photos alone to try to build your brand on Instagram will not quite cut it for you. You need to use Instagram’s other features like stories and videos to boost your brand’s visibility.
If a content piece will do better with a video then go for it. You can also try your hands on GIFs, Boomerangs and cinematographs.
The Usefulness of the Information to fashion Entrepreneurs
Overall, the information provided proves to be pretty helpful for fashionpreneurs. The fact that it addressed mindset, something most people do not talk about much, gave the video a unique twist to it. Fashion entrepreneurs have a lot to learn from this video.
