How To Avoid My Instagram Beginner Mistakes

I was recently scrolling through my Instagram account. In the past four years I have made a lot of mistakes. Whether you are new to Instagram, or have been on there a long time, I hope my experiences (and mistakes) help you build your account, increase your following, and encourages you in your Instagram journey.

1. "The riches are in the niches!" While this statement may have been true in 2014 when I began my account, I have seen many changes through the years. Now, the general rule of thumb is to market/brand yourself. Well, what happened to those of us who fell for the "riches in the niches" game? We are now trying to blend our accounts together and add our own personality to our accounts.  Instagram Tip #1: Don't get trapped in the niches game! I would suggest you have a focus for your account, but don't put yourself in a box. Don't limit yourself to only one topic or type of post.

2. Perfectly curated Instagram feeds. These feeds were popular a few years ago (and many are still doing it with success), but I feel like I was stuck while trying this approach. My Family History pictures don't fall into a specific color scheme/curated feed. I fell for this approach when I began posting my Quick Genealogy Tips. I was using brightly colored polka dots. These are not my personal style. I'm more of an "earth tones" girl and not loud and flashy. I quickly halted the "curated feed" trend once I realized I was putting myself in a box (see tip #1 above). Instagram Tip #2: Stay true to yourself!

3. Overly processed photographs (filters galore). Now, don't get me wrong, I do like good photography, but applying too many filters to a picture is exhausting and takes a lot of time. This also builds on my first and second mistakes above. I was trying to keep everything the same and not staying true to myself. Now, I do understand that branding is important when building a business online, but I find it boring to see the same thing over and over from someone. Instagram Tip #3: Keep it simple!

4. Hashtags! Hashtags! Hashtags! Okay, if you've been following me along, you know how much I love hashtags. If I could go back to my earlier posts on Instagram, I would definitely use more hashtags. I would have created my own specific hashtag, too. I could go back and edit those posts to include my #genealogygirltalks hashtag, but they are 4 years old now and I doubt anyone is even looking at them. Now, I make sure I use specific hashtags. At this time you can use 30 hashtags on your posts, I would advise you to use them! Instagram Tip #4: Use hashtags in your posts!

5. Inconsistency. In the beginning the timing of my posts was extremely random. I would post one day and again in a week or so. Sometimes I would go a month or so without posting any content. I've learned through the years that consistency is the key! I don't schedule my posts, but I do like to post frequently. My Genealogy Photo A Day challenge helps with content ideas. Instagram Tip #5: Post frequently and consistently!

6. Random Captions. Way back in the day when I first started posting on Instagram I remember adding random captions to my posts. Some posts never had captions. This is not something I recommend. Your captions are important! Tell the story behind the image. Tell us how the image makes you feel. Make your readers compelled to engage with your post. Instagram Tip: #6: The first two lines of your captions are the most important! (They make your readers want to click "more" and read your entire caption.)

7. Not Sharing Blog Posts. If I could go back to the beginning, I would share ALL the images from my blog posts onto my Instagram account. I can't answer why I didn't do that, but I wouldn't miss a blog post now! Instagram Tip #7: Share your blog post images!

I hope the mistakes I made will help you in your Instagram journey! If you implement these tips, let me know! I would love to hear from you…