5 Common Mistakes Resellers Make on Instagram

If you find yourself struggling to gain traction on Instagram, read through these five common blunders that resellers make to see if your Instagram page could use some adjusting.

#1: Being all work and no play

Quite frankly, a lot of resellers' Instagram pages are boring. (Sorry, but not sorry...keep reading.) It is commonly thought that your reselling page should be all about reselling, but then you leave out a very important factor: YOU! What makes each reselling business unique is the person behind it, and without showing your personality, your page can get lost in the abyss. People want to connect with people; that's what Instagram is all about. And I know it can be intimidating to put yourself out there, but I guarantee that your Instagram account and reselling business will both benefit.

#2: Doing "drops" of inventory

Admittedly, this might be a personal pet peeve, but hear me out. If you do massive "drops" of inventory and flood your followers' feeds with product, you will most likely get muted or unfollowed. No one likes to have their feed dominated by one account, let alone another reseller account. Unless you have a following of customers who crave your new inventory, you're most likely going to turn off you audience. After all, most resellers have an audience of resellers. Unless you're selling items for $2 for $3, I'm not interested LOL.

Even pages with a curated aesthetic can benefit from spacing out their inventory. When you share fifteen posts at once, you're not allowing each item to shine. Additionally, your posts won't get the attention they deserve because your followers aren't going to engage with every single post, and as a result, Instagram will limit how many followers see your posts because of the low engagement. (Remember, Instagram likes content that engages its users.)

Tip: use the scheduling feature on Instagram to space out your posts.

#3: Never showing your face

Okay, okay, yes, you can grow your Instagram without showing your face; it has been done before. But I can't help but imagine how much bigger those accounts would be if they did show their face.

Take meme pages for instance. I follow quite a few meme pages that are run anonymously; they use filters or disguises if they want to speak directly to their audience. But let me tell you, when they do finally show their face, it's a big deal. Why? People love seeing people. Seriously. Humans are a social species and faces are an invaluable part of socializing.

Showing your personality (as mentioned previously) and showing your face go hand in hand. The whole point of sharing your business on social media is to be social. Again, I understand that being yourself on a social media platform can be menacing, but the benefits greatly outweigh the drawbacks.

#4: Posting inventory with no context

Another personal pet peeve of mine. I understand that resellers want to post their inventory in hopes of making sales on Instagram, but if it's just a top on a hanger, thanks but no thanks. If I wanted to see items casually draped on slim velvet hangers, I'd scroll through Poshmark. (I apologize for the sass, but this is my blog after all LOL)

If you're going to post items with the desire to make some sales, there needs to be more than a photo and size/brand; you need to tell a story. When I worked in retail, I was usually in charge of doing floorsets. The question was always, "what story is this telling?" Maybe it was a nautical theme for casual weekends, or perhaps a polished, conservative workwear story.

Thankfully with social media, it's so much easier to "tell a story" because you can literally tell a story. For example, you can post items in a carousel that have a common theme, maybe athleisure for example. Then in the caption, detail about how you like to wear your yoga pants when grocery shopping, or how you put on your workout clothes in the morning as a reminder to exercise during the day. This allows viewers and followers to better engage with your posts, and of course, creates a more viable route to sales.

To put it simply, viewers need something to latch onto, something to connect them to the items you're selling.

#5: Holding back due to imposter syndrome

I remember when I first joined the reseller community on Instagram, I had the idea to share some fashion vocabulary. I held back for weeks because I thought, "who am I to post this?" I felt like I had no credibility; I felt like an imposter. After all, I just joined the community, was a baby reseller, and I felt like I hadn't "earned my keep" yet.

One day I finally built up the courage and shared a post about "pointelle." I was SO nervous because I thought people would think, "Who is this girl and who does she think she is? What does she know about reselling?" But no! The post was well-received, so well that I did it again, and again, and again.

Point being, if you want to do something, do it. If you want to share something, share it. If you want to be something, be it. Don't wait for someone's approval or encouragement. And sure, there will always be those accounts who comment something like, "I thought everyone knew this," but they're just jealous they didn't have the courage or idea to post it themselves. And hey, a comment is a comment, so thanks for engaging in my post :)