You may have considered how to enhance your Instagram engagement if you’re a social media influencer, marketer, business owner, or just interested in raising your personal profile online. Yes, there is the tried-and-true method of directly engaging followers in genuine ways, but let’s be honest. There is never enough time for this. And this may not even work given Instagram’s highly sophisticated algorithm.
For Instagram influencers and advertisers, engagement has emerged as the holy grail. The more users who like, follow, share, and tag other users on the site. The easier it will be for potential customers to find your company. Along with well-known celebrities, a lot of small companies, including vintage clothing shops, coffee shops, and make-up artists, have found success by deftly interacting with their fans on Instagram. You want to join in on the action, given that 50 billion posts have been shared to date and that more than 4.2 billion photographs liked every day.
What is your process then? The numerous sorts of engagement on Instagram must first be understood. Describe engagement: It really comes down to how much your audience engages with your material. How individuals interact with your stories, posts, and comments reveals their level of interest in and interest in your postings. To check your progress, use our Instagram Engagement Checker.
The following key indicators help determine Instagram Engagement:
Followers
Although size always matters, Instagram following size is not the primary element in influencing engagement. Because of this, Instagram sometimes has micro-influencers with as few as 2 000 followers who are incredibly successful. These influencers may not necessarily have a sizable following. But they are very aware of who they are and what interests them. Which allows them to develop material that will appeal to them. Instead of looking at the rate at which you are accumulating followers to gauge the success of your engagement efforts, examine what it was. That drew them to you with the aid of the appropriate social media listening tools.
Like
Likes are the most straightforward type of engagement you can acquire for your content. It’s a reliable indicator of how well-liked the pieces you write are as well. Even while double-tapping a post to like it doesn’t need much of your audience. It nevertheless provides a decent starting point for determining the amount of traction a post received.
Comments
Whereas likes only give a numerical indication of how popular your post is. Comments can give you far more context for why it did or did not do well. The most valuable form of engagement is through comments since they show how loyal and committed a follower or consumer is to your brand. Your audience very engaged with your material if they took the time to consider and post a comment. When thinking about the effect of comments on your level of engagement. Keep in mind that a succession of thumbs-up emojis does not necessarily signify as much engagement as a thoughtful comment.
Improve Your Instagram Engagement Rate With These 9 Tips:
Be Consistent
Keep people interested in returning to connect with your material is one of the major problems. Regular posting is a great approach to gain a devoted Instagram following and keep users entertained. This will demonstrate to your fans that you are dedicated and devoted to both your brand and them. Nothing is more appealing than a person who is genuinely committed in their work and passionate about it. Nothing is less motivating than an account that only makes an effort to publish new content once every two months.
The habit of connecting with your content on a regular basis will be developed by your followers as a result of your frequent posting. Which is even more significant. This will enable you to establish a dependable rapport with them and ultimately increase their level of participation.
Using a social media calendar is a terrific way to accomplish this if posting on Instagram regularly is a priority for you (which it should be), as it will help you to plan and schedule ahead. If you’re not sure how to make a social media schedule, read Influencer Media Hub’s essay on the subject.
Use hashtags
Hashtags are what Instagram is made of. It serves as the platform’s main technique of content sorting and filtering. Instagram’s users can use up to 30 hashtags each post, as opposed to Twitter users who often only use one or two. However, if you use too many unrelated hashtags, the system can assume that you are spamming your followers, which could result in an Instagram shadowban. To increase visibility, you can utilize location-based hashtags, hashtags that link to a topic page in your bio, Instagram Stories, or user-generated content campaigns. On Instagram, hashtags are frequently more detailed than on Twitter. Location hashtags and other content hashtags are very helpful for boosting interaction.
These hashtags may not be trendy or especially well-liked, but they are often used, which improves the search engine optimization (SEO) of your articles because people will use them to search for particular topics.
Use the proper hashtag analytics to monitor whether you are selecting the most effective hashtags to raise your engagement rate.
Stick with one filter
Because Instagram is largely a visual platform, its most popular feature is the selection of filters that, when used consistently, give your photos and videos a unique appearance. A WebDam research claims that 60 percent of the top-performing Instagram brands consistently employ the same filter. In order for your followers to recognize and react to your material, try out a few filters and then settle on one that provides your content a distinct appearance and feel. According to research conducted by the graphic design firm Canva, Clarendon is the most popular Instagram filter both domestically and internationally. According to additional research, viewer attraction and, more importantly, engagement, depend on brightness.
Post Instagram Stories regularly
Instagram Stories, as we all know, only last for 24 hours (although you can save them to your profile for those who missed it), but if you use them like a pro, you can get a lot more use out of them. Your profile picture receives a red circle around it each time you add a new Story, alerting your followers that there is fresh content. By updating every day, you give your audience a regular reminder of your new content, keeping the content interesting for them. By teaching your fans to check back frequently to see if you’ve uploaded a new Story, you may raise engagement.
Using the section labeled “Stories Highlights” at the top of your profile page, you can categorize and share stories once more. This is a fantastic method to highlight themed stories you’ve written in the past. Users can more easily find content that interests them when it is categorized by themes.
As with regular Instagram posts, don’t forget to utilize hashtags in your Stories. As long as they are pertinent to the content you are posting, you are allowed to use larger and more well-known hashtags with Stories.
Get feedback with polls, questions and stickers
Utilizing polls is a fantastic approach to obtain input from your fans. You can inquire about their preferred brands, what they like best about the articles you provide, and what they would like to see more of. You can then tailor your subsequent posts for the most engagement using this feedback.
The “Ask Me Anything” question encourages participation. This gives your followers the chance to inquire about your company, your private life (if you choose to disclose it), or practical facts that you are knowledgeable about.
You can poll your audience using the Swipe Meter to find out what they think. Use it to learn how much your target market enjoys a particular brand, exercise, look, etc.
Be careful of follower fatigue
Have you ever read the news and felt that every story presents the world’s largest issue? It’s a good thing to have a strong sense of brand loyalty. But being overly enthusiastic can wear down your supporters. Don’t yell at your viewers or make every caption urgent by shouting at them. Over time, this will just teach your followers that nothing you post needs to be urgent. Have the exact opposite of what you want as a result. If you are a social media influencer, you are in the information industry since you are providing your followers with useful information on specific goods, companies, trends, or other things that will aid in their decision-making. You want your followers to believe that you are engaged in matters that could benefit them or enrich their life.
Think of a time when you considered unfollowing someone or unsubscribing to an email. Muting a profile in your feed if you are unsure whether you are triggering follower fatigue. How come you did it? Trust your instincts. This will assist you in determining the appropriate frequency and tone for engaging with your followers so that they continue to pay attention.
Mention others
Mention any brands or people you use in your post. Even better if they can share your post in their own Instagram Story because it’s in a story. This not only boosts engagement, but also broadens your audience because it makes your material visible to others who follow the person or brand you’ve tagged.
Explore Instagram’s video features
According to media agency Zenith, consumers will view 84 minutes of internet video each day by 2020, up from 67 minutes in 2018. That is a significant amount of time spent watching video, therefore you are missing out if you are not making use of this tool. The effectiveness and appeal of online video content cannot be contested. Instagram is aware of this and provides influencers and advertisers with a variety of video options that may fit different video lengths and formats.
The live video feature on Instagram Stories may be particularly helpful for major announcements regarding brand-new goods or services. Or, for more carefully selected, planned information, you can utilize a taped advertisement. Instagram Stories allows users to create standalone 60-second films or ads that combine videos and still images. Long-form features work well with Instagram TV, the newest feature.
With more time spent on your profile thanks to video content, your followers are more engaged. If you want to lengthen engagement, it’s a necessity.
Be authentic
Nothing beats being genuine, regardless of how witty, humorous, or artistic you try to be. It is evident when you truly live out your Instagram brand. Your pictures, captions, videos, and tales all reflect this. You want to share authentic content with your followers that demonstrates the worth of your company.
This calls for occasionally displaying to them the failures or the less-than-ideal photos taken behind the scenes. Additionally, it entails engaging in dialogue with your followers in the comments and expressing gratitude for their support. And enticing them to discover other products, even if it means praising the competition.
Repost the photos in which your fans have tagged you. Consider the success of Kayla Itsines’ Bikini Body Program, an Australian fitness icon. On her Instagram feed, she frequently celebrates and inspires the accomplishments of her clientele.
Your most valuable asset as an influencer is having original. Credible material because this is what brands and companies are looking for when they use social media influencers in their marketing strategies. This content helps you build trust with your followers.
