There was a time when Instagram was all about pretty pictures. Now, with more than one billion users, it has become one of the top social media marketing platforms. So many brands are now using Instagram marketing to boost their business.
What is Instagram marketing?
Instagram marketing is when brands use Instagram to promote their products or services and build brand awareness. They also use this platform to make a deeper connection with their target audience.
On the other hand, influencers benefit from Instagram marketing to advertise different products and services to gain money.
Whether you’re a brand, marketer, or influencer, you sure have thought about finding new ways to take your Instagram marketing to the next level and increase Instagram engagement.
What is Instagram engagement?
Instagram users have found that the key to having a strong and successful account is not just having a large group of audience, but it takes a high Instagram engagement rate, which means having a connection with followers. To increase Instagram engagement, you need a community of people who are loyal to you and care about your content. So, it would be best if you had likes, comments, shares, and saves coming from real people.
How to measure Instagram engagement?
To increase Instagram engagement, you should first know your account’s engagement rate at the moment.
Keep reading to learn how to calculate Instagram engagement.
You can do so in many ways, such as impressions, post views, reach, or followers. We will discuss the two most used ways here.
Engagement rate based on followers
If you choose to calculate your engagement rate based on followers, you should take the number of actions on one of your posts, divide it by your account’s total number of followers, and multiply the answer by 100.
For example, if you have 10k followers and one of your posts receives 500 likes, 100 comments, 70 shares, and 30 saves, your engagement rate would be 7%.
Keep in mind that in this way, you cannot take into account how many of your followers actually saw the post.
To do that, you can try another metric of calculating the engagement rate.
Engagement rate based on impressions
For calculating your engagement rate based on impressions, replace your account’s number of followers in the formula mentioned above with the total number of impressions.
It’s a great way to evaluate the effectiveness of your content. In this way, you can see how many of those who saw your post interacted with it.
What is a good engagement rate on Instagram?
As we mentioned earlier, in order to increase Instagram engagement, you should first know your account’s engagement rate. After calculating your current engagement rate, you should determine whether it is good or bad. Look at the following statistic to find out.
To sum up, if your engagement rate is between 1% to 3%, it’s generally good. It’s almost the average rate of an influencer’s account. The more your engagement rate is, the more your audience is engaged with your account.
Why does engagement matter?
Engagement is a critical factor in Instagram’s algorithm. Your high engagement rate will help your content be shown in the newsfeed and reach more people.
Knowing your Instagram engagement rate and constantly measuring it will also help you boost Instagram engagement in so many ways:
- It shows you if your marketing strategies are useful.
- It shows you whether your followers like your content.
- It helps you to build a deeper connection with your followers.
How to Increase Instagram engagement?
Here, we provide you with 18 tactics you can take to increase Instagram engagement.
1. Get to know your audience:
Engagement is all about activating the audience. To get likes, comments, shares, or other actions, you should create content that your customers want to see, not something that you want them to see. So, get to know what your target audience likes to give them exactly what they want and create great content.
2. Post when your audience is most engaged
Getting the right time is an integral part of sharing content. Instagram’s algorithm responds positively to posts that get quick engagement in their first hours. If people engage early with your content, there’s a better chance for your post to appear in more people’s feeds, which brings more and more engagement.
To find out the best time to post for your account, go to your Instagram account’s insight and see the days and times of day your posts are performing best.
3. Tag influencers
Mentioning or tagging others and especially famous ones can bring new followers into your community. There is always a chance that they share your post in their own Story. This way, you increase both Instagram engagement and your account’s reach at once.
Look at the following post sharing a photo while tagging some famous brands.
But how to find who to tag? As the number of influencers is increasing rapidly, finding influencers with a high engagement rate can be difficult. But don’t worry. Ainfluencer will help you.
Ainfluencer
Ainfluencer is an influencer marketplace that makes finding influencers so easy. It is a free and user-friendly platform that lets you search influencers through filters such as gender, location, hashtags, number of followers, etc.
Check out the YouTube video below to see how you can use Ainfluencer to create a free marketplace campaign and attract thousands of influencers to your brand.
4. Use custom stickers and filters
Use Instagram’s custom stickers and filters in your posts and Stories.
Stickers such as questions, quizzes, polls, etc., encourage your followers to interact with your content.
Here is an example of a challenging question box. She first used the poll sticker in her Story and then shared it in a post for more interactions.
There are many other stickers to use. Don’t miss them.
5. Use strong captions
Convey a strong message through your caption. Try to showcase your personality and story within the caption of your posts.
Make your followers pause, think, and even share your post so that you can increase Instagram engagement.
Look at the following post, Nike trying to engage people’s emotions by its strong caption.
6. Be authentic
Try to be honest and authentic to gain credibility.
Be your authentic self and appear like an actual human being with emotions so that your audience can have a deeper connection with you and your content.
Take a look at this photo:
7. Post consistently
Another practical way to increase engagement is having a consistent schedule for posting. Brands usually post once a day to keep their feed fresh. The more you post, the more chance your followers have to engage.
Unlike Twitter, Instagram does not have a scheduler on its own. So, to remain consistent, you need an Instagram scheduler.
AiSchedul
AiSchedul is a perfect platform with various features such as Instagram scheduler, hashtag research, Instagram content calendar, etc. You can schedule your Instagram Feed, Story, or IGTV with Aischedule.
It has a free plan for small businesses but to manage multiple Instagram accounts, you need to subscribe.
Sign up for free, connect your account to it, and get real results.
8. Share Stories daily
Instagram Story is a form of sharing content that lasts for 24 hours. However, you can save them in your profile’s Highlight part and even categorize them.
By sharing Stories, a red circle appears around your profile photo in your followers’ feed, announcing to them that there is new content. Sharing Stories is a perfect way to increase Instagram engagement because when you post Stories every day, you constantly remind your followers to check your profile.
You can use so many filters and stickers such as location, quiz, countdown, etc., in your stories.
9. Share carousel posts
Instagram allows you to share your content in many formats.
One of these formats is a Carousel post. Studies show that carousels are the most engaging format of all post types.
Instagram Carousel post allows you to have multiple images or videos in a single post or Story. In each Carousel post, you are able to share up to ten photos or videos.
So, if you haven’t tried Carousel posts yet, give it a try now and see how it will increase the Instagram engagement rate of your account.
10. Share Instagram Reels
Another format of sharing content on Instagram is Reels.
It’s almost the same as TikTok videos. With Reels, you can create and edit your short videos with audio, filters, and effects. You can share 15 to 60 seconds videos.
Instagram’s new features usually get a boost in the algorithm and help you increase Instagram engagement.
11. Go live
If you’re looking for Instagram engagement tips, you should consider having regular live stream sessions as one of the best ways to engage on Instagram.
It can be a great way to launch new products or share news and events happening at the moment. You can also answer your followers’ questions live, connect with them, and generally build engagement. Most Instagram users prefer watching a live video rather than reading a blog.
You can also save your Live video as a post in your profile.
12. Collaborate with others
Using Instagram collabs means that you can co-author content with another Instagram user, and the post will appear on both of your profiles.
As you can share views, likes, and comments in this way, using Reels can be a great way to increase ig engagement.
13. Do a giveaway
Giveaway posts get you high ig engagement rates. You can run a contest and encourage followers to win your product or service by following your account, liking your posts, or tagging their friends.
Everyone loves free stuff. Make people excited to participate and get your giveaway product or service to increase your Instagram account’s interaction and brand awareness at once.
Here is an example:
However, running a contest and choosing a winner can be hard and time-consuming. You can choose a service such as the automated giveaway picker, to save time and easily run contests whenever you want.
14. Create topical content
One of Instagram’s best practices to boost Instagram engagement is asking questions. People love to be heard, so encourage them to comment on your posts and break the ice with your audience by posing a question.
Look at the following post and its caption on Kyliecosmetics.
15. Respond to questions, comments, and DMs
To boost Instagram engagement, you need to show your followers that you care about them by responding to their comments and DMs.
After posing a question in the caption of your posts or using question stickers in your Story, consider answering them to make your followers feel heard and willing to connect with you again in the future.
Look how thoughtfully Popcornshed responded to its followers’ comments.
16. Create savable content
To increase Instagram engagement, offer value to your account and create something your audience wants to have in their collection. People usually save quotes, moving sentences, short tips or tricks, etc.
Don’t forget to ask your followers to save your post for later. It really matters.
Look how she asks you to do so in the following post:
17. Use relevant hashtags
Hashtags are great for ig engagement and gaining higher visibility. Using related hashtags to your brand or community helps both you and Instagram sort and filter content. You can use up to 30 hashtags per post, but be careful! Overusing or misusing hashtags may cause your account to get shadow-banned by Instagram.
Take a look at the related hashtags used in the following post:
18. Use CTAs
Looking for Instagram’s best practices to boost engagement? Try asking your followers!
With CTA or the call to action button, you give your audience the ability to access your landing page, which can be your website, your product page, etc. CTAs are easily noticeable and result in higher ig engagement.
CTAs appear below your post in different ways, such as “Learn More” and “Buy now.”
You can also ask your audience to click the link in your Instagram bio.
Conclusion
These rules and best practices can help you increase Instagram engagement. Do not forget to track any changes you apply to ensure which one is the best for your brand.
Make sure to use different platforms such as Ainfluencer, and let it make the process easy for you.
There are different formats for posting on Instagram, such as Feed, Story, Reels, IGTV, and Carousel posts. Studies show that carousels are the most engaging format of all post types.
Increase Instagram engagement by using the following tips:
1. Get to know your audience
2. Post when your audience is most engaged
3. Tag influencers
4. Use custom stickers and filters
5. Use strong captions
6. Be authentic
7. Post consistently
8. Share Stories daily
9. Share carousel posts
10. Share Instagram Reels
11. Go live
12. Collaborate with others
13. Do a Giveaway
14. Create topical content
15. Respond to questions, comments, and DMs
16. Create savable content
17. Use relevant hashtags
18. Include CTAs in your captions and stories.
