With over a billion people using Instagram every month, it has become a powerful platform for any business to build a brand and create an audience online. However, it also means that it has become difficult to capture your target audience’s attention and engage with your community. So how can you easily improve your Instagram engagement rate?
Such a powerful tool has a high potential for good ROI, but for that, you need more than just an audience, you need engagement and proof that your content is resonating with the people who are seeing it.
Before we begin, what exactly is engagement?
Engagement is more than likes and followers, it is the interactions your target audience makes with your content.
It is often measured by metrics such as Comments, Shares, Likes, Saves, Followers, Mentions, Branded Hashtags, DMs, and Click-throughs. Through these metrics, you’ll get a clearer idea if your audience is just seeing your content or if it is actually making an impact on them.
Ready to see your metrics skyrocket? Here are 7 tested easy hacks to improve your Instagram engagement.
#1: Get to know your audience
It might sound obvious, but you must know who you’re making content for. Not only is it important to know the demographics of your target audience, but you also have to know what time of the day your followers are most active to post at peak times of the day.
You should also keep in mind where your audience is located to ensure you are posting during their local hours to maximize engagement. The more people who see your posts, the more engagements you will receive and if your audience is asleep, it might be a bit of a struggle!
#2: Be authentic!
Instagram users want to feel seen and heard, so relatability is a must! It’s better to be honest, funny, and relatable, rather than perfectly polished.
Memes are the way to everyone’s heart and they’re the perfect excuse for your audience to share your posts with friends, on their stories, like, and comment. Again, the more people who share your post, the more engagement you’ll see.
The Instagram page @apracticalwedding for example shares memes on their page from time to time, and they are usually the posts with the most comments.
If you do not feel comfortable yet with posting memes, behind-the-scenes footage or a funny caption can go a long way!
#3: Post carousels
Instagram carousels allow you to share up to 10 pictures, videos, graphics with your target audience in one post. They usually get 3.1x more engagement, on average, than a regular post and they usually have the highest engagement rate of all types of Instagram posts (1.01%).
You can use carousels to share information, tips, before and after photos, photo dumps, quotes… Let your creativity roam free because when you think about it, it’s a 10 for 1 deal!
Try to share as much information in these posts to encourage your audience to save the post for later, boosting your engagement rate this way. Instagram users also love to share aesthetically pleasing quotes or re-purposed tweets on their stories. Carousels are the perfect way to provide some and let them choose their favorite.
#4: Write strong captions with a call to action
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but a thousand words are also worth a thousand words. An engaging caption will keep your target audience on your post for longer and will likely encourage them to like, comment, share, and save.
Remember to also include a call to action, especially a direct question to increase the chances of your audience responding in the comments. It must be a genuine and relevant question.
The @Nike account for example is good at creating a meaningful storytelling caption that also opens the discussion for their audience in the comments or pushes them to re-share the story on their stories.
#5: Mix up your content and leverage your stories
Posting the same kind of content will get a little repetitive after a while. Try to mix it up with contests, polls, questions and directly encourage your target audience to get involved. A great way to do this is through stories.
Instagram stories stickers are a great way to encourage your followers to engage with you, which will then ultimately create a loyal audience that feels connected to your brand. The question stickers, polls, countdowns, etc. are amazing tools to boost your engagement rate to a whole new level.
#6: Community management
At social events you don’t just stand there and wait for someone to come speak to you, it is a two-way conversation. It is the same for Instagram.
Community management boosts your engagement rate and when your target audience sees that you go out of your way to interact with them by answering DMs and comments, they will likely engage more with your posts in the future.
It is also important to engage with your followers in the first hour after posting as it’ll determine the rate at which your post will be shown to other followers.
To boost it even more, you should ideally like, comment, and start a conversation on similar creators’ posts.
Another great way is to repost your audience’s content when they tag you in stories or posts. It will establish a trustworthy relationship with your followers.
#7: Leverage hashtags
Using Instagram hashtags can be a bit of a tricky tactic. Used correctly, it can bring you a lot of new attention and traffic. If you use too many, you can come off looking desperate.
Make sure your hashtags are relevant to niche communities that identify in your content. They are an amazing tool to expand your reach and increase your engagement rate.
Ideally, you should check what hashtag is trending and which ones your target audience follows, and remember to use calendar-specific hashtags such as #WorldWaterDay or #InternationWomensDay.
All in all, increasing your engagement rate will not happen overnight. It takes time, consistency, and dedication. Don’t be afraid to experiment with new things, see what works and what doesn’t and one last reminder, don’t forget to track your performance through time!
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Sources:
Worb, Jessica (2021 December 01). “11 Ways to Increase Instagram Engagement in 2022”, Later Blog, Retrieved from: https://later.com/blog/how-to-increase-instagram-engagement/
Newberry, Christina, Sehl, Katie (2021, April 08). “How to Use Instagram for Business: A Practical Step-by-Step Guide”, Hootsuite, Retrieved from: https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-to-use-instagram-for-business/
Vamp-brands (N.D), “10 powerful ways to increase your Instagram engagement rate”, Retrieved from: https://vamp-brands.com/blog/2021/05/05/10-powerful-ways-to-increase-your-instagram-engagement-rate/
How to Create Aesthetic Instagram Highlight Covers That Win Followers, Retrieved from: https://mobilemonkey.com/blog/aesthetic-instagram-highlight-covers
74 Responses
Amazing! Excellent tips! I will definitely take these into consideration!
I’m happy to hear that Tristan! Thank you 🙂
Woww Never realized how crazy the algorithms are really sensitive in today’s word.
Definitely gonna try some of these tips on my next instagram post. You can follow me on:
Jo_fx33
Nice article!
They really are! Don’t hesitate to let me know if they work 🙂 I’ll go ahead and give you a follow!
Fantastic article! I can finally start building my own community on the gram!
Cheers,
Jojo
Hi Jojo, thank you for the feedback! You can do it!! But remember to stay consistent 🙂
Great article ! Very useful tips to build a strong account.
Thank you for the feedback Lara! Much appreciated
Great article, good content, well written and easily understandable.
Thank you for your feedback and kind words Augustin 🙂
Very interesting, I will definitely use a tip or two… great article!
Great article! I will definitely use these tips.
Thank you! Let me know how it goes 🙂
Waw!! I loved this article! I personally am trying to grow my social medias and needed to read this! Super interesting and well written!
Hi Lycia! I love to hear that and happy to know it helped! Wishing you the best of luck on your social media journey
Genius! Amazing tips! I will definitely take them into consideration for my next post ☺️
Great article, super informative ! As an account manager at my job I will definitely be sending this to my coworkers. Great section about the memes it’s often overlooked!
You’re right, memes are often overlooked but they shouldn’t be taken for granted as they can go such a long way! Thank you for your feedback 🙂
Amazing article, very informative. As an account manager I often overlook memes. Will definitely be sending this to my coworkers for our next brainstorming !
Beautiful insightful and interestingly useful article!
Thank you for the kind words Salah!
Best tips I’ve seen so far! Good for practice but also good for my master’s paper thanks😊
Hi Carlos, happy to help and best of luck on your master’s paper!
Very well written! Clear and great advices. Good solid article.
Thank you so much Mathieu 🙂
Great article! Those tips are really useful to improve my instagram engagement. Definitely, I’m going to take them into account for my next posts!
Thanks Valeria! Really happy you found it insightful
All I can say is WOW! It is not often that I read an article that really changes my view of how I can really upgrade my IG game. I love it ! I definitely plan to implement all this tips into my daily instagram use. Cheers to everyones engagements that increase due to this article.
As you say, cheers! Don’t hesitate to contact me if you want to discuss further 🙂
I’m definitely trying this! Thank you so much for the tips
Hi Caro, I’m glad to hear that!
Thank you for those hacks ! would definitely try them😊 Very nice article 👍🏼
Thank you for the comment Noha! Happy to help
Great hacks, will try them out 🤩
Happy to hear! I hope everything goes well 😇
Very nice,easy and focused.
Like providing examples in the article.
I am happy you enjoyed! Thank you for the feedback
Great tips!
Thank you! Hope it helps
Very Insightful! I never really understood the power of hashtags and how it should be used for the brand’s benefits . This tip was what I needed
Keep sending such articles . I also admire how it is simply written for old school Marketing Consultants who are considered to be new to SM tends . Good work !
Thank you so much for the kind words and feedback Ghada! Never underestimate hashtags, they can bring so much attention to your page 🙂 Thanks again
This is just amazing. Algorythms can do wonders. I will definetly try them.
They really can! Let me know how it goes
Great tips, very professional presentation.
Thank you for your comment Reem! 😊
Very good tips! Thx..Will start to apply and update you!
That is lovely to hear! Please do let me know 🙂
Very interesting article! I love the hacks you gave and will try them out !
I’m happy you found it insightful and helpful! Amazing to know you want to try them out 🙂 Let me know how it goes
Very useful tips! Congratulations for such a good article !!
Thank you so much Irene, very heartwarming
Great article with valuable tips! Thank you for sharing👍
So happy to hear it was helpful! Thank you
Very much to the point and very well structured…
Learned from it…
Really glad to know it was helpful in any way! Thank you for your feedback
Great blog, thanks for sharing!
Thank you!
Great article with well structured and useful tips.
Great article
Thank you Sally!
Great article ! Very useful tips to build a strong account.
Thank you for the feedback!
Great article
Thank you for the kind words 🙂
Quiet useful tips, thank you
Happy you found them useful! Thank you
Great article with well structured and useful tips.
Thanks a lot for the feedback!
Very nice article, simple, clear and informative.
I am happy you found it insightful, thank you for the feedback!
Very interesting, I will definitely use a tip or two… great article!
I hope it works out for you!
Great article! Excellent tips !
Thank you!