How to Increase Instagram Engagement

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Instagram is where it's at when you're growing your business' reach on a global scale. Keeping user engagement high is key to building a cult following. We’ll show you how it’s done!

With 1.628 billion Instagram users worldwide, it's only second to Facebook when it comes to popularity. It's a great place for solopreneurs, aspiring influencers, and business owners who want to market products and services. That's because most IG users look for product reviews, new brands, and product reviews on the platform.

If you’ve been on Instagram for quite some time now and you’re still struggling to increase user engagement, this guide is for you! How do you boost Instagram engagement, connect with users, and build your very own IG community? Try these tips:

10 Ways to Increase Instagram Engagement in 2021

Check the Best Time to Post

Did you know that more people are active on Instagram on certain days and even at certain times of the day? Instagram is a global platform, and users live in different time zones. If you’re not posting at the best times, your IG content might not get as much attention. 

If you’re using a scheduler app like Later.com, for instance, you can check the analytics to determine the best times to post on IG. You can also check Instagram’s algorithms to see which times get a lot of engagement. 

Tell Your “Stories”

Love sharing your “stories” on IG? Don’t forget to add a couple of stickers! Stories is an Instagram feature that lets users share their everyday moments. It’s one of the most popular features on Instagram, so it’s worth leveraging for marketing. 

When it comes to stories to feature, don’t overthink it. Posting a funny or inspiring picture or video here and there, quick product demos, asking a question, or featuring an inspirational quote is enough to attract attention and establish a deeper, more personal connection with your followers. For example, if you sell makeup, try giving your followers a quick demo of your eyeshadow palette or a sneak peek of next season’s products or new launches.

IMPORTANT: Always add a link to your stories to turn your IG traffic into website traffic and, hopefully, score a sale!

Curate Your Feed

Feed aesthetic is everything on Instagram. It is, after all, a visually-driven platform. No, you’re not shooting for perfection, but you want your feed to look attractive, authentic, expressive, and diverse. 

You have to be mindful of the kind of content you’re putting out there because your profile is about your business first and foremost. So no embarrassing pictures of your epic drunken misadventures back in college or popping a pimple unless this content is in line with your brand. 

Keep the visuals consistent by sticking to a set of standard editing styles. A good tip would be to brighten the images without deepening the colors too much. Keep the images candid and avoid overly saturated colors. Choose earthy tones and keep the editing low-key. The photos should look natural, never overly staged. The final result should always be aesthetically pleasing and consistent with your branding. 

Generate Saves

IG features let users save content, which you can use to enhance brand recognition and build a strong online presence. Each time you get a save from users, your brand will enjoy long-term relevance and a potential point of recognition with your brand. So focus on posting content that tends to get many saves from users – guides, tutorials, demos, product infos, etc. You can also share content related to trendy topics like mental health, beauty, self-care, memes, and humorous content.

Whatever type of content you choose, be sure to optimise the captions with hashtags and keywords for better SEO.

Display a Branded Hashtag

A branded hashtag is a customised hashtag that you’ll use for any IG marketing strategy. The hashtag should be displayed on your bio for maximum exposure. Use it on your captions to drive traffic to your profile, attract the right people, and build a community around your brand. By using a branded hashtag, you can organise your content so people can easily find your profile on IG.

Use User-Generated Content

If you want followers to be a part of your brand, you have to showcase their stories too! Using user-generated content is powerful because it makes your followers feel like they are a critical part of your brand community… and they are! This type of content also makes your brand relatable to others, so it’ll be easier to connect with other people and build a trusted brand. 

To acquire user-generated content, use your hashtag and search for followers using your products or posting a related image or video. Ask permission to feature their posts on your IG account and start an ad campaign. For example, if you’re selling a face brush, create a customised hashtag for it, get people to post photos of themselves using it with content or a giveaway, and present the winner. 

Team Up with Micro-Influencers

To make your brand relatable and authentic, reach out to micro-influencers for a collab. Insta-famous influencers with millions of followers are known for constantly pushing different products on their platforms, and they’re super expensive. Also, there’s no saying if a team up with Insta-famous personalities would benefit your business. 

Micro-influencers are influencers with a smaller following. They are independent and not tied to any brand, but their recos have weight. You’ll have success with micro-influencers because they’re more eager to work with different brands, they’re affordable, and often, their insights are more authentic compared to over-exposed insta-famous personalities. It’s no surprise that micro-influencers have the highest engagement rates on Instagram, even higher than mega-popular influencers.

Tie Up Your IG with Oher Social Accounts

To generate higher traffic and better user engagement on IG, you have to spread the word about your Instagram channel to the farthest reaches of the internet! That means featuring your IG on your Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Tumblr, TikTok, and other social media accounts.

Cross-promoting your IG content lets you attract followers from different platforms, particularly those who are already on IG but had no idea that you’re on IG too.

You can use IG’s cross-promotional tools, and auto-post features to spread the word about your Instagram profile but be sure to cross-promote selected posts only. This way, you’ll avoid cannibalising your content. If all of your IG posts show up on Facebook, some followers might not feel the need to follow you on IG. 

Always Use CTAs!

Always end every caption with a call to action. CTAs are powerful and persuasive; they’re vital to giving followers the extra push they need to take the desired action. You can add CTAs on your bio, your images, caption copy, video copy, etc. The delivery should be eye-catching and punchy.

Track Your Best-Performing Content

You won’t know if your marketing efforts are paying off if you’re not tracking the metrics. IG has its own analytics, so it’s easy to see which of your posts got the most attention from followers. Study your best-performing posts, see what’s the one thing that all of these posts have in common, and use it to fine-tune your IG marketing strategy. 

You can check the hashtags to see which ones resonate well with your target audience, what visual styles are popular with your followers, or what times of the day to push new posts. 

Increasing your Instagram engagement will take a lot of experimenting, so go ahead and try different strategies, and see what works! Whatever strategies you try, be sure to optimise your content all the time to boost your searchability. The quicker people find your business profile on IG, the higher the chances of better engagement!

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