How to Increase Engagement on Instagram [2019 Updated]
Instagram has become huge on social media.
Indeed, this visual social media platform now has more than one billion monthly active users!
It is clear that Instagram offers a staggeringly large audience to bring your photos to the attention. This is a great blessing for every individual or company that is trying to grow its brand.
However, that does not make it easy to make contact with them!
As everyone who is new to the platform knows, Insta-fame is not that simple! Unfortunately, you cannot just transfer some photos and expect traction immediately. Likes follow comments and tags take work to achieve.
Unfortunately, it is only the involvement that stimulates the success of Instagram. You can have thousands of followers. But if they don’t participate, what’s the point?!
It is a high involvement that leads to victories. Do you want to improve in this vital Insta area?
Keep reading to discover nine tips on how you can increase engagement on Instagram.
1. Post great content
Everyone knows it. Content is king.
The benefits of Instagram all start with posting great photos. After all, it is a visual platform. People want to view interesting, engaging images. Make sure you give priority to quality images.
However, it’s not just about the photos. No, the quality must extend to the overall aesthetic.
Strive for a coherent, stylish, beautiful general profile. Every photo must be of the brand. Don’t play too much with different styles, subjects, colors, and so on. This creates an incoherent and unpleasant atmosphere.
People must end up on your profile and be impressed by the appearance.
It is of course not as easy as posting great, brand-related photos. If so, there would be many more profiles on Instagram with insane levels of involvement.
High-quality images and profiles are everywhere. But they don’t all get the same interest.
See top content as the foundation of Insta’s success. From there, the following tips can help you build on this strong foundation.
2. Involve others
Sometimes you have to take the first step.
It is the same in real life. What happens if you go to a party with people you don’t know? They are busy with their own conversations with their friends. They are unlikely to hit an eyelid at the new guy in the corner.
Take this tack on Instagram too – especially if you are new to the platform. It is very unlikely that you will ever get another if you do not the first talk to others.
Start liking, following and commenting on people in a similar niche. Look for the profiles that get and reach masses of engagement. You never know what could happen if you attract their attention. Try to send direct messages with thoughtful, friendly comments and questions.
Do this over time and people will, of course, get in touch with you. Indeed, many users automatically answer a like or a follow!
Follow 10 people and you can almost guarantee that at least one will follow you back.
3. Talk to your followers
Imagine that you started building up followers.
It is worth noting that followers do not always arouse involvement. But it’s a big help.
A useful way to get their attention is to get in touch with them first. Go to their profiles and like some of their photos and / or leave a nice comment. Send messages directly to them to let them know how much you enjoy their content. And so on.
Remember that your followers want to hear from you sooner. After all, they have chosen to follow your profile!
Reaching for them serves to further develop the relationship. The more they care about you, the more they are likely to appeal. The more they engage, the more they will see your images. A snowball effect is taking place!
4. Find more followers
Again, followers do not necessarily arouse involvement.
In fact, someone can buy 100,000 or even a million followers. It may seem impressive to an outsider. But more often than notice, these ‘followers’ are just bots and empty profiles. In reality, there is little added value.
That said, true followers certainly help in the pursuit of engagement.
However, it is a bit of a catch-22.
To get involvement, you need followers; to get followers, it helps to get involved.
Fortunately, there are ways to increase the number of followers organically.
Start by spreading the word. You must let everyone know that you are on Instagram. You want to shout from the rooftops of the web that you have a profile full of epic content that is visible to everyone.
Must read: how can you reach Instagram customer service? – [Updated!]
Talk about it on your blog. Advertise it on your social media platforms. Email your current subscribers. Use any distribution channel that you currently have to inform others about your Insta account.
Involvement tends to grow with the following.
5. Use hashtags
Maybe you’ve been on Instagram for a while.
If so, then you have almost certainly heard people talking about hashtags. Everyone uses them to a certain extent.
And that’s not for nothing! They are crucial for generating impressions and engagement. Hashtags need a place that is central to any Instagram strategy. Its use offers new visibility of your feed in line with what users are looking for on the platform.
Even one hashtag used in a description ensures more involvement with your message.
Use hashtags wisely. Don’t just fill your descriptions. Instead, find a selection that is relevant to your content
6. Use video content
We have already mentioned the importance of great content.
However, not all content is the same.
Video is now more popular than almost any other form of media online. People just love to consume video content. For example, people watch 1 billion hours of it every day on YouTube. That is crazy!
Now that Instagram has opened the door to video, you can jump on the bandwagon. People don’t like it for anything. Good videos are emotional and tell a story. It is natural that people want to share it.
They show their friends and family, share it with their audience or comment on their reactions.
Make sure you encourage engagement by including video in your Instagram strategy.
7. Including subtitles
Here is a related point: make sure you have added subtitles to videos that you post.
There are several reasons why this is useful.
First, the content becomes available for people with hearing problems. That immediately opens the door to a whole new potential audience.
Secondly, it is known that subtitles extend the playback time. Facebook itself reports that the display times increase by an average of 12% when subtitles are recorded.
Finally, many videos are automatically played without sound. Adding subtitles means that users can still view it at times when sound is inappropriate (such as in libraries or at work).
It is clear that in order to communicate with your content, people must first view it! Recording subtitles is a simple way to facilitate that process.
8. Place at the right time
Posting your photos at the right time is another important means to increase engagement.
Your audience must see your newest photo to participate. And to see it, they must be active the moment you post!
For example, it makes no sense to post when everyone is asleep. There is nobody except you to view the content. Instead, calculate the times of the day and the days of the week when your target audience is online.
People argue about what really constitutes the “best time”. You will come across a wide range of answers. Some experimentation is needed to get it right. It also pays to take note of all the analyzes that you can get.
These will tell you exactly when your audience is most active.
9. Start a competition
Competitions are popular methods to attract social media engagement and awareness.
Why don’t you set it up yourself?
Compile a prize (try collaborating with other Instagrammers for a larger collective prize and better access to a new audience) and publish it on your profile. There is nothing like the chance to win a prize to encourage engagement!
The competition itself can be anything. You could literally ask people to participate in your profile to participate. Ask them to follow you, comment on three photos and like five more photos, and so on!
Hashtags are a handy tool to track entries and participants. Set a specific unique hashtag that anyone can use.
How to increase engagement on Instagram
There you have it. These tips are exactly how you can increase engagement on Instagram.
Instagram is a giant in the world of social media. With a billion active users, the opportunity for companies and individuals to reach a new audience is huge.
However, the key to success is involvement. Without likes, comments and followers, your profile will never get the exposure you want.
Fortunately, there are relatively simple ways to organically stimulate engagement. Hopefully, this post has highlighted the best ways to do exactly that!
Looking for help to Increase Engagement on Instagram? Contact us today to see how we can help you.