Instagram is one of the most widely used social media platforms globally. With over 400 million users, it’s no wonder that there are so many Instagram posts with engagement rates hovering around 1%. Consumers love to share their stories on this platform, and brands have beneficiaries. But what can you do if your feed has a low level of engagement? We took a look at 13 tips for increasing your post’s rate of likes and shares while driving more traffic to your website or blog as well!
Social media marketing has become a must for brand survival in today’s world. However, establishing profiles on these networks and hoping for the best is not practical. You must participate on social media. While you may already be aware of the value of social media sites like Facebook, now is the time to concentrate on other platforms, particularly Instagram. Instagram was one of the top social media trends of 2018, and I wrote about its features and advantages. Instagram has a user base of over a billion people. Five hundred million of those people utilize the site daily. The only places with more active users are Facebook and YouTube. Instagram users are primarily in their twenties and thirties. In the United States, about 60% of Instagram users are under 30. You should know this if you’re using generational marketing to segment your target audience. How can you make the most of Instagram to advertise your business?
Your material may be excellent, but you won’t get any results if no one sees it. That’s why you should pay attention to engagement metrics:
- likes
- comments
- views
- interactions
- clicks
To assess the performance of your Instagram marketing strategies, you must track all of these factors. Then, if you need assistance, I can point you on the correct route.
13 techniques to boost your Instagram engagement rates:
1. Make use of hashtags.
Do you recall when the tic-tac-toe board was referred to as a pound sign? That emblem, however, has been eternally altered by social media. A hashtag is now more often referred to as the sign (#) at the bottom right-hand side of your telephone keypad. Hashtags are an essential part of your Instagram strategy as a social media marketer. According to research, the majority of prominent businesses’ social media postings only employ a few hashtags:
If the big names are employing them, your company should as well. In addition, 70% of Instagram hashtags are branded. As a result, posts with only one hashtag garner 12.6 percent more attention than those without. When choosing hashtags, keep in mind that you want to appeal to as many people as possible. Overly broad hashtags, on the other hand, will not stand out.
On the other hand, if your hashtag is distinctive, no one will look for it. So for your hashtag, you’ll need to find a happy medium. Research reveals that a post with nine hashtags has the highest interaction rate, even if the best businesses don’t use many hashtags.
It’s also worth noting that hashtags with 21 characters or less get the most interaction. Second, on the list were 24-character hashtags. You don’t have to limit yourself to a certain quantity of hashtags or characters. Just don’t go too far, or you’ll come out as spammy.
2. Use all of your distribution channels to promote your Instagram posts.
Increase your social following to get more effective and more valuable engagement rates. You may turn your Instagram followers into consumers if your social media marketing plan is successful. This must be your ultimate objective.
It would be best if you advertised your Instagram profile through all of your distribution channels to get more followers:
- In your marketing communications, provide the following link.
- For your website, provide details about your Instagram posts
- please write a blog post about it
- Use your other social network accounts to promote material you’ve shared on Instagram, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
As a consequence, your Instagram feed will get more visitors. More individuals will follow your page as a result of the increased traffic. Even if individuals don’t immediately follow you, they are exposed to your brand. Your work may now display on their page, and they may interact with your future updates.
3. Hold a competition.
Another excellent strategy to get your business noticed is to hold a contest. In addition to raising brand recognition, Instagram competitions have been shown to enhance engagement rates significantly.
It’s because competitions inspire people to create their material. Furthermore, the idea that the winner will get a prize encourages others to join. In the end, it’s a successful plan. The most successful competitions include hashtags, as I already said. For each contest, you conduct, create a unique hashtag. It will enable you to keep track of all contributions from all participants.
Furthermore, you will be able to determine the winner more quickly. Also, other people will notice your brand and its popularity thanks to this one-of-a-kind hashtag. Contest participants’ posts may be seen by Instagram users who have never heard of your company. Consequently, these individuals could be persuaded to subscribe to your page. They’ll be more inclined to interact with your material after they start following you.
4. Incorporate emoticons within your captions.
Emojis. These cute animations aren’t only for personal messages anymore. Brands are beginning to employ them to increase engagement. Emojis are used in 56 percent of Instagram accounts. Emoji used on Instagram has increased by 19% in the past year. Emojis improve engagement by 2.07% when used in a post. This is reasonable. Emojis in captions give your postings a more personal touch. Users will feel that they are reading posts from a friend rather than from a large organization. When your followers see posts featuring emojis, they will feel more at ease, which will inspire them to interact with your content. Aside from that, you’ll need to learn how to create engaging Instagram captions. Request that your followers use their favorite emoji or an emoji that best represents their response to your material as a comment on your postings. I believe that emoji use patterns will continue to rise shortly.
5. Distribute videos.
While Instagram began as a tool for sharing images, the social media platform has evolved to meet the needs of its users. When Instagram initially launched its video function in 2013, it imposed a 15-second restriction on recordings. However, a few years later, that amount had risen to 60 seconds. Consequently, in the first six months after the modification, the number of time consumers spent viewing videos grew by 40%. Consumers have made it clear that they want to see more video content. How will videos, on the other hand, affect your engagement rates? Let’s have a look at some examples:
As you can see, Instagram videos often get more than twice as many comments as images. While photographs receive more likes than videos, even if people don’t like them, your Instagram videos will still get a lot of views. So start publishing other videos and mix up your material. I’m not suggesting you should avoid taking images entirely but attempt to strike a balance between the two.
6. Don’t be monotonous.
As I just said, you need to switch up your Instagram content approach. Posting identical photographs from various perspectives while slightly modifying the wording will tire your audience. Nobody wants to follow such accounts, and they will probably ignore your messages. Create amusing material. People are more inclined to tag their friends in the comments if you make them chuckle. This will aid in the improvement of your engagement metrics. You may even upload edgy, provocative, or even sexual material if it fits with your company image—anything that will raise some eyebrows and attract consumers’ attention. Inform your friends about the bizarre news. Provoke people. Post photographs and videos that are startling or frightening. Avoid doing anything that might jeopardize your brand’s image. However, be sure you’re not uploading the same item many times. That isn’t very interesting and won’t get people interested.
7. Learn when the best times are to publish.
Ensure your audience sees your material if you want high interaction on your postings. That’s why you should figure out when the optimal times are to publish. In addition to the most OK days of the week, I’m referring to the time of day. There are many different answers to this question, depending on who you ask. I prefer the following CoSchedule results:
According to their study, the best days of the week to publish are Mondays and Thursdays, while your stats on weekdays will be pretty comparable. Sundays have the lowest level of engagement. This is most likely because people are out and about on weekends. They won’t be as active on social media if they’re busy. Your target audience will also influence the times you publish. Let’s imagine your company is trying to reach out to people in the United States. It’s worth remembering that the Eastern and Central Time Zones are home to 80 percent of the US population. These are the kinds of considerations you should make before posting anything.
8. Develop ties with those who have social clout.
You may use your ties with social influencers to expose your profile to a larger audience in addition to promoting your Instagram material on your distribution channels. These individuals may spread the word about your company, goods, and profile to their social media followers. Because social influencers have high levels of interaction with their audiences, the same outcomes will be seen on your page. Because people trust social influencers, this is the case. If they recommend your brand, you will get more people to see your page grow. They’ll interact with your material now that they’ve arrived on your website. You may use this method in conjunction with one of the other suggestions I’ve made, such as competitions. Allow a social influencer to give away one of your items through an Instagram promotion. Account takeovers may also be done through influencers, but we’ll go over that method in more depth later.
9. Display photos of people’s faces.
You’re well aware that you must publish material frequently. But what kinds of images should you share? I strongly advise you to use photographs with people in them. This is because photos with faces acquire 38% more likes than those without faces. Take a look at how Nike used this approach to their Instagram account:
As you can see, there are faces in eight of the nine posts in a row. Don’t get me wrong: this isn’t the only kind of stuff you should be putting out there. When in doubt, though, post a photo of someone’s face.
10. Make sure your videos include subtitles.
We’ve previously proven that sharing video content on Instagram is essential for increasing engagement. However, I have a solution to improve your video approach even further. Subtitles should be added. Viewing times are increased by 12% when video subtitles are used. It’s worth mentioning that 85 percent of videos on Facebook are viewed without sound. We may confidently infer that since Facebook owns Instagram, such figures also apply to Instagram.
11. Add your location to the list.
You shared a photo of someone’s face with a hashtag in the text. Isn’t it time to post? Not so fast, my friend. You should identify the locations of your images before posting them. According to research, postings containing location tags had a 79 percent greater engagement rate. Even if you aren’t physically present, you may add a location tag. For example, you may still include Miami in the title if your office is in San Francisco, but you’re attempting to advertise something in Miami. Just make sure your shot doesn’t have the Golden Gate Bridge in the backdrop. Otherwise, viewers will know you’re not in Miami. Take a look at this Lululemon example.
On July 28, 2018, this photograph was posted. The Hermosa Beach Open, an AVP beach volleyball competition, takes place on the same day. Is it true that this picture was shot on this day, in this location? Maybe. However, this isn’t always the case. In any case, it’s advertising beach volleyball equipment at that area during a beach volleyball event. As a result, the location is appropriate for the post.
12. Make an announcement in your article about a new post.
It would be best to learn how to utilize Instagram stories to market your company. Announce on your account whenever you make a new post on your profile. Your engagement metrics will be doubled as a result of this. First, you’ll gain a perspective on your narrative and an impression of it. Then, users will be encouraged to see the new content as a result. After that, you may use the various tactics I’ve described thus far to urge people to like and comment on the article.
13. Takeovers with leverage.
This is related to the topic of social influencers. An influencer may enable you to take over their account for a limited time. You may add stuff to their tale or even do a live video broadcast. On the other hand, you may hand over control of your account to an influencer. Take a look at this Shopify example:
Amber Mac not only took over the Shopify account, but she also pushed it on her social media platforms. As a result, her fans now have a reason to check out her Shopify page to see what she’s up to. During that period, the engagement numbers will improve. Additionally, if those individuals like the material you publish as a guest of another account, they may decide to follow your page, increasing your chances of future interactions with those users.
Conclusion
Your Instagram account serves as a powerful marketing tool. However, you will only be successful if you understand how to utilize this tool correctly. Finally, your content must encourage people to interact with it. Getting people to like, comment, see, share, and click on your posts can enhance brand awareness and lead generation. As a consequence, your company will make more money. Refer to this guide if you’re unsatisfied with your current engagement rates or believe there’s an opportunity for improvement. To increase your Instagram engagement rates, use the strategies outlined in this article.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you increase your engagement on Instagram 2021?
A: The best way to increase your engagement on Instagram is by posting high-quality photos and videos. Try focusing more of the content you post on visuals, and fewer text posts will result in much better engagement than those with a heavy amount of words.
How do you increase engagement on Instagram?
A: To increase engagement on Instagram, you should use hashtags and post at the correct times. You can also try adding some emojis to your posts and testing out different captions for each one to see what is most effective for increasing your audience size without alienating them with spammy messages.
Is a 5% engagement rate on Instagram good?
A: A 5% engagement rate on Instagram is considered a reasonable amount.
Related Tags
- Instagram engagement rate calculator
- how to increase engagement on Instagram 2020
- how to increase Instagram followers
- how to increase engagement on Instagram stories
- Instagram engagement down 2021