Engaging with your Instagram audience is crucial for promoting your profile and developing your business. The foremost question that strikes our mind is: how to get more interactions on Instagram? Instagram’s engagement is represented by likes, comments, saves, and video views. There are several formulas for the Instagram engagement calculator.
What Is Instagram Engagement?
One of the most popular Instagram engagement formulas is the percentage ratio of subscribers to the number of their interactions and activities. With the growth of an Instagram account, this percentage drops significantly. After you get 100-200 thousands subscribers, a 10% engagement rate will be almost impossible. Once you reach a million followers, your Instagram engagement will be no more than 3%. The average Instagram engagement rate in 2021 is 4.8%.
There is no unanimous opinion on what Instagram engagement rate is considered to be good. It can vary significantly depending on the niche, product, and followers. You should never compare and calculate the Instagram engagement rate of accounts focused on different target audiences.
Do not forget to measure Instagram engagement with Instagram engagement checkers to see what is working for your audience and what is not. Tools like Sprout Social or Iconosquare are trendy Instagram engagement trackers that will help you monitor the statistics and see which aspect of your blog you will need to improve.
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Increasing Instagram Engagement
Creating an Instagram account is only a small part of the hard work of promoting your brand on a social network. To boost Instagram engagement, you need to work on content, communicate with subscribers, and attract a new audience organically.
However, not many know how to increase Instagram engagement properly. Buying fake followers and comments is the worst way to improve Instagram engagement. Read on to see what you can do to skyrocket your Instagram engagement rates.
Publish High-Quality Instagram Content
Do not post boring, low-quality photos trying to increase Instagram engagement. People want to see aesthetic pictures. It, however, does not mean that you should create a fake image of your life chasing after engagement. Post genuine pictures but make sure that they are of high-quality and unique. Do not copy other people. One thing is to get inspiration from someone else, but it is entirely pointless to clone their profile.
Also, you should not forget about the text below your picture if you want to improve Instagram engagement. Make sure it is appealing and error-free. Add emojis, share your emotions, and mood.
Remove Bots From Your Instagram Account
It is better to have 1,000 live subscribers than 10,000 bots that will rank your posts lower in the feed and show to fewer people, therefore, killing your Instagram engagement. Remove followers with more than 1,000 subscriptions (they probably will not see your photos unless they are on Instagram 24/7), online stores, and profiles with only a few photos and those are added in one day. Work on Instagram profiles are also Instagram engagement killers.
Respond to Comments on Your Posts and Comment on Other People’s Posts
When you reply to comments on your photos, you at least pay attention to the commentator and, at the most, lead a discussion in the comments, thereby attracting people to express their point of view. Comments are a great way to improve Instagram engagement percentage.
And when you comment on the posts of other people expressing your point of view, and not just writing “Nice!”, you draw attention to your page, find like-minded people, and encourage people to express their opinions. And this all transforms into subscriptions, better coverage, and Instagram engagement.
Instagram Stories
Record conversational stories. This way, you will be closer to your subscribers, who will boost your Instagram engagement. Share some interesting information so that people want to write something to you in Direct, record provocative videos, and you are guaranteed to get a bunch of replies in messages and a better Instagram engagement. Try to stay genuine and do not chase one-day hype. Stay as honest as possible, and your audience will be loyal to you and your brand, promoting your engagement rate on Instagram.
Instagram Stories Stickers
Not all people like to write lengthy comments with advice, but clicking “yes” or “no” is not difficult and is perfect for engagement. Replies to stickers in Stories also increase Instagram engagement, so do not miss this opportunity.
Communicate With Your Instagram Audience
Communication on social networks is crucial for skyrocketing Instagram engagement. Subscribers love to see real people behind the company’s face who are ready to answer comments and questions. Do not ignore questions in the Direct Messages and comments under your posts. The more likes and comments you have, the greater the posts’ coverage and Instagram engagement are.
Share Your Emotions
Continuing the idea that live communication is always pleasant and exciting, do not hesitate to share the opinion of your subscribers in Stories and posts. You can share stories of your subscribers, add gifs, text, answers to questions, and words of gratitude to them for better engagement. And subscribers, in their turn, will be pleased to participate in the life of their favorite brand, therefore, increasing your Instagram engagement.
Find the Best Time to Post on Instagram
Using simple engagement tests, making posts at different times, figure out when the audience is most active. It’s better than asking others as each account’s audience is unique and active at different times. After testing, you can create an individual posting schedule, covering more people and increasing your Instagram engagement. Many open-source applications are helpful for this. For example, you can use Preview to check engagement and find out when your audience is most active.
Let the Audience Know You Have a New Post
Over 450 million users watch Instagram stories every day. Many people start updating their newsfeed with stories. If you have a new post, be sure to tell about it in your story for a better engagement.
- Duplicate your post in the story using the share button. This way, subscribers will immediately see the update and go to your newsfeed.
- Take a screenshot of your new post feed and add it to your story. Do not forget to add GIFs and emojis, which will make the story look more attractive and brighter and your engagement level higher.
Allow Your Audience to Participate in Content Creation
User-generated content shows 5% more Instagram engagement than other posts and stories. Communicate in the comments, and ask to share interesting stories. Don’t forget to ask to tag your account, and track hashtags and mentions. Add photos of your customers with the product to your profile, and share reviews and other content to show that real people use your product or service. User-generated content is a very effective tool for boosting engagement on Instagram.
Mention Location
Posts that contain a location tag get 79% more Instagram engagement than accounts that don’t. You will see the difference if you check Instagram engagement on posts with and without them.
Try to include your location in all your posts, stories, hashtags. As far as hashtags are concerned, we advise you to study the popular tags for your area, for example, in the local accounts of the region or in the accounts of popular places in your location, to facilitate better engagement.
Link to Your Instagram on Your Website
If you have a website, it is a good opportunity to link to your profile to attract new people and increase Instagram engagement. You can link to your Instagram account in your other social media accounts as well. This is effective even for those visitors who do not know about your business or have not yet decided to buy your product. When they see an attractive profile with high-quality pictures and engaging texts, they will subscribe and probably make a purchase that will result in a higher engagement.
You can even embed Instagram feeds on your website to engage your visitors with the brand and business-centric content. This can be a major deciding factor for users who visit your website even out of curiosity. In case of eCommerce businesses, website owners can collect user-generated Instagram content and leverage them by showcasing it to eCommerce store and give audience what they were looking for, which is user’s experience.
Have Instagram Live Streams
Live communication is essential to a loyal audience and is good for your Instagram engagement. The Instagram live broadcast is a reliable assistant in this. Make a list of questions and a draft plan for the broadcast. During the live, answer questions from your audience. Your best bet would be to appoint a responsible person to help you quickly respond to viewers’ comments. Live streams are extremely popular when it comes to skyrocketing engagement.
Instagram Collaborations
Instagram has a very diverse audience. Therefore, finding an influencer in your industry and increasing your Instagram engagement will not be difficult. Come up with an activity that will help you exchange followers and diversify your content. This will benefit both your account’s engagement and the account you want to collaborate with. Try mutual likes, subscriptions, comments, and hashtags. You can also try to have live with someone else and get more followers if they find your account interesting.
Use New Instagram Features
Instagram pleases its users with a variety of effects, masks, and features. Use them to increase your Instagram engagement. Invite your audience to take a survey, vote, or ask any question right from the story.
Try applying new effects to your stories, or apply a mask. Another good solution would be to create your mask, which will be linked to your account. The more people use it, the more engagement you get.
Instagram Hashtags
Hashtags are a great way to find pictures on Instagram quickly and to boost your engagement. However, if you use high-frequency hashtags (which were mentioned more than 1,000, 10-100 thousand times), then the chances of getting to the top are almost zero. But if you use low-frequency hashtags (mentioned less than a thousand times) or create your hashtag, it will be an excellent way to increase your Instagram engagement.
Try not to use spammy hashtags or too popular ones. Such publications run the risk of getting banned, or Instagram will define your profile as scam. And finally, constantly update the number and name of hashtags to remain relevant. Do not write hashtags in the post itself. Write hashtags in the first comment in order not to spoil the aesthetics of the profile and not to distract the reader’s attention.
Try Instagram Videos
Video posts are extremely popular in 2021 and are crucial for Instagram engagement. If you want to increase Instagram engagement, you should come up with interesting and funny ideas for your blog. Many people use Instagram as an entertainment platform and look for content to help them relax after a tiring working day. It does not mean that your posts should not have some thought-provoking texts. Try to mix the type of your content to increase video views on Instagram and monitor Instagram engagement to see what is better for your audience.
Encourage Your Instagram Audience
Organize giveaways and give gifts to your audience to encourage them to like and save your posts that will result in a much higher engagement. It is a great way to promote your products and attract new followers to your profile, and, of course, boost your Instagram engagement. Try to arrange such giveaways as often as possible to keep your audience interested and excited.
You can also have like-time that helps to increase the activity under the posts. These are short interactives with surprises for likes and comments. Since you get many likes right after the post was published, it boosts your rankings in the newsfeed, and thus, skyrockets your Instagram engagement. Instagram engagement groups work, and the algorithms consider this post to be successful, so it becomes widespread, brings additional coverage, and hits the “Recommended” section in the top publications.
Opt for Target Ads
Official promotion of publications in the newsfeed, configured through advertising account on Facebook or on Instagram itself (it is available only to those who have a business profile connected), will help your subscribers see the post. This Instagram engagement tool will also have a good effect on the growth of the interested audience as they will see the promoted publication, even if they are not subscribed to your account.
Final Thoughts on Instagram Engagement
To come up with the ideal way to increase Instagram engagement, you need to try different ways. Every blog’s experience is different, and you cannot determine what will work for you if you have not tried it. You must always stay honest and genuine for your audience to keep the Instagram engagement level high. Do not pretend to be someone else and follow the latest Instagram engagement rate trends to stay up-to-date. Do not chase after an enormous number of followers as quality means a lot more than quantity.
Explore Instagram, follow the latest news, effects, masks, and hashtags. An Instagram blog and engagement are long-term projects. Devote your time to it every day to build a brand, and your loyal audience will support you and your business, and your profile’s engagement will always be good. What steps have you taken to develop your blog and bring Instagram engagement to a new level? Share in the comments.