5 Effective Ways To Increase Your Instagram Engagement And Followers

With roughly one billion active monthly users, Instagram is one of the most important social media platforms your business can use to grow your audience and build your brand.

Implementing an Instagram marketing strategy will bolster your social media presence and help you connect with your target audience. 

However, this is sometimes easier said than done. Some businesses pour a lot of money into failing Instagram marketing strategies with minimal results.

Simply posting on Instagram once in a blue moon is not enough. That’s why to reap its benefits, you have to make sure you have a strong Instagram marketing strategy.

One way to see whether or not your Instagram marketing strategy is effective is to track your engagement. There are a few different metrics you can use to see how your target audience interacts (or engages) with your content.

The most common are the following:

• Views
• Mentions
• Saves
• Comments
• Likes
• Shares
• Direct messages

These engagement metrics are important for a few key reasons:

1. Engagement provides data you can use to plan and adjust your social media strategy.
2. It shows you how your audience connects with your content.
3. Engagement is a key factor in Instagram’s algorithm.

If your Instagram posts and videos are getting high levels of engagement, your content will be prioritized with Instagram’s algorithm. Then doing so will help you expand your reach. You will also know that you are providing content that is relevant and attractive to your audience.

On the other hand, if your engagement is low, you risk losing followers and alienating your audience.

Fortunately, there are steps you can take to boost your Instagram engagement if it is not quite where you want it to be.

Here are five effective ways to improve your engagement and grow your following on Instagram:

1. Post interactive content

Posting pictures of your brand’s products day in and day out is boring. Your followers will simply glance at your photos and keep scrolling until they find something interesting.

If you want customers to engage with your content, post content that encourages viewers to interact with your posts.

For instance, instead of just posting a photo of fireworks on Independence Day, you could include a caption that asks your followers to comment with their favorite Fourth of July memory. Instead of just posting a picture of two different outfits available at your store, create a poll where customers can vote on which look is their favorite. Instead of posting a photo and hoping that your followers will use the hashtag in your caption, create a contest that encourages them to use this hashtag.

When customers see this type of interactive content, they are far more likely to engage with these posts.

2. Provide relevant content

While the products and services your brand provides are useful, bombarding your audience with marketing posts won’t keep them engaged. Consumers don’t use Instagram because they are looking for more ads in their life. They use Instagram to see posts that are fun, engaging, relevant, and valuable.

Find out what interests your target audience and adjust your posts accordingly.

Do your followers appreciate a little humor? Incorporate a joke or a bit of sass into your posts.

Are you trying to reach people who are family-oriented? Try using hashtags and posting content that appeals to families.

Solicit feedback from your audience and find out what they like so that you can make posts that will resonate with them.

When you know your audience and what they want to see, you can create content that they are sure to love, save, and share.

3. Connect with your audience

Engagement can be a two-way street. You can’t expect your audience to comment on your posts if you never comment back!

Take the time to respond to comments, answer questions, and provide customer service on your Instagram page.

If someone posts that they love shopping on your website or they love one of your posts, a comment like “We appreciate the love!” or “Thanks! We love making you happy!” can brighten their day and make them more likely to comment again in the future.

If someone posts a question about your business, responding right away will help them think favorably about your brand. In fact, 83% of consumers expect brands to respond to social media comments within a day. This also shows others that they are free to comment with their own questions.

4. Post at the right time

If you’re posting on Instagram whenever you feel like it, you may be hurting your engagement levels.

It won’t help for you to post when there is a lower chance of followers seeing your posts or when your target audience typically isn’t on Instagram.

While you can always use analytics and track your engagement to see what times have been the most effective for your brand, as a rule of thumb, these are the best times to post content on Instagram in 2021:

• Tuesday between 11 a.m.–2 p.m.
• Monday through Friday at 11 a.m.

The worst time to post content is on Sundays at any time.

Keeping track of when you should post and what type of content you should share can get complicated. Create a social media calendar to make sure you are posting at the right times and maximizing your engagement.

5. Vary your content

Your followers wouldn’t want to eat at the same restaurant every day. They wouldn’t want to wear the same outfit every day. Why would they want to see the same type of content every day?

Switch up your posts to make things interesting and keep your audience on their toes. If your brand only posts photos, eventually your followers will either get bored and unfollow your brand or scroll past your Instagram posts without giving them a second thought. Who can blame them?

Try mixing up your content so that you are switching between traditional photo posts, polls, video content, and live content. This way, your target audience won’t get tired of your content. They may even start to look forward to looking at what your brand posts each day.

Ready to step up your Instagram game? Providing a variety of high-quality content is crucial for any brand looking to step up its social media marketing strategy. If you’re having trouble coming up with great content for Instagram, Repurpose House can help!

You can repurpose your long-form content into engaging IGTV and IG feed posts so that you never run out of content.

Learn more on how to implement an Instagram marketing strategy that will increase your engagement and help you gain more followers when you visit our website.