Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms. With over a billion people tapping in every day to check their news feed, it’s the place to be if you want to get something known. Using Instagram to your advantage can be a powerful tool, and it’s more than just a platform for posting cute selfies. You can take your business or your social media presence from 0 to 100 very quickly. It’s best to make friends with the media king and work towards cultivating your name or your brand. It’s essential to have an audience and use it to its fullest potential and competition. Now just having an audience won’t do the trick. You’ll need the full package, such as comments, shares, and likes, entirely summing up to make engagement. Engagement is most necessary to make sure your account grows. This proves that your content resonates with your following audience.

Medium
Image source: Medium

Most importantly, it can’t be faked. Many try to buy likes and social media activities for publicity, but it does no real good because it’s worth nothing if the audience isn’t genuine. If it isn’t real people approving of your content, it doesn’t count if, in reality, it’s people who don’t care. This is why we won’t be telling you to do anything of that sort, and you won’t be getting into an engagement group or buying any activity. Truth be told, there isn’t a shortcut for social media success ( aside from pure luck). You get how much effort and creativity you put into your content. When the craft is genuine and attractive, you’re much more likely to attract a real following, which will increase your engagement.

Interaction

What is Instagram engagement?

Instagram engagement relies on all of the ways you can interact with your audience. It’s more than just the simple number of likes or followers. It is about taking the measurement of your interaction with your followers and what they make of your content.

On Instagram, engagement is based off on all their ways of interaction:

Comments

Shares

Likes

Saves

Followers and growth

Mentions (tagged or untagged)

Branded hashtags

Click-throughs

DMs

These are the bane of your social media presence and evidence that people don’t just see your content. They’re engaging with it, too, and spreading it further.

Sprout Social
Image source: Sprout Social

Why should we care about engagement?

It’s the answer to your social media dilemma, and a good engagement means that your content is making an impact. It also means that the more the engagement, the more likely the chances sir your content being boosted in the news feed.

How do you measure engagement?

It all comes down to you and your goals or limitations for your brand. You’ll be needing metrics for the task. To measure engagement, you can optimize Instagram’s insights tool or analytics, any other tools for the job as you’ll have to collect your accounts data.

Get your stats in front and use one of the Instagram engagement calculators crunches to determine the engagement rate.

What is considered a successful Instagram engagement rate?

Socialbakers
Image source: Socialbakers

Although Instagram itself has not commented on a reasonable engagement rate, social media and its experts suggest it falls around 1 to 5%. The engagement rate is the truth-teller of what percentage of your following saw your post and engaged with it. However, this matter and its good are subjective.

Now that you know your way around the social media buzz, why don’t we teach you how to build an Instagram audience the authentic way.

Here are some juicy tips and tricks on how to increase Instagram engagement:

Write compelling captions:

A Better Lemonade Stand
Image source: A Better Lemonade Stand

A great caption is a perfect way to capture the audience’s attention. Make sure it fits the picture you’ve paired it with. Whether it’s a one-liner or you’ve utilized all the 2,200 characters in length or the limit of 30 hashtags. Figures.

Compelling captions tell a story, add humor and give context to what we’re looking at, and puts you or your brand’s personality out there.

What can really be intriguing for you and your followers is to ask them to share their stories in your post’s comments. This is a great activity and will post your engagement, and you’ll also get to hear many exciting stories. Do let us know how it goes!

Create “savable” content :

Create the type of post you feel that your audience will want to tap the save button. The best way to increase your engagement and it’s more important than ever.

Utilize The Question Sticker

Social media is no stranger to sparking conversation, and what better way to do that than a question sticker on your Instagram stories. It’s an easy and intriguing way to get people to know you or your business more. You could let you or your brand shine and let your audience get to know you better.

Pay Attention to Your Hashtag selection:

Hashtags are it these days, and they’re quite important when it comes to having an engagement strategy on Instagram. It’s essential to make sure you’re using the correct hashtags and if they’re having the right impact on your content. Choosing the hashtags that are more people towards your post is just as crucial for increasing your Instagram engagement.

Go live:

We all love a good lifestyle. It is a very engaging way to connect with your followers, drop exciting news, do a little Q and A. It should do the trick as statically 80% of the people would much rather watch a Livestream then read a post. So give the phone what they want.

Make sure to have activities planned out for your live stream so you can answer or play games with your audience.

Pngtree
Image source: Pngtree

Post consistently and strategically:

It’s important to post when the traffic is thick, and most of your audience is online. It’s also equally important to post as frequently as possible, making sure you catch everyone’s eye. This creates more opportunities and increases follower engagement. Find a pattern or schedule you prefer that seems to define your content and commit to the craft. Posting frequently will make sure all your followers see your content.

Stay with the times:

These days you skip out a day or two, and you might just miss an iconic moment. It’s essential to stay up to date on what’s buzzing in the socials. Make sure to comment and connect with the audience on the town’s talk, the current event, or holiday. It’s essential to be a part of the conversation. For example, when Queen Bey drops an album, everything else immediately becomes irrelevant. You get the gist of it.

Slide into their DMs:

Direct messages, personal shoutouts, and story replies can be just the motivation your brand needs. For a passionate follower, it can be the best thing and creates an engaged audience. It’s very connective and expands your name, so be sure to reach out and be kind to those who reach out to you and reply to the DMS.

Be a part of the conversation:

It’s always good to be a part of a fun conversation and great to prompt one too. Social media works just like a conversation at a party. You have to reach out and ask others to join in on the fun. Do out yourself out there and start the conversation. In your story sticker, comments, DMs, or so on. Make sure to let your personality shine and be charismatic.

Respond to questions and comments:

Respond to as many comments as you can. It’s only polite!. Make sure to let your audience know how active you are and available. Acknowledging your followers and keeping the conversation flowing will do wonders for your engagement, and it’s also quite exciting for you and your commentators. This will leave a good impression of you, which is excellent for your brand.