5 Steps to Quickly Increase Your Instagram Engagement

As one of the top social media names with a high engagement rate, Instagram is a powerful platform for building a brand and growing a converting audience.

The high level of user engagements recorded by the Gram doesn't automatically mean that every one of your posts will engage your audience.

Having many followers is vital in growing your brand presence, but it doesn't imply your page is engaging the right people. Your engagement rate reveals how your page influences your audience.

It can be determined by the number of likes, comments, shares, and other user actions associated with your post.

Like the cycle of life, the effort you put into something determines the result you see. The work you put into creating your content affects its engagement.

Let's look at steps to increase your Instagram engagement via your content:

1. Consistent posting

This will enrich your Instagram feed with fresh, relevant, and eye-catching content to attract first-time lookers and revisitors.

One way to be consistent is knowing the best time to post—the timeframe in which you get the most engagement on your post.

You can determine this manually by taking note of all your previous posting times and creating a spreadsheet to monitor the data.

An easier route is to use analytical tools (like Instagram Insights) to do the calculation.

Once you've determined your highest engagement time, make it a habit to post consistently during that period. Your followers will get used to it, eventually forming a habit of always watching out for your next post.

Your followers will only anticipate your posts when you have information that they need, so your content needs to be beneficial to them.

These posts should be captivating, so use the right images and videos. You should develop a consistent pattern for updating your visually compelling feeds.

For example, you can follow a model of having one factual quote post followed by two image posts (one with people figures and one of a product), and then a video post.

Your audience will soon recognize the pattern and know what to expect.

2. Instagram Stories and Reels

Consistent posts can become bothersome when a brand sends four different posts to your feed daily.

Stories are a channel to be consistent without being disturbing. There are many things you can do with the story feature to keep your viewers hooked.

Your story should have an element of fun; if it's boring, your viewers will lose interest before going through the entire thread.

You can include AR filters or add memes and GIFs to the story—also to your main feed, by the way—as a way to increase follower interactions.

You can also share user-generated content on your story, and make the audience feel valued so they engage even more with your posts.

Instagram stories can start conversations with your potential customers and clients.

For one, stickers enable you to engage your audience to chat and share their perception of subjects related to your brand.

• Question stickers are a great way of prompting your audience to ask any question.
• Quiz stickers are fantastic for getting your audience engaged with trivia relating to your brand.
• Countdown stickers are great for getting your audience to anticipate something.

Use fascinating visual content (like anime) as they tend to captivate people more. Instagram introduced Reels in 2020, and it has proven to be a beneficial feature for promoting short videos.

Reels are a way to experiment with small-sized visual posts, using unique video features to engage your audience.

3. Captions and hashtags

The time a viewer spends on your post influences your Instagram performance. If someone scrolls through your feed without taking time to digest the information, it translates to a poor bounce rate.

An effective way to boost engagement is to use captions. The text should be compelling, honest, and authentic. They shouldn’t look like a facade; instead, something your audience finds to be true.

You could tell a story with your caption or state unpopular facts. Get people fixated on your post with a captivating caption that’s neither too short nor too long.

Still, people might not take note if you don't have a compelling #tag. Hashtags help drive non-followers to your post.

Your tag selection should be specific so that when potential customers/clients search that subject, your page pops up.

An easy way to achieve specificity is by using long-tail #tags between your short-lived ones. Try different combos of general, industry, and branded tags.

4. Savable and shareable content

It brings us back to the subject of relevance. Your content should be relevant enough to make your viewers save and share them. Each post should be on a subject matter that will be useful to your audience—currently or in the future.

An effective way to achieve this is to create content around your audience's problems, proffering relevant solutions.

You can also create valuable content by posting on trending subjects and curating content from other creators and businesses, as long as they’re useful to your audience.

There are features and third-party apps available that enable the monitoring of shared content; you can monitor your engagement level and the relevance of your posts, as well.

5. Replying to questions and comments

Engagement is not a one-way situation. You can't continue to post without feedback and questions and expect a sustainable engagement rate.

Now, responding to questions and comments is effective in making conversations with your audience. They will feel valued and excited to engage with you more. You also get to rank your posts higher on your followers’ feeds.

When there’s a high engagement rate on your uploads, Instagram will recognize them as valuable and suggest them to people that fit your brand demographics.

Replying offers the benefit of making your audience understand your brand, products/services, and content at the same time, thereby exposing you to a wide range of targets. Your reply must be prompt to avoid having frustrated fans.

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Using these steps to improve your engagement rate, you'll get your audience interested in your future posts and gain new followers.

Remember to always stay relevant by posting relatable content and embracing every new feature Instagram has to offer.