Instagram is a highly competitive space. One might think that followers play a significant role in your success, but even with an impressive number of followers on Instagram, you might not be getting the best return on investment. If your engagement rate is low, you’re missing an ingredient to your social success.
Your engagement rate will determine whether you’ve converted followers into fans, buyers, or advocates for your brand. (After all, the Instagram algorithm prioritizes engagement levels when deciding which posts to showcase on the “Explore” feed.) So, if you feel that you’ve been producing high-quality content and you’re not seeing results, the following tips and trends could help you to boost your reach.
Good to know: these are organic tactics, so you don’t need a budget to get started.
- Interact with Your Audience
If you want your customers to engage with your content and your brand, you need to be willing to make the first move. In other words, start the conversation and motivate your customers to interact with you. Consider infusing your captions with questions that push people to respond.
You can even create entire posts around questions, as @GlossyBoxUK does here:
Additionally, when followers leave comments on your posts, try responding to them. Like your users’ comments, respond to them when they send you direct messages, and keep the conversation going.
- Take Advantage of Instagram Stories
Over 70% of Instagram users say they watch Stories on a daily basis. In fact, Instagram Stories are one of the most popular forms of content on the platform, alongside Reels, and it’s a great way to connect with your followers. Now, with all the added stickers and features, you can ask customers questions, encourage them to interact with your brand, host polls, or even create mini quizzes. From a lead generation perspective, you can use Stories to drive people to a specific product or landing page.
Related: 8 Leading Instagram Trends For Ecommerce
- Create Short-Form Videos (Reels)
Short-form video is currently ranked as the most engaging type of content on social media, thanks to TikTok. It’s also easy to create—you don’t need a professional video studio to bring your Instagram post ideas to life. You can use Reels to share everything from user-generated content to reviews, how-to guides and tips and tricks. In addition, you can use reels to collaborate with influencers which can help you stand out on the Explore page.
Related Reading: Embed TikTok video on website
- Drive Website Visitors Back to Instagram
Many tips focus on driving customers to your store or website. However, you can also use strategies to push customers into Instagram. For example, turn website visitors into active social fans, and potentially long-term customers. By embedding an Instagram feed on a website, you can create your own aesthetically appealing feed, showcasing your latest content, Reels, and user-generated posts.
Related: How to Embed Instagram Reels on Website [Full Guide]
When you embed an IG feed on a website, you increase visibility on search. A social feed can boost SEO performance by keeping customers on your site for longer, increasing trust signals, and more.
Ultimately, you can hit the jackpot and drive conversions.
- Infuse your Captions with CTAs
Sometimes, customers need a little nudge—it’s not always clear what they should do next when interacting with a brand. Instead of flooding your captions with hashtags, include a CTA.
Ask your customers to do something valuable, whether it’s responding to a question, giving their opinion on a new product, or clicking on your “link in bio” to visit your store. It’s worth making sure you’re taking advantage of this single link Instagram offers too. A link-in-bio tool will take a single URL into a curated page where customers can browse through multiple products, services, or valuable information.
- Host Giveaways and Competitions
Everyone loves an opportunity to win something. Hosting a giveaway or competition is an excellent way to convince people to not only like and comment on your posts, but follow your accounts, tag their friends, and more. For instance, in this Giveaway, @Castleryus asks its followers to like, follow, answer a question, and tag 3 friends:
Take it a step further by partnering with influencers and other collaborative companies. You can work together with like-minded brands to offer bigger prizes or rewards to the winners of your competitions.
- Get Your Post Timing Right
Timing is more important to your Instagram engagement rate than most people realize.
The Instagram algorithm doesn’t just prioritize posts based on engagement and user preferences. It also tries to provide its audience with the most “up-to-date” content available. So, with this in mind, it’s worth figuring out when your customers are most likely to be online, so you can schedule and publish your content accordingly. There are plenty of studies out there that suggest different “ideal times” for posting on Instagram, but the best days and times will depend on your audience.
After you’ve been posting on Instagram for a while, use the Insights in your Instagram Business account to find out where your customers are located, and when they’re most likely to be online.
That way, you ensure you’re always posting at the ideal moment.
- Use the Right Hashtags
Finally, hashtags are one of the most important tools available on Instagram, but there are still plenty of companies who aren’t using these resources effectively. You can add up to 30 hashtags to every Instagram post, and according to some studies, the more you post, the better your reach will be.
Later found that posts with 30 hashtags achieved the highest Instagram engagement rate of all on average. To make the most of your hashtag strategy, make sure you’re experimenting with:
- Trending tags: the most popular tags your target audience or industry is using, such as #MAU, #TBT, or #InstaLove. This will help to expand your reach.
- Niche tags: focus on a specific audience with tags that are more relevant to your target audience, such as #Puglovers or #VeganFood.
- Geographical tags: think about where your main target audience is located. Geographical tags can help you find more local customers for your brand.
- Branded hashtags: branded hashtags can be an excellent way to cultivate user-generated content for your social media account, and get your brand name out there.
Monitor your Instagram Insights to find out which of your tags are driving the most engagement.
Start Increasing Your Instagram Engagement
Even with a well-thought-out social media marketing strategy, it’s sometimes difficult to earn and preserve a high Instagram engagement rate. With so many different accounts and brands competing on the platform, you need to take a proactive approach to stand out. The tips above should give you the tools you need to start improving your Instagram reach and forming connections with your followers.
To get started with one of these tips, try Juicer and embed your social media feed on any website.
