How to Increase Engagement on Instagram Easily

High engagement from the audience can be an indication that the audience is not only looking at the content but also capturing the message you want to convey.

Therefore, building engagement from the audience is an important thing that needs to be considered in running Instagram marketing.

Unlike advertising, building interaction with the audience is not an instant thing. It takes some trial and error to find a good content formula to encourage interaction and create a connection with your audience.

This article will discuss some of the ways you can maximize engagement on Instagram. But before that, there are a few things you need to know about engagement.

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What's Included in Engagement on Instagram?

The Instagram algorithm is designed in such a way that users get interesting and relevant content. Therefore, the higher the engagement you get, the more likely your content will be in the top feed.

Some of the metrics that can be used to calculate engagement on Instagram are:

1. Comments
2. Shares
3. Likes
4. Saves
5. Followers Growth
6. Mentions (tagged or untagged)
7. Branded hashtags
8. Click-throughs
9. Direct Message

What is a Good Engagement Rate?

Engagement rate is a percentage that is measured by the number of interactions with followers on a piece of content. Several methods can be used to calculate engagement rates.

For example, by using impressions, posts, reach, or followers. It all comes back to the purpose and objectivity of your brand.

As a rule of thumb, a good engagement rate is around 1% to 5%. Of course, this number cannot be a benchmark for measuring the success of your account, because every industry has different standards.

Tips to increase Instagram engagement in 2022

Regardless of the target engagement rate you set, it never hurts to keep exploring new ways to increase engagement on Instagram.

1. Know your target audience

By knowing your target audience, it will be easier for you to determine what kind of content should be created so that the audience feels more relevant to your brand.

In addition, identifying the audience will make it easier for you to determine marketing strategies, brand voice, and content delivery that adjusts the active hours of followers.

2. Post at the best time

Sharing posts at times when your followers are most active can be an easy way to increase your engagement.

By sharing posts at that time, you can increase the potential for followers to see and interact with your content.

To be able to find out the best time to share posts, you can use the Instagram Insight feature which displays the active hours of your followers.

3. Make use of Instagram Stories stickers

Did you know that more than 500 million Instagram accounts use the Instagram Stories feature every day?

Instagram Stories stickers are a fairly effective way to invite your followers to interact with your account by sharing opinions or experiences.

Using the interactive sticker feature can also increase the closeness and connection between the audience and your brand. Some stickers that you can use to increase engagement include:

Question sticker

Using question stickers to ask for feedback or audience opinion on certain brands or products.

Quiz sticker

Display multiple-choice trivia quizzes to share certain information about your brand or product.

Countdown sticker

Displays a countdown to an upcoming event or promo.

4. Carousel content

According to Hootsuite, carousel content has the potential to get 3 times better engagement than regular posts.

With a carousel, you can load more information and be more interactive because people tend to prefer reading through visuals over long captions.

In addition, the Instagram algorithm is made to continuously display carousel content if the first slide has not succeeded in increasing impressions.

5. Video content

In fact, content that uses video gets 38% higher engagement than image content. The reason is that videos are more interesting both in terms of visuals and audio-visuals.

As with photo editing, you don't need to be a professional videographer, just use a simple video editing application with interactive features provided and you can upload it to your feed.

6. Share relevant data with the audience

Sharing personalized data with your audience can be an effective way to increase engagement.

The best example can be taken from Spotify's Wrapped campaign which displays personalized data regarding user behavior.

You can apply this technique by looking at your user or consumer data. For example, if you're an online retailer, you could share data about when your purchases are most common or the percentage of surveys against your new product preferences.

7. Write a longer caption

The time that the audience spends on a post is one of the factors considered in the Instagram ranking algorithm.

Therefore, one of the easiest tricks to make your audience spend longer on your posts is to write longer captions.

This is also supported by research from Fohr, which found that average caption lengths have doubled since 2016, and content with long captions gets more engagement.

8. Use a clear CTA (Call To Action)

Don't underestimate the use of CTAs in your posts. Simple sentences like “click our website for more information!” can have a bigger impact than we think.

If your CTA is unclear or even non-existent, the audience may ignore your post so that the consumer journey will not continue.

9. Reply to comments or DMs that come in

When followers have left comments, it means they have made an effort to engage with your content. Don't waste this opportunity by simply ignoring it.

By regularly replying to comments or DMs that come in, the audience will feel closer and your account looks friendly so that it can improve brand image.

10. Post content consistently

The more often you upload content, the greater the chance for followers to engage with your posts. Make a schedule so that you are always consistent in content creation, both in terms of material and time, so that the topics raised will always be up to date.

Also, pay attention to the active hours of your followers so that the strategies that have been set can run optimally.

Conclusion

The large population of brands that run marketing on Instagram does make the platform more competitive.

However, by applying some of the tips and methods above, you can still increase the engagement of your Instagram brand account and build a connection with the audience.