35 New Ways to Increase Instagram Engagement
Where did all the likes go?
Long time passing….
Where did all the comments go?
Long time ago…
Where did all the engagement go?
Gone forever, don’t you know.
When will they ever learn?
When will they evvvv—eerrrr learn?
(Please excuse the obscure Peter Paul & Mary reference. I’ll get to the real questions now.)
What is the average engagement rate on Instagram right now?
A lot less than it used to be.
Is there anything I can do about it?
Yes, read this article for 33 things you can do to improve your engagement right now.
Here are 35 ways to get more Instagram engagement in 2019:
1. It’s All About the Stories
Take a moment to look at this chart:
Instagram Stories are one of the best ways to keep your followers engaged. How do we know this? Well, because 500 million people use Instagram Stories daily. This is great news for businesses, especially since a third of the most viewed Stories are from business accounts.
They work so well because it gives followers the chance to feel more connected; it’s the closest you can get to a face-to-face chat in the digital age.
But to increase Instagram engagement through those Stories, you have to get strategic, and one of the best ways to do that is to turn your account into a hotbed of riveting resources.
To do that, simply pin your Instagram Stories to your page in a selection of relevant categories so people have a reason to keep coming back for more.
Then, every so often, share a call-to-action in your Insta captions to remind people to get over to your page for more juicy goodness.
2. Get on IGTV
IGTV views are through the roof. Since Instagram enabled IGTV previews to appear and be shared on users’ feeds and profiles, businesses have seen over a 300% increase in their IGTV views. Even some of our own accounts here at Jumper Media have seen crazy reach when they use it.
This makes sense, because after IGTV’s underwhelming launch, Instagram is doing it all it can to ensure IGTV’s success. That means that users who do utilize IGTV are rewarded by appearing more on followers’ feeds.
In turn, users are responding positively to IGTV, which explains the high increase in views.
When an IGTV preview appears on someone’s feed it looks like this:
3. Use Instagram’s Paid Services
Yes, we know you’re looking for free strategies, but just $5-$10 for 1 day and 1 post can go a long way…as long as you’re pairing this tactic with other Instagram engagement strategies.
Why does this work? Well, for starters, you paid for it. And Instagram likes it when users give them money, so they reward these accounts with more screen time (meaning you’ll show up in people’s feeds).
if you’re not familiar with how it works, all you have to do is visit Instagram’s Business page, go to “Advertising” and “Create Ad.” Instagram will then redirect you to Facebook’s Ads Manager. If you’ve already worked with the platform before, then you can also design your own paid ad from there by going to “Create Campaign.” It looks like this:
Using paid ads, you can create a Stories Ad, Photo Ad, Video Ad, Carousel Ad, or Collection Ad.
We recommend trying out a Stories Ad or video Ad because they tend to generate more engagement.
4. Use Your Insights
Insights are designed to help you make better moves. With your Instagram, see which posts are performing the best and post similar content. If you have a business account, it’s super easy. All you have to do is:
Go to your Instagram profile page.
Tap on the three horizontal lines at the top right corner of the screen.
Tap on “Insights”
Select “Posts”
Click on “Show all posted in the past 1 year sorted by engagement”
Play around with the different filters to analyze information that suits your needs
To really get the most out of your insights and compare your posts, make sure you’re creating a variety of content. That means photos, carousels, videos–but it also means featuring something different in each. try posting some how-to tutorials and then switch it up and post some photos of your brand in action. get creative and always keep your target audience in mind.
5. Get on the Explore Page for Ridiculous Engagement on your Next IG Post
So you’ve probably come across Instagram’s cheeky little “Explore” page, where you can browse through all the Insta posts that are rocking it. This particular feature was designed to give the little people more exposure, but that’s not the fun bit.
The fun bit is that everyone’s Explore page is different.
It’s a pretty amalgamation of posts you’ve liked and posts liked by people whose photos and videos you’ve liked.
Confused yet? Don’t be.
One of the best ways to get onto the Explore page is to get your posts liked by a big account because then Instagram will show it to all the people who follow that big account.
To do that, it’s all about getting your hashtag game on point.
We like to use something called the 10/10/10 hashtag rule to give your post the chance to do the rounds in all sorts of circles. This means tagging it with 10 mega hashtags with over 2 million posts, 10 medium-sized hashtags with between 100,000 and 2 million posts, and 10 small hashtags with up to 100,000 posts.
You never know who’s checking out what hashtags, and spreading yourself across a range of different “leagues” will be far more fruitful that gunning straight for the mammoth hashtags where your post is likely to get lost in the melee.
Read the full post here.