Over 2 billion people use Instagram monthly, making it a serious marketing tool for your business.
As a business, big or small, Instagram is a lot more than a place online to post cute pictures of your dog (although, who doesn’t love a puppy pic!). It is a potent tool for building your brand and creating an audience online.
Over 2 billion people use Instagram monthly, making it a serious marketing tool for your business. Growing an audience is great, but the real test is getting engagement from your audience. Engagement is things like shares, likes, comments, and other visible actions that your audience does to prove that your content is a hit with the people who are seeing it.
More importantly, engagement needs to be genuine from real people who care about the content you are producing. There is no easy shortcut to getting quality engagement, as with anything; you get what you put in with Instagram. The best way to get good, genuine, and consistent engagement is to make the time (or have us make the time!) to create fantastic posts, encourage conversations, and genuinely connect with your followers. Below we show you some proven methods of making a positive impact on your Instagram audience and organically creating strong and long-lasting engagement.
What Exactly IS Instagram Engagement?
Engagement measures the interactions your audience makes with the content you post. On Instagram, engagement could be:
- Saves
- Comments
- Shares
- Likes
- Followers and growth
- Mentions (tagged or untagged)
- Branded hashtags
- Click-throughs
- DMs
The above actions show that people are more than just SEEING your content. They are also actively interested in it, so much so that they interact with you. But why is engagement so critical? Well, if your post, story, or reel gets engagement, it shows that the content you are producing impacts your audience. It means you are doing something right!
The other reason is that solid engagement is a massive factor in Instagram’s algorithm. The more engagement you get, the more likely your content will get boosted in the newsfeed, which will attract more attention to a broader audience.
Get to Know your Audience
If you don’t know anything about your audience, how can you create content they will enjoy and interact with? The simple answer is – that you can’t. Looking at your target audience’s demographics will help you define the type of content you want to produce, your brand voice, and even when is the best time to post your content.
Be Authentic
It is better to be honest and relatable than perfect and polished, showing the real people and story behind your brand. This could mean sharing behind-the-scenes footage in a story or showing humor in a reel or photo. This appeals to people scrolling through Instagram rather than unobtainable images of perfection.
Post Video Content
Videos statistically have more success than images, so much so that they receive around 38% more engagement. Video content can be imperfect too, but if you are worried about quality or editing, thousands of tools can help you make the best videos for your business OR get an agency like us to do it all for you!
Write Solid and Captivating Captions
A good caption can capture your audience’s attention, add context, and showcase your brand’s personality. An Instagram caption can be up to 2,200 characters long and use up to 30 hashtags. So, go forth and caption!
Share Amazing Images
As a visual medium, Instagram is the best place to showcase images that stand out from the crowd. You can use many tools to create amazing images and designs, but there is nothing better than having a graphic designer produce your content. At BPM, we have in-house graphic designers and content specialists to ensure you get the best engagement on your Instagram content. If you want to chat about what we offer our clients, fill out the form below and book an informal chat with us!
Share Audience Content
Instagram isn’t a one-way street; like all social media, Instagram is a conversation, not a broadcast. So it is essential to listen to your audience and engage with them. A great way of doing this is to repost or share your audience’s content. Not only does this provide you with some great content, but it also makes your followers feel special, and they can see that you are looking at and listening to the content they produce.
Post Carousels
Carousels are Instagram posts with multiple images and are a fantastic way to build engagement. Globally, they have the highest engagement rate of all Instagram posts, at 1.01%. The algorithm reserves carousel posts to followers who perhaps didn’t interact with the post the first time, giving them a second or third chance to engage.
Respond to Questions and Comments
If someone goes out of their way to comment (something positive, of course!), it is a good idea to respond. Acknowledging your commenters and taking part in conversations makes your followers feel seen and heard, and they will be more likely to comment on other posts in the future.
Post Consistently at Strategic Times
It makes sense that the more often you post, the more chance your followers have to engage and interact with your brand. Making sure you commit (or have us commit!) to posting regularly will keep your feed fresh and keep your followers interested. We have tools that tell us the best times to post content for our clients individually, so it is essential to look into the best times to post on Instagram for your brand.
Create Engaging Stories
Instagram stories have great reach, and over 60 % of users say that they got more interested in a brand after watching a brand’s stories. You also have the opportunity to engage with stickers and can ask questions, do polls and connect directly with your followers.
Engagement is critical on all social media platforms. If you want your business to succeed online, creating engaging content on Instagram is an excellent way to raise your profile and introduce people to your brand. At Best Practice Media, we can work with you to create the very best Instagram strategy for your business and begin your journey to fantastic engagement. Fill out your name and email below, and let’s get started!