8 Ways to Increase Instagram Engagement

When it comes to building a community on social media, especially Instagram, engagement is SO important.

In this article, we’re going to walk through what engagement is, why it’s important, and we’re going to give you 8 tips on how you can organically increase engagement on Instagram.

What is Instagram Engagement?

Your Instagram engagement is a measurement that shows what percentage of your following has interacted with your content and how they interact with it. Engagement is typically thought of as comments and likes, but can also include things like shares, messages, replies, saves, clicks, and mentions.

The reason engagement is so important is that the more engagement a post gets, the more Instagram will continue to push that post out to a wider audience. So think about it like this: the more engagement your posts get, the more your account can grow.

1. Conduct Outbound Engagement

One of the best and simplest ways to grow your reach is to conduct outbound engagement. Outbound engagement involves interacting with accounts that aren’t already following you yet, but fall within your target audience. This usually looks like liking, commenting, and maybe even DMing (direct messaging).

The best thing about outbound engagement is that it gets your profile in front of new eyes.

An important thing to remember is that to be successful with outbound engagement, you need to interact authentically. Don’t leave spammy comments and messages as this will appear disingenuous.

On the other hand, engaging authentically (and not in a salesy way) will strike up genuine conversations which will build trust in the long run.

2. Conduct Inbound Engagement

Inbound engagement is similar to outbound engagement except that instead of engaging with new accounts, you’re engaging with your community (aka those who are already following you). In addition to leaving likes, comments, and messages – this would also involve replying to comments on your posts and DMs sent to you.

Even though inbound engagement doesn’t necessarily get new eyes on your content, it’s vital to your account because it’s nurturing your current community.

3. Engage Through Stories to Increase Instagram Engagement

Stories are one of the best ways to increase Instagram engagement for your account. Using Instagram Story stickers like polls, questions, quizzes, and buttons are a great way to encourage your audience to engage with you.

The more people interact with the stickers on your story – the better your engagement rate is. The great thing about stickers is that they bring a fun and interactive element into your content which will help you build trust and a rapport with your followers.

4. Utilize Call-to-Actions

Including a call-to-action (or CTA) in your social media captions is a great way to increase Instagram engagement. A CTA gives your audience a clear, actionable step – whether that’s telling them what to do next or asking them a question.

Giving them a clear direction on what to do next takes the mystery out of where they can find your services, products, etc. Also, asking questions is a great way to get your audience involved and make interacting with your content fun!

5. Host a Giveaway to Boost Instagram Engagement

A giveaway is a surefire way to drive up your engagement rate! Everybody loves free stuff.

Something to remember with giveaways is that they should be done intentionally and remain authentic to your brand. Also, make sure what you’re giving away is something that your audience really needs or wants.

6. Use Geotags (Locations)

Using location geotags on your posts can be great for engagement – especially if you’re trying to reach a specific audience. For example: if your business is based in Denver, Colorado – you could increase your chances of locals finding your content by including a geotag on your post.

Geotags help increase the overall findability of your posts and can even increase the chances of your content appearing on the explore feed of specific locations.

7. Increase Your Instagram Engagement Through Hashtags and SEO

Hashtags have seen lots of ups and downs since the beginning of Instagram, and they’ve changed over time. The best strategy used to involve using all 30 hashtags with the hopes of reaching new audiences. While it’s now recommended to use between 3-10 – this doesn’t mean that hashtags are no longer relevant or helpful in reaching new audiences.

Instagram is now putting more and more focus on SEO (search engine optimization) to make content on their app more searchable. Instagram now has a search bar feature that users can use to find accounts, keywords, hashtags, places, posts, and audio.

What does this mean for you? Focus on tailoring your content so that it shows up in as many places as possible including search results, the explore page, and location pages.

Instagram SEO also plays a big role in what posts populate on users’ suggested posts – a place in the home feed with content from accounts they don’t follow. Instagram says that these suggested posts are based on posts from accounts like the ones users already follow and posts that are similar to the ones they like and save.

You can do this by utilizing keywords in your caption, as well as using relevant hashtags to increase your discoverability. The more people who discover your content, the better chances you have at increasing your engagement and growing your account.

8. Let Your Personality Shine Through

This one might seem like a given, but it’s so important to let your audience see the real you from time to time. Letting your personality shine through is a great way to build trust with your audience. You can do this through showing your face in your content, using stories to create interactive content, and asking your audience questions to show that you care about their opinion.

Start Increasing Your Instagram Engagement

Now that you have these eight actionable steps to help you increase your Instagram Engagement, it’s time to get out there and put everything you’ve learned to the test! Contact us if you have any questions along the way!