What is Instagram engagement?
Instagram engagement goes deeper than simply looking at your follower count, it measures how your audience is interacting with your content.
Basically any time one of your followers takes an action on your profile or in response to one of your posts, that's engagement.
Here are some tips to increase it organically:
1. Reply to comments, thoughtfully.
You want people to feel welcomed, important and like a valued part of your community, reach out and let them know they actually are.
A great tip for this is when people do comment on your feed, treat them like you’ve just met them at a bar.
Person: “Hey that’s a great shirt”
Most people would respond with something like: “Thanks, friend! *insert 10 emojis*”
This is where you can stand out because very few do it properly. Imagine if you responded with “Thanks! I got it in this crazy bargain bin and almost had to fight a 10-year-old girl off after she dived in!! Crack up! Do you want me to send you the link?”
2. Have a Call-To-Action
You’ve got a great image, surely a like is enough?
Try to encourage them to leave a comment for example, if you are asking them to read a blog post (from a link in your bio), ask them to leave a comment if they’ve read if or what they think.
Always be thinking about how you can encourage them to engage in a conversation, which will have a dramatic effect on your Instagram engagement rate.
3. Ask Questions to yout audience
Try to incorporate a few questions into your posts, regardless of what it is about!
(In our experience, sometimes the weirder the better!)
It could be simple, like the usual asking your followers what their plans for the weekend are, or more complex like asking them their opinion on a certain topic relevant to your industry.
Most people can’t help themselves, if you’re new to asking questions, try asking for help.
Regardless of what you’re asking, it will give your account a personal touch, and make your followers feel involved with you and what you’re thinking.
4. Recruit new community members
Search through hashtags (or geo-location tags). Find the hashtags your target market hang out in and you’ll naturally find more members of your community. Leave thoughtful comments and make this person feel like you care about what they do with their time. Leaving a “nice work” or “love this” on a feed is going to make you look like a nasty bot comment.
If you’re going to go to the effort to leave comments, do it properly and people will organically find their way back to you.
Users on Instagram love having their work shared as it opens the opportunity to an even wider audience. Just remember to credit correctly, and some people would prefer you to ask permission, take a peek at their bio to feel their vibe before posting.