With Instagram, it can be hard to increase your engagement. With so many users on the app, you would think it wouldn’t be too hard. However, many companies struggle with their engagement on Instagram. This is why we pulled together a list of tips to help ensure your paid and organic marketing campaigns continue to hit their mark. Also, we want to help safeguard your Instagram marketing tactics now and in the future. Check out how to increase your Instagram engagement below.
Post consistently
You have to be active in order to attract followers and boost your engagement rates. You should post at least once a day. This way your feed stays fresh and relevant. Also, you’ll have more opportunities to attract people to your content. Aside from posting each day, it’s critical to know the best time for you to post on Instagram. Luckily, you can check your follower’s habits by using the Insights feature on your Instagram Business account. This lets you know when your followers are most active.
Don’t preach – tell stories
You should captivate your audience through images, video, and text. You don’t need to preach your marketing to them. To increase engagement rates, become a storyteller. You can do this by offering ‘micro-stories’ through your captions, videos, stories, and profile. When people feel an emotional connection to your content, they’re much more likely to buy into it and share it with their peers.
One way to insert elements of storytelling is by sharing user-generated content that resonates with your brand. Another way is to focus on telling a story with your captions. Longer captions with elements of storytelling and authenticity are particularly powerful. This is because they enable brands to appear more human and build deeper connections with their target audience.
Create a branded hashtag
A branded hashtag can be a key part of a successful Instagram marketing strategy. The best starting point is a general branded hashtag. It should be short, memorable, and include your brand name in some form. The benefits of a branded hashtag are to make your content more discoverable, drive traffic to your profile and create a stronger community around your brand. Also, it will help you organize your content and make it easily trackable.
You should place the hashtag in your bio. This way it’s easily visible to anyone visiting your profile. You can also create hashtags for a specific campaign or competition, showcase brand advocates or encourage user-generated content.
Focus on user-generated content
User-generated content on Instagram is the holy grail for marketers. It’s a chance for followers to involve themselves more deeply with a brand. Also, it reduces marketing costs because the content is being created and approved by your audience. Virtually any industry can benefit from user-generated content.
Embrace Instagram stories
Instagram stories have become the most popular feature on the platform with 500 million users every day. Stories enable you to post a mix of photos and images in a single post that disappears after 24 hours. However, their benefits can last much longer for your reach and engagement rates. Using stories can make your brand seem more authentic and approachable. Also, it can create a sense of urgency that keeps users coming back to engage with your brand.