11 Tips for Boosting Instagram Engagement
You know Instagram is important, so you signed your company up and started posting photos. But months later, your account still isn’t picking up steam.
You only have a handful of followers and sometimes, it feels like you’re just posting into the oblivion — no comments, no likes, just crickets.
I hear scenarios like this over and over again from businesses just getting on the Instawagon. They’ve put in the work, but it’s just not paying off.
- Do they not “get” the platform?
- Is it too “young” for their brand?
- How can they course-correct and make it worth their while?
Tips for Boosting Instagram Engagement
In the majority of cases, it all comes down to engagement — a lack of engaging content, a failure to engage with existing followers or forgetting to engage and leverage influencers.
If you’ve found yourself in a similar boat, here are some tips for boosting your brand’s Instagram engagement — and getting your account back on track toward growth:
1) Cross-promote.
Have a good number of followers on Facebook or Twitter? Encourage your followers to head over to Insta and like your account. You can also cross-post your content or even post teasers on Facebook or Twitter, directing followers to Insta to get more details.
2) Interact more.
Pose questions to your followers and post interactive polls on your stories. Reply to any follower comments, and maybe even give them a follow back if they’ve got relevant content. Who knows, it may give you ideas for your own future posts (or they could be an influencer you might want to engage down the line!)
3) Use advertising to your advantage.
Retargeting is a powerful tool — especially on a visually driven platform like Instagram. Use Insta ads to reach back out to past customers (or people who viewed a product or page of your site). You can even target users who interact with similar brands on Instagram, upping your chance of success even more.
Using Dynamic Ads, brands can easily connect with more potential customers on mobile.
“Dynamic Ads on Instagram should hopefully lead advertising on this platform closer to the bottom of the funnel with this new ad format. I’m interested to see if these perform better from a last-click conversion perspective,”
– Josh Brisco, Manager Retail Search Operations at CPC Strategy
4) Add CTAs.
Really want to see results from your posts and stories? Add a CTA. Direct them to the link in your bio, or tell them to swipe up on your story to buy a product or view a video. Tell them what you want them to do — then make it easy to act on that.
5) Change up the content.
Don’t just post a static, staged shot all the time. Mix it up with carousel posts, videos, boomerangs and more. Keep your followers guessing and engaged at all times.
6) Have a voice.
Avoid posting bland and super cookie cutter captions. Develop a unique voice that’s all yours, and keep it conversational. You want followers to reply, comment and interact with that caption, so make it funny, witty or even controversial.
7) Pique their interest.
Preview and give sneak peeks of upcoming products or new releases. For one, this gives followers something to get excited about, and two, it also makes them feel special — like they’re in on a secret no one else knows about.
8) Tap your team.
Get your employees on board, and have them use their own accounts to push your hashtags, post behind-the-scenes photos and promote your brand. You can even let them have the reins on the company account once in a while. Followers love takeovers — especially if they’ve been hyped up for a bit!
9) Watch your competition.
What are others in your space doing? What posts get the most comments, likes and engagement? How can you mimic that — or better yet, improve on it? You might even consider delving into their followers and following a few yourself — especially if they’re influencer material.
10) Don’t reinvent the wheel.
Have you had a handful of posts outperform the rest? Get lots of likes and comments? Recreate a similar post. Create content with the same look or feel and hone in on what it is your followers want to see.
11) Leverage influencers and creatives.
Use existing influencers in your space to get easy, instant access to potential followers. Then, tap different creative voices to help you tell your story. Find popular Instagram photographers and videographers to shoot your product. Bring in a chef to create a recipe out of your newest food item. Get that artist with the big following to do a mural on your store wall — and post a time-lapse on your account.
As you can see, there are lots of ways to boost your Instagram engagement. The main goal? Just focus on providing content that’s targeted, interesting and fun, and put in the effort to interact and respond to your followers. The rest will follow.
Have questions about Instagram engagement? Email [email protected].
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