A strong social media presence is crucial when it comes to building a brand. One of the most popular and effective social media platforms out there today, is Instagram. Now, depending on your business, Instagram may not be the most effective for you, but one key to those using Instagram, is engagement. Once you have obtained your first batch of followers, it is important to grow and keep engagement with your followers. Engagement will help keep your current followers interested in your content, as well as help to obtain new followers. Now the question is, how do your grow your Instagram engagement? Here are 8 tips on how to grow your Instagram engagement.
1.) Use Instagram Stories
Instagram stories are one of the newest features of the social media platform and it is one of the most exciting and effective ways to grow engagement. On average, 250 million peopleuse Instagram stories daily, people are also spending, on average, 25 minutes a day on Instagram. These stories are hugely popular and keeps your followers interested in your content as well as has the ability to bring you new followers and growing your engagement effectively.
2.) Posting Times
It is important to find the posting times that are most effective for your posts. Try posting at a variety of different times, and figure out which times are the most successful for you. Instagram provides business accounts with the ability to see your insights, and from these you can learn which posting times are the best for you. Leveraging posting times which fit your audience will help to grow your engagement.
3.) Use a Call-to-Action
Add a call-to-action to your post when you can. Encouraging your followers to take some kind of action after reading your post can greatly increase your engagement. Asking your followers to “Like” your post and offering an incentive is one form of a call-to-action. You can ask your followers to “Click the link in our bio” in order to drive them to your site, in turn growing engagement. Another way, is to ask your followers to comment on your post, comments are a great way to grow engagement and helps to keep your followers interested in your content.
4.) Follow and Engage with Other Accounts
Follow accounts which are similar to yours, meaning a business, or brand which are comparable to yours. Also, follow accounts which are local to you, accounts like your city, newspapers and magazines in your city, lifestyle bloggers, popular museums, etc. The goal here is to get these popular pages to follow you as well. In order to grow engagement, you will also need to interact with these pages, like and comment on their posts. This will organically grow your engagement.
5.) Instagram Takeover
Invite another account owner to run a guest takeover on your page. Doing this will bring their followers to your page, when they will hopefully follow you and begin to engage with your content. Actively promoting the takeover on both of your respective channels will cultivate excitement for the event and help to grow your engagement.
6.) Contests
People love free things. If you are able to give something away through a contest, then do it. This helps grow engagement very effectively. Depending on the contest, you can gain followers, likes, and comments. One of the most common contests, is a “Like and Tag” contest. For example, you own a restaurant, offer to give away free appetizer if your followers 1.) Like the post, and 2.) Tag two friends in the post. These gains likes, comments, and new followers. This will grow your engagement in a quick and easy way.
7.) Use Geotags
Using geotags on your posts in order to gain likes and followers in that area. People can look at all posts from a certain area, even if they are not following your page. Tag your location, and use tags in your stories. Users will can search these areas and find your posts on the explore page. Users can then see your post, engage with it, and follow you. Use as many geotags as you can, and increase your engagement organically.
8.) Use Hashtags
Hashtags are a great way to organically grow engagement. Instagram allows you to use a maximum of 30 hashtags, in order to be the most effective, use all 30. Use a mix of micro and macro community hashtags. This means using hashtags which are local to you and hashtags which are on a national scale. There is an option on Instagram for people to search posts based on hashtags, so using hashtags could land you in the top of these posts, and therefore grow your engagement.
There are many ways to grow your engagement on Instagram, these are only a sampling of ways. If you try these and still are not seeing the engagement you want, then let us help you. Contact ustoday and let’s work together.
