Instagram can be one of the best places for your brand to increase engagement and generate relationships with your followers. In 2020, Instagram decided to remove the number of likes per post, making it harder to determine what content was performing best. However, although this may have been a metric of content success to the Instagram user, today brands need to look further into performance metrics to fully understand why certain their followers may engage with specific content, but not with content.
Instagram introduced a new algorithm in 2020, which has changed how, why and who gets to engage with your content more frequently based on individuals viewing preferences. Instagram’s algorithm is based on three pillars:
- Interest;
- Timeliness; and
- Relationships.
This means, that if you show interest in a specific account, Instagram will predict and show you that content, all because they have identified your viewing patterns. So, when it comes to your business page, your ultimate goal should be to increase your engagement between your brand and your followers – but you’ve got to know them first to understand what to share so that your content can be seen on the top of their feeds.
We’ve come up with 8 exciting ways you can increase your Instagram engagement
1.
Create ‘savable’ content for your feed
Get your audiences to click on that save button. You need to however, create engaging, informative content in order to instigate this action! Think about your audiences pain points, what they value and create content with them in mind.
2.
Start conversations with Instagram stories stickers
Engaging with your audience through stickers can help develop relationships through the conversations shared. Instagram have a multitude of stickers to choose from, each with their individual goal. Here are a few ways that you can connect with your followers through stickers:
- The questions sticker can be used for getting to know your audience, selling a product (e.g. ‘Interested in growing you social media following, send us a message’) or to get general brand feedback.
- The quiz sticker can be used to share trivia-style multiple-choice questions with your followers and track the results.
- The countdown sticker can be used for a countdown to a start of a sale or even to the end of one, or even for a product launch or event. It’s great for building up excitement & interest.
Try one of the above for your brand & let us know how it worked for you.
3.
Add a fun element
Your Instagram stories can take a little while to get used to, but once you know what works, great! Have fun with your stories, add in video content, imagery, ask questions, and make use of those fun add on’s. However, always make sure that it ties in with your branding.
4.
Encourage Instagram story shares
Create content that you know your audience will want to repost (Think about when a brand you follow has a competition, but makes you share their post to your story). This is very similar to tip one of creating ‘savable content’, create engaging, informative content relevant to your audience.
5.
Open about your business
Your followers want to know about your brand, so show your authentic side. Be honest, show your real, vulnerable side. Your followers will love it and engage with your brand a lot more.
6.
Share data your audience will love
Start by looking for your own data relevant to your business, customer and industry and share this data on your page.
7.
Create more video content
We can’t stress this enough! Statistics have shown that your audience will engage with your brand more if you share video content. Instagram gives you the option to post a shorter video (to your grid or story), or share a longer story on your IGTV, so there really is no excuse. Think of a topic, write the script, and then speak about it.
8.
Pay closer attention to your #
Having a strong hashtag strategy is vital to increasing your engagement. It is important to consider how your hashtags can impact your content. Start by categorising your hashtags, but also remember if you share a general hashtag like #summer this may get lost in the other million posts with the same hashtag. Stay unique, but not so unique that your hashtag doesn’t work. Once you’ve honed in your Instagram hashtag collection, use analytics to see which are performing well and which aren’t to understand the best way to grow your post/ hashtag engagement.
Do you have the right social media strategy in place to ensure ultimate follower engagement. Turn your followers into ‘raving fans’. Let us conduct an analysis of your business to ensure you have the best social media strategy in place to promote engagment. Get in touch, we’d love to help.
