Want to increase your Instagram engagement in 2022?
Whether you’re a social media influencer, marketer, business owner or simply interested in boosting your personal profile online, chances are you’ve thought about how to increase your engagement on Instagram.
Yes, there’s the tried and tested way of personally interacting with followers in authentic ways, but let’s be real. There’s never enough time for this and with Instagram’s super intelligent algorithm, it’s not a foregone conclusion that this will even work.
In this post, we’re going to discuss everything you need to know about your Instagram engagement. Here are 11 tried-and-tested ways to increase your Instagram engagement in 2022.
Table of Contents
What does Instagram engagement mean?
Instagram engagement is a mix of all the actions that users take on your content across the platform.
On a high level, organic Instagram engagement refers to likes, comments, shares and saves.
But some content formats offer more ways for users to engage. For example, Instagram Stories engagement can include responses, emoji reactions, link clicks and interactions with dynamic elements like poll stickers.
Some engagement on Instagram in-feed posts is visible to other users, giving accounts the benefit of social proof.
The engagement on Stories is not visible to other users. This reduces the social proof benefit, but it can still help you drive conversions and get on the Instagram algorithm’s good side.
Instagram’s algorithms favor posts that create a lot of interest in a short period of time, and it prioritizes them accordingly. A high level of engagement triggers the algorithm to believe your post will be of interest to many of your followers, causing it to appear higher in their feeds.
There are some techniques to boost Instagram engagement; frequently posting, ensuring that your audience is active when you post, and actively engaging with your audience before posting.
It’s essential to optimize each post on your account as valuable for your audience. The easiest method to improve your Instagram account is designing and sticking to an Instagram marketing strategy.
The worst thing you can do is gain Instagram followers by publishing random things. You may receive a lot of attention from a post of your cute puppy or non-related funny reel, however, those followers will not be interested in your business content.
They will never engage or convert to customers.
When it comes to your target audience, the approach is all about ensuring you get the most out of your content in terms of reach and engagement.
Here are some simple ways to boost Instagram engagement and help you expand your reach, get new followers, and grow your community over time.
How to increase engagement on Instagram ?
Want to get more engagement on your organic Instagram content, including both Stories and feed posts? Let’s look at 11 proven strategies to increase Instagram engagement.
1) Engage Through Instagram Stories and Stickers
Instagram Stories and stickers are an excellent way to encourage your followers to interact with you and share their thoughts and experiences, which helps you establish a devoted following who feels connected to you as a brand.
On stories, there are a number of quick and easy stickers to use like polls, questions, countdowns, quizzes, and emoji sliders to name a few.
One of the most engaging uses of Instagram Stories stickers is the question sticker.
The Instagram Stories questions sticker allows you to have direct conversations with your followers. You can prompt your followers to ask you questions on a certain topic or you can open the floor entirely.
2) Be authentic and transparent
Right now, the allure of authenticity and transparency from brands is particularly strong. Instagram users want to know everything about the brands they love, and being open and direct on social media is a great way to build your brand’s reputation.
If people feel like a brand is hiding something, that’s not great. Your audience and customers are also much more likely to accept issues if you warn them in advance and explain the why.
Transparency can help you turn a negative situation into a positive branding experience.
Here’s a great example from Farmgirl Flowers. It’s a post directly from the company’s founder, addressing that the company has had a hard time, acknowledging past shipping delays, and laying out steps about how to improve things moving forward.
This is an exceptional example of owning your mistakes in a direct way and providing a clear path for an improved customer experience moving forward.
3) Create & Share Relatable Memes
Memes are the way to every user’s heart.
They’re funny, creative, and relatable. And in 2022, relatability is where it’s at.
Simply put: Instagram users want to feel seen and heard.
And with the right meme, your audience will be liking, commenting, and sharing your post with their friends.
Regardless of your niche or industry, the opportunity to create a meme is there.
4) Create Saveable Graphics
Quotes, graphics, and repurposed tweets are everywhere on Instagram – and they’re perfect for driving engagement.
You’ll find that Instagram users love to share quotes on their stories — especially if they’re both moving and aesthetically pleasing.
A recent trend is repurposing tweets into Instagram feed posts. This type of content is really engaging and popular on Instagram. Ironic, we know.
Similar to meme creation, these sorts of graphics don’t require many resources.
Even if you don’t have Twitter, there are many templates you can use to make it look like a tweet.
Designer or not, you’ve got this!
5) Use more carousel posts
Carousel posts are an engagement gold mine.
Instagram carousels allows you to share up to 10 pictures, videos, and text graphics with your set of audience in one post.
Whether it’s sharing educational content or supporting a social cause, carousel posts that offer some sort of value can help drive saves and shares.
Source tells that the carousel posts get 3.1x more engagement, on average, than regular posts.
This may be because curiosity gets the best of all of us, and users just have to see what’s next on the carousel. This stops them from scrolling past it, which is pretty much half the battle.
6) Post When Your Audience Is Most Engaged
Posting when your audience is most engaged is a great tactic for boosting engagement.
So, how do you know when your audience is most engaged?
You could manually track when you post on Instagram and see how your content performs over time in an Excel sheet or Google Doc.
Also, you can make use of the Instagram Insights that allows Instagram Business Account users to see analytics related to their profile and posts.
From this data, you’ll be able to identify what your audience likes and engages with the most to improve your Instagram strategy.
7) Use Relevant Hashtags
Hashtags are, first and foremost, a reach tactic – but greater reach typically equals higher engagement levels. Without a doubt, hashtags should be part of your strategy.
Instagram recently advised that creators should use between 3-5 hashtags on their posts, despite allowing up to 30 per post.
This goes against everything we’ve previously heard about how hashtags work on Instagram, but based on their new focus on keywords and SEO, it does (kind of) make sense.
Instagram is introducing more “suggested” content feeds – like the Instagram Reels tab, for example. But in order to provide suggested content that truly is a “good match,” Instagram needs to be able to accurately categorize it. The theory? Fewer hashtags = more reliable self categorization.
As Instagram slowly pivots towards semantic keyword search, it opens up a new world of possibilities in content discoverability – indicating that the words in your captions or the topics in your videos will become searchable too.
However, despite these major advancements, hashtags do still work on Instagram. Paired with a strong content strategy, they can help yield impressive results.
8) Create content that’s relevant right now
Want plenty of attention and engagement on your post?
Go beyond evergreen content, and try to find something that feels urgently relevant now.
For example, during the COVID pandemic, there were plenty of posts about how to get through what we all thought would only be two weeks of restrictions early on. Every Earth Day, you see lots of posts talking about how to live a more eco-friendly life.
Here, we have a post from DSW for Global Running Day, where they worked with an influencer to promote a product at a relevant time point.
There are so many different social media holidays like National Dog Day, National Secretary’s Day, and National Ice Cream Day. See if you can find some related to your audience and plan ahead.
9) Keep your caption game strong
Visuals are the most important part of your Instagram post, we fully acknowledge that. But they aren’t the only thing that matters.
Your captions matter a great deal, and they can completely change how users perceive your brand & post. They can keep things fun, interesting or quirky (as you see fit), encouraging users to comment.
Here’s an example from Stasher. They could have simply said “There’s a sale, 25% off until midnight.” But instead, they used fun, fresh copy, emojis and all-caps for emphasis.
Captions are a powerful tool that can be used to encourage likes, comments, and even visits to your website. And if your post gets enough engagement, it might even end up on the Explore Page!
What’s more, captions are a huge opportunity to build a stronger relationship with your audience.
10) "Like," "Comment," and "Reply"
The most straightforward strategy to increase brand engagement is to engage! This may sound self-evident, yet it’s remarkable how rarely most people do it. A brand is a collective personality; it is the sum of your business identities.
Users are drawn to brands that show a more honest, more true aspect of themselves. They aren’t just a business out to make a profit; they are genuine individuals living in the real world.
Be engaging if you want to increase engagement. It’s a basic recipe, but it’s quite effective.
Engage your fans by commenting on one of their most recent posts. You will notice people who engage with you often; these are your “fans.”
No matter who they are, you grow better as a community than you do alone, reciprocate engagement with your fans whenever possible!
11) Consistency
One of the most crucial aspects to remember is to remain consistent with your posting. According to multiple studies, posting on Instagram once or twice a day will help you grow.
This is more effective than using an Instagram growth service or purchasing false followers.
When you post consistently, your audience knows that you’re serious about delivering them with quality information on a regular basis.
They grow accustomed to seeing you in their feed, and you establish yourself as the “go-to” content creator for the types of entertainment, products, and services you offer.
It takes time to build an engaged Instagram following, and you must be consistent and dedicated in your efforts to see better results.
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Bottom Line
In the year 2022, your Instagram profile will serve as a secondary website for your business. In some circumstances, it may be able to accomplish more than your website. It establishes brand trust, social proof, and genuine connection with peers, prospects, and customers.
Even a simple like can go a long way, setting off an avalanche of engagement that can mean more visibility, a better brand reputation and piqued user interest.
The positive momentum that you can see from continued high engagement is significant, and it can make it easier to accomplish your other marketing goals, too.
What do you think? How do you increase your Instagram engagement rates? Which of these strategies do you use? Share your thoughts and questions in the comments below!
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