How To Increase Engagement On Instagram

Instagram, a massive social media platform that allows its users to share photos and videos is owned by Facebook. As of 2019, there were around one billion active users every month. It’s presently valued at around $100 billion, and today, there are over 25 million businesses that utilise the Instagram platform. The following article describes how to increase engagement on Instagram.

Who uses Instagram?

Instagram is predominantly used by GenZ and Millenials, making up 59% and 33% of user demographics respectively. Just 8% of users are over the age of 65. Of the total user base, 50.8% are female.

The platform is used globally, mainly in the United States (+110 million), but the following countries use it as well, (in order of users): Brazil (+66 million), India (+64 million), Indonesia (+56 million), Russia (+35 million), Turkey (+34 million), Japan (+24 million), the United Kingdom (+22 million), Mexico (+20 million), Germany (+18 million), Australia (+10 million), South Africa (+5 million), Israel (+3 million), and Singapore (+2 million). 

Best ways to increase engagement

The best way of making your photos and videos go viral and getting them the attention they deserve is by increasing engagement. These are the proven methods that show you how to do that:

1. Write captions with meaning

Every caption on Instagram is allowed to have a maximum of 2,200 characters – that’s very generous in the social media world! You want your audience to spend time looking and engaging with your posts, so you should take the time and make the effort to write captions that are long with meaning to really garner the interest of your audience. 

2. Make your posts entertaining

A big reason so many people spend time scrolling on Instagram is to escape from the “real” world. The more fun and entertaining your posts are, the more engagement there will be. Stick to your brand’s theme and add memes, GIFs, and exciting images to look at that spark joy! Also, make your Instagram Stories exciting to look at, so that people look forward to seeing and engaging with them!

3. Use Instagram reels

Users really enjoy watching videos, especially Instagram Reels, which are designed to be quick, entertaining, and can even share educational content. There is lots of creative content you can post on Instagram Reels that will garner a lot of engagement!

4. Take advantage of the best times to post

Just like on Facebook, there are certain times of the day that are best to post your content. Take a look at your Instagram Analytics to see what times your audience is engaging with your posts the most. You can also gage from this how many times per day you should be posting.

5. Make content that your audience enjoys sharing

Instagram engagement

Be sure to create content that people want to share with their friends. Use inspirational quotes, good advice, happy faces, beautiful landscapes and imagery, great recipes (if you are in the food industry), historical images, animals, behind-the-scenes images and videos, interesting facts and statistics, as well as upcoming trends and makeovers that are amazing to watch. All this will increase user engagement.  

6. Be honest about your brand

Every business and brand has a story behind it. Reveal this story to your audience so that they see more value in your content. Tell them why you exist, and why your brand is so different to other competitive brands. Let your audience know if part of your profits goes to charity, and show them that you had humble beginnings so that they can relate to you and your brand. 

Post images and videos about the beginnings of your business that will shock and surprise your audience, as well as images that induce a feeling of comfort (relatable images). Also let your audience know about your failures and all your successes! 

7. Use stickers on your stories

Instagram stickers

There are over 500 million users that post on Instagram Stories daily. By using this medium, you can garner a lot of engagement – especially when done right. By using Instagram Stories’ fun stickers, you can really get a lot of conversation going. Use stickers as:

Questions

Users feel important when answering questions as it makes them feel heard!

Quizzes

Users love quizzes as they love learning more about and challenging themselves!

Countdowns

Countdowns always provide a lot of excitement – especially when it’s about a new product launch, or ground-breaking and exciting news about your product or service.

8. Offer giveaways

People love receiving free products and services. Create a post with a caption that explains that if users share their content including your brand’s name (add mentions) in their posts, they will have the opportunity to receive a free gift! This will generate more user engagement! You can create giveaways every few months that users will look forward to!

9. Use hashtags wisely

It’s really important to use your hashtags wisely, in a way that will attract the most attention! With the help of a professional digital strategist whose expertise is in Instagram marketing, you can really boost your posts, as they will help you be aware of the most popular hashtags that pertain to your brand. 

There are also many hashtag analytics tools on the market that will help you know what is being discussed about your business, services, as well as competitors in both the news and social media.

Conclusion

Use the above tips to increase the user engagement on your Instagram account, watch your posts and videos go viral, and see your business and brand grow exponentially! Also don’t forget to continuously try out and test different posts to see which ones have the biggest impact!

Our team of expert Digital Strategists are here for all your social media marketing needs, and if you want to increase user engagement on your Instagram account, contact us today and we will help your Instagram presence grow!