Let’s continue with 5 other ways to increase the Instagram engagement rate…
5. Interact with your followers.
After you post, interact with your followers. While Instagram has the ‘Turn off comments’ function, opt to keep them on.
Reply to your followers’ comments. Maybe they’re asking questions or showing their excitement for your product. Paula’s Choice, a beauty brand, is a wonderful example of this.
They frequently host Instagram Q&A’s, where followers ask questions and they answer them on their Instagram stories.
They’re taking actions that they know will entice their followers into engaging with their Instagram content, which factors into Instagram engagement rates.
Sharing your followers’ content is also a great way to interact with them, called user-generated content (UGC). Thanks to your brand-specific hashtags, we mentioned in the previous part, can help you know users that are posting about you. You could screenshot their content to share on your story, and even post on your feed.
Your followers will be delighted that you engage with them, as engagement might signify a personal relationship with your brand. Let’s take a look at an example of Paula’s Choice posting UGC.
6. Engage with similar accounts.
There wouldn’t be a point in using Instagram if you aren’t following and engaging with other partners.
Using the platform to interact with accounts just like yours is extremely vital. If you are a brand, this could mean partnering with influencers in the same industry. When you share products with them, they will update content wearing your brands. When they tag you, their followers will see your account, and you might gain more followers from there—all of these metrics factors into your Instagram engagement rate.
Emma Chamberlain is a famous YouTuber, holding nearly 10.4 million Instagram followers at only 19-years-old. She frequently posts sponsored content, and her sponsors post her. She entices her followers to engage with these brands and vice versa.
This establishes trust between brands, influencers, and their followers, which paints an image of ‘high engagement’ to those browsing Instagram, and they’ll follow you in return.
7. Create mixed content.
In the past, when the app was first launched, all you could do was post images. Now, there are 5 kinds of content posts supported on Instagram: images, videos, Instagram TV (IGTV), Instagram Stories and Instagram Reels.
It is no longer enough to just publish images; you should do all of it.
Videos
According to Zenith Media, the average person would spend nearly 84 minutes a day watching videos in 2020. That’s a big amount of time spent watching videos, so use it to your advantage.
There are 5 video options on Instagram: Video posts, Reels, IGTV, Story videos and Instagram Live. You’ll need to find out which method is best for you, however, a well-rounded Instagram strategy should include all. If users are watching content on your page, they’re spending more time on your site, factoring into your impressions rate.
Stories
Instagram Stories are essentially like Snapchat stories. According to HubSpot’s Instagram engagement report, 22% of users watched branded content Stories from a company, business, or brand more than once a week, and 36% liked, commented, or shared branded Stores.
You could take advantage of these numbers and use this function to gain attention to your new posts by sharing them on your Story or simply posting Story exclusive content.
This function could also be used to interact with your audience. Post quizzes and questions and make them shareable for other users or get feedback from clients, asking them to submit experiences with your services.
Circling back to influencer sponsorships, having them go live on your account through Instagram Live is a wonderful strategy as well. You could save Instagram Live, so new users can totally watch them even if they occurred three months before.
8. Use calls-to-action (CTAs).
A CTA is an image, line of text, hashtag, or swipe-up-link that’s meant to entice your audience to take action — hence the call-to-action.
The specific action you’re asking users to take needs to be determined based on your brand, service, or influencers’ needs. This may mean notifying them of a sale by including a swipe up link in your Instagram story, asking them to tag a friend in the comment, or sharing links to partner-posted content.
Actually, links to other sites don’t directly increase your Instagram engagement rate, they still require users to spend more time on your profile, and you could convert them into leads on other platforms. For example, National Geographic introducing a new product on their story using a swipe-up CTA.
9. Track your statistics.
Why would you bother finding how to increase Instagram engagement rate when you aren’t taking the time to know if it’s working? Tracking your progress is extremely vital, and it should be something you concentrate on.
Trial and error are expected, and it needs to be used to inform your current and future strategies. Use your preferred CRM to know your most effective posts or pieces of content, and use the strategy employed in these for your next content posts.
After you have calculated your engagement rate for the first time, you need to devise a timeline in which you will recalculate it again. Maybe you will set a goal of growing your score by .10% in a year, so you might plan to re-calculate the numbers every three months. This could additionally assist you to know what isn’t working — if your numbers haven’t budged, something needs to change.
All in all, Instagram engagement rate is a measure of how your users engage with your content. Your Instagram engagement rate is a sign of your Instagram profiles’ social authority, relevancy, and audience interest.
In case your content is great and your followers are engaging, your engagement rate will demonstrate that. When you spend time working on your engagement rate, you collect valuable data to make good Instagram marketing strategies.
You could consider the Instagram engagement rate as a benchmark for customer loyalty and satisfaction. If your users like you, it’ll show.