Comments and likes play an incredibly important role on Instagram. Both types of interaction can be used to generate followers for one's account. Of course, in order to make sure that you'll get frequent interaction and enhanced coverage, your content and your entire user profile have to be sufficiently inviting and engaging. This article will provide you with ten tips and tricks which will allow you to consistently increase engagement rates for your content on Instagram - so read on if you've been looking to boost your stats.
It doesn't matter how great your content strategy is if you don't have enough material. There's no need to post many photos every day - even one is enough, if it's quality content. Instagram users are accustomed to seeing great material - should you take a closer look at the most popular Instagram accounts, you'll notice that their images tend to be of excellent quality.
For this reason, it's important that you produce for stock, and present content at regular intervals. It's okay if you can't make it on a daily basis, but your users will be much happier if they know your content isn't posted randomly.
Of course, you probably know this already from other social networks such as Facebook, but since it's so important, it doesn't hurt to repeat: Social Timing is extremely important. When it comes to crunch, this knowledge isn't all that common, really. In fact, many publishers don't place much emphasis on it. Take a look at when they post on Instagram, for instance. Publishers will often provide high-quality, engaging content, but it won't get much traction due to the fact it wasn't available to the majority of users that would potentially interact.
Your Instagram News Feed, as you might have already noticed, is arranged in chronological order, similarly to Twitter. If you post something at an inappropriate time, it will probably not be seen by many users, and that potential will end up being lost. It's better to build an Instagram strategy to always keep timing in mind, and post content only in the best moments possible. You can determine quite precisely which the best times are by simply performing a few tests and adapting. This is a good post.
Just like nobody ever builds a landing page which doesn't clearly and unambiguously elicit a call-to-action response, you should never write a social media post - especially on Instagram - which does not prompt an active response. The vast majority of users will react in some way to this sort of 'instruction'. Even if some won't do what you request or expect, you should never underestimate the quantity of people who will.
It's definitely not a bad idea, then, to include a call-to-action like "double tap if you liked this photo", or "tag your friend who would like this picture". Then, figure out how successful each of these measures are by assessing their individual impact. Whenever you notice that engagement rates increase, you're on the right track, so simply intensify it or develop the principle further.
It's important to check which pieces of your content are generally most popular. You can find this out by simply measuring and comparing how many comments and likes you get in each individual post. If you post regularly in the same schedule, you'll have a much more solid basis on which you'll be able to compare success rates.
Over time, you'll notice when comparing that particular types of content work a lot better than others. Figure out what performs best and then increasingly publish this sort of content. This way, you'll be able to get the highest possible engagement rates from your content, as well as position yourself effectively - another thing Instagram users tend to appreciate.
While only major brands and multi-national corporations tend to use their own hashtags, they aren't the only ones who are "allowed" to do so. In fact, anyone can do it, so use that stylistic tool just like they do. Even if you're still starting out with your account, it's a good idea to use a special hashtag of your own.
Branding yourself with a hashtag does a number of things. It ensures that your content is directly associated to your account, and also helps you monitor content that's been posted a lot more effectively. You can figure out whether a great photo of yours was shared on Instagram by third parties, for example. When you use a hashtag, you're making a nice contribution to your brand - and once you're tagged by others, this method will help you get recognised a lot more intensively.
Just like on other social networks, certain content tends to be repeated over specific periods of time. Hashtags tend to be associated with this sort of content, so these particular tags can be used more often. It is an excellent idea to identify such tags that are relevant to your content and use them whenever it's appropriate.
This will help you reach more Instagram users and generate more interaction all at once. Content featuring popular hashtags tends to remain in focus and get seen by a lot more users. In turn, the quantitative distribution is spread more widely, which does wonder for you and your content.
Obviously, this same principle applies to fundamentally popular hashtags in your niche. On Instagram, certain tags are used very frequently, and thus adopted by a wide variety of publishers. This strategy can seem appealing at first, but you can often benefit more when using hashtags which primarily relate to and describe your posts the best.
It's also a good idea to use "successful" hashtags of your topic area, the so called "evergreens", which tend to work well quite consistently. For instance, images and photos on Instagram depicting impressive buildings will often use hashtags like "architecturelovers" or simply "architecture". These tend to be very effective and ensure that content reaches the right target users when they perform hashtag searches. This, in turn, increases engagement rates for your content, and helps attract new followers interested in your particular topic area.
Not only is the content important, but the structure of posts will often play a very relevant role as well. Interaction levels tend to be higher with images and photos set against bright backgrounds, while content with dark backgrounds tend not to work as well. This applies to photos and images with low saturation, too.
Instagram users usually love high-quality photos and images that are unique and colorful - though it's important that you make sure content doesn't seem unnatural, particularly if you're editing images using the app's built-in applications and filters, since they're not very well received. The colours are significant, too. Cooler colours like blue tend to be preferred, so take this into consideration when you choose your content. This will help with more Instagram followers.
If you want to increase the engagement rates for your content, it helps a lot being active yourself. An important rule to follow is that, whenever you get feedback on the content you post in the form of a comment, thank your contributors. It doesn’t have to be an elaborate, extravagant piece of text - simply provide a short, concise response, and thank users for sharing their opinion.
Your followers are a very important target for engagement, since they're precisely the ones who receive your content - but it's a good idea to target Instagram users in general, particularly the ones that share good content. Contact these people, make sure to like their photos and make positive comments on what they post - if you like it, of course. This will get you great results - the owners of said material will become aware of you, and you'll have an effect on those who read the comments on their posts. Through the use of hashtags in your comments, you'll be able to increase the possibility that the right users are going to see your content.
External links tend to be rare on Instagram, but you can always use your account to generate website traffic. While you can list a particular website address in your comments and posts, you cannot provide clickable links. The only way to post a working link is in your profile, where you're allowed to indicate a landing page. This link is part of your Instagram profile.
Remember, like on other social networks, your profile picture is sort of like a business card. It is very important that you utilise an image which visually supports you and your company, and ideally stands out from other Instagram users in your niche. This applies for the description as well. You don't have much space, so make sure to keep it short and straight to the point. The purpose of your account should be very clear, and users should easily be able to understand what they should expect when they follow you.
