Instagram has more than one billion active users every month, and if you are a brand that wants to connect with potential customers, Instagram engagement is something that you need for building a loyal brand audience and to convince them to buy the products and services that you have to offer. Being one of the largest social media platforms, it is extremely important that you create a social media marketing strategy in 2022.
Instagram engagement helps in measuring how many of your followers are engaging with your content on Instagram and the various ways with which you can grow your brand and business on Instagram. The Instagram engagement rate is the number of likes, comments, saves, shares, direct messages, and every other reaction your content gets on the social media platform. It does not matter even if you have twenty thousand followers on Instagram and fail to accomplish the marketing goals you have set for your social media strategy if your target audience does not interact with the content you produce. You just need to find some of the to get the desired amount of engagement.
So, what are the 9 data-backed ways to increase your Instagram engagement in 2022?
- Post more Instagram reels.
Reels on Instagram were a hit and they are short-format videos that are promoted by the Instagram algorithm. Being a fairly new feature on the social media platform, Instagram has been pushing accounts that post Instagram reels more often to the explore page. This also gives the exposure that your Instagram account needs.
- Post Instagram Carousels.
Instagram Carousel feature allows the user to swipe right on the pictures and videos that are posted as a single pot. This allows the user to spend a lot of time viewing the post as compared to an Instagram post where the user spends a few seconds observing the picture. Research shows that the engagement rate per view is much higher for the Instagram posts that have used the carousel feature.
- Use color psychology to your advantage.
Everyone knows that Instagram is a highly visual-based social media platform, and the visual content that is posted is consumed by every user. It is important that the content posted needs to be of high quality and colors on these posts have the power to influence the moods and decisions of the consumers. Using colors to build your brand on Instagram will help you gain trust on the social media platform. Research also shows that color photos receive more likes while black and white photos receive more comments. Following a specific color theme for your brand on Instagram also helps in the user identify your brand much faster. Colors also play a key role in generating emotions in your target audience.
- Always use a combination of photos, videos, reels, carousel posts, and IGTV videos.
Never restrict your Instagram business account to just posting one type of post. Always make sure that you mix up the content you have to post in the combination of Instagram reels, IGTV videos, carousel posts, photos, and videos. It gives you the freedom to experiment with your content but also lets you know what works with your target audience and what does not.
- Spend some time thinking about the captions for your Instagram posts.
While a lot of people just stop at posting aesthetic and beautiful content, they often forget to write the appropriate caption for the post as well. Captions play a vital role in increasing the rate of engagement on the post, which is why the social media platform allows the use of more than two thousand characters for every caption. While hashtags and emojis are equally important, investing time in writing an attractive caption will make your post more interactive. It is also seen that not writing a caption for your post affects the rate of engagement of that Instagram post negatively.
- Creation of save-worthy content on the social media platform.
It is no well-disguised secret that posts with the greatest number of saves perform well in terms of engagement and reach. This is why in order to retain your target audience, you need to add value and post content that has information that would be attractive to your audience. Research has shown that the posts with a higher number of saves are usually larger accounts (that have more than a hundred thousand followers) gain saves with posts that have photos and the smaller profiles gain more saves with the help of carousel posts.
- Interact with your followers on stories.
Instagram stories have various interactive stickers that help in engaging with your audience. Posting stories with such stickers to talk with your audience also helps in increasing the engagement rate.
- Posting consistently.
It is important that you do not lose your streak of posting content because every time you post content, that alerts the algorithm of the social media platform and helps in boosting your engagement rate.
- Quality over quantity.
Posting for the sake of posting will always result in a low engagement rate, which is why you need to make sure that you maintain a steady timetable for your content, and make sure that you do not spam the accounts of your followers.
If your target audience does not engage with your content, the algorithm of Instagram will not be able to promote your posts in return. Having low engagement rates on Instagram simply means that your content does not hit the mark when it comes to relatability and popularity among your followers. Your content has failed to grab the attention of your followers and they are unlikely to engage with your content in the future which in turn will take a toll on the trust and credibility of your business on Instagram. If your Instagram account has a high engagement rate, that simply means that your content is relatable and popular when it comes to your target audience.