Do you use Instagram for marketing? IG is one of the powerhouses of social media marketing and belongs in any digital strategy. While many marketers use IG in their digital strategy, only some know how to leverage the platform for optimal results.
The key to using IG successfully is to generate engagement around your content strategy. Engagement is the holy grail of social media marketing on any platform. Fortunately, we have the answers you need to improve your engagement rate and get more out of the time and money you spend on your IG marketing.
What is Instagram Engagement?
Engagement defines a set of user actions accounts take to interact with your profile and content strategy on Instagram. Engagement measures the efficacy and success of your posts on IG and how your target audience views your content.
On Instagram, your engagement metrics include the following user actions on your posts.
- Comments.
- Shares.
- Likes.
- Follower count and growth.
- Mentions (untagged or tagged).
- Click-throughs.
- DMs.
How to Calculate Your Instagram Engagement
Your Instagram engagement rate defines the number of interactions your content receives relative to your reach or followers. It shows the percentage of people who engaged with your last post. Depending on your IG marketing goals, there are several ways to calculate that number.
You can use an to calculate your engagement rate. You can also calculate Instagram engagement rates manually by looking at your followers, reach, posts, or impressions. Calculating your engagement rate is as easy as running the following formula using these metrics.
Divide your post’s total number of comments and likes by your follower count, and then multiply that number by 100.
(Engagement Rate = Interactions/Audience x 100)
Use the IG Insights tool, Hootsuite analytics, to collect the raw data for this calculation. After defining your stats, use a free IG engagement rate calculator to crunch the numbers.
How to Increase Instagram Engagement?
So, when you know our engagement rate, how do you improve that number? You have options for organic methods like creating compelling captions with open-ended questions that generate comments from your audience. You also have paid strategies to ramp up your engagement metrics, such as buying likes.
Boost Engagement for New Accounts by Buying Likes
Likes are a critical component of your engagement on IG. Ask any Instagram marketer about their top-performing post on the platform, and they’ll likely point toward what’s generating the most likes. The issue with likes is that you need to get a huge following to see your posts receive the threshold of 100 likes.
So, why are likes to do important to your success on IG? The algorithm looks at your engagement, using likes to assess if your content adds value to your community experience on the platform. If the algorithm notices your posts receiving hundreds or thousands of likes, it assumes it’s something your community wants to see, pushing it to the “Explore” page.
Landing on the “Explore” page is the key to growing your account and your reach across Instagram. But how can you get more likes if you only have a small following? Fortunately, there’s a top-rated app for purchasing Instagram likes for your posts.
You can purchase likes, and the algorithm won’t know the difference between your paid and organic strategy. The result is better engagement and more chance of your content reaching the Explore page. If you’re using a high-quality source for your like purchases, there’s no risk of the platform suspending your account.
In Closing – What Should You Expect from a Good Instagram Engagement Rate?
Most social media marketing gurus define an “excellent” engagement rate as 1% to 5% of your following. So, if you have 100 followers, you can expect one to five likes and comments on your posts.
According to Hootsuite, average Instagram engagement rates were around 4.59% in 2020, with these figures increasing to the following in 2022.
- All Instagram post methods: 0.54%
- Instagram image-based posts: 0.46%
- Video posts: 0.61%
- Carousel ad posts: 0.62%
According to the data, carousel posts offer you the best option for engagement. However, the “Reels” feature is rapidly gaining ground and is where you need to focus your time and effort on your content strategy moving into 2023.
Use the methods in this post to ramp up your Instagram engagement and get the most out of your social media marketing budget and efforts.
Growing an Instagram account and increasing likes is hard work and takes time. Some brands use a like Twicsy.