How to increase your engagement on Instagram

What is engagement and its importance on Instagram

Engagement is a metric applied to social networks that determines the degree of involvement, that is, the level of interest and interaction that users have with the content of a personal or professional profile.

The importance of engagement on Instagram lies in the fact that it is one of the main factors taken into account by Instagram to show a publication to more users, that is, it influences the reach times of the content.

If during the first minutes of a publication users do not interact with the content of the feed, the algorithm will determine that their degree of interest is low, therefore, the scope of the content will be reduced. And users will have to access your profile to see it.

The engagement metric is used by social media agencies to analyze the presence of a brand in social networks and determine what type of content is of most interest to its client’s audience. With this information, the objectives of the content plan that will be designed to enhance the brand’s digital strategy can be set.

How to calculate my engagement on Instagram?

The formula to calculate the engagement rate on Instagram business profile accounts is: add the number of interactions, divided by the reach and multiply the result by one hundred.

This formula is a simple way to calculate the engagement rate, but it must be taken into account that it is indicative, since not all metrics have the same weight for the Instagram algorithm. The order of importance of the type of interactions, from most to least, is: Saved, send or share, comments, likes, views and reach.

A frequent question asked by company accounts on social networks is: What percentage is a good engagement on Instagram? According to social media experts, good engagement is between 1% and 5% , although the percentage will depend on the brand’s sector and the size of its audience.

10 Tips to Improve Engagement

Present a complete and attractive professional profile

One of the keys to having an attractive professional profile is through profile information or biography. The profile name is one of the most important factors, it must be memorable and appropriate for our brand. It is recommended to keep it simple by simply including the naming of the brand.

The 160 characters of the biography should be exploited to the maximum and it is interesting to include information such as:

• Brief description of the brand
• History of the company
• Recognitions or awards
• Welcome message
• Brand hashtag
• Slogan

The biography must describe the company providing relevant information for the user and that is different from the competition. It adds value to include data such as: activity sector, type of services offered, skills or the purpose of the company.

In addition, hashtags can be included so that users can find the profile more easily. Although it will depend on the tone that you want to contribute, including emoticons allows you to communicate more closeness and gives it a visual touch. These can be more expressive or can also be used to describe or list.

Use the URL of the bio

The biography can be a great way to create call to actions and generate traffic to other brand platforms such as the website, articles in which the brand is mentioned, e-commerce, blog, other social networks, etc.

Although Instagram only allows you to put a link in the biography, you can use tools such as Linktree, which allow you to create a simple and fast landing page in which the associated links are found.

Bet on the video format

Video marketing is a growing trend that must be implemented, through publications, stories or IGTV. Short formats are awarded and after the Tik Tok boom, Instagram did not take long to implement a similar formula through reels. These can be especially useful to make content viral and get brand awareness.

Interact and participate

Although Instagram is sometimes perceived as a showcase to show brands, products or services, it should not be forgotten that it is a social network. Therefore, it is essential to get involved with the community, giving likes and responding to comments with questions, questions or simply to thank the participation. Stories can also be used to interact with followers through polls, questions, quizzes, etc.

To increase reach it is also important to leave the community and interact with potential followers to get their attention.

If the goal is to get the community involved and engaged, give them a reason for it. The best way to do this is through constant conversation with the public.

Boost captions or captions

Post captions may seem irrelevant, but they are a way to get followers to comment. You can enhance the captions, presenting a premise in the photograph and providing more information in the text of the image. Asking questions in a way that shows genuine interest in their opinion is key.

Create contests

Organizing contests or sweepstakes increases engagement, acts as a way to reward followers and attracts other potential followers to the brand.

Although not all the followers who follow the brand during this action will be retained, a part of them will remain for the value it offers them through the rest of the content.

Optimize hashtags

Using hashtags on social media : hashtag are a good tool not only to classify content, but also to be able to increase the reach among users who search for that hashtag or even follow it. It can also be used as a tool for followers to use in their posts when buying or consuming a branded product. Or it can even be used to generate a campaign or trend in social networks that allows you to viralize the content.

Also Read: Instagram Hashtag Tips

Example: The H&M brand encourages its followers to share their looks with the company’s articles with the hashtag #HMxME. The results are more than 1 million posts promoting the brand’s products by its community.

Geolocate the posts

People like to know what is happening around them or in a certain area so it is important to indicate the location of the publications.

When a user wants to know what is happening in his neighbourhood, in his city, at an event, etc. You can discover it in the search section, by clicking on the “Place” tab. This way, they can search for the location they want and all geolocated posts with that location tag will appear.

Take advantage of User Generated Content

User Generated Content are those contents created by the followers of a brand. Promoting this type of practice in the communities allows increasing the scope. It is also a way to connect with the audience by generating a user experience focused on their active participation, creating relationships with followers beyond the promotion of products or services.

In addition, consumers value this type of content positively in the purchase decision, since they have information about the brand through other users.

Control the photos in which you are tagged

Although the UGC can be a useful tool to increase our engagement, we must also bear in mind that in social networks there are not only followers and fans of the brand, but also detractors and haters. Therefore, it is important to keep track of comments and control of tagged photos.

In order to have an optimal functioning of this Instagram functionality, a previous configuration can be established so that the brand cannot be tagged without prior consent.

It is essential to have a good strategy and content plan in social networks that transmits the brand personality and generates interest in the products and services. Digital marketing agencies are kept up-to-date with trends and changes in social media functionalities, since it can be very useful to carry out specific actions so that algorithms enhance the reach of the brand, but in parallel it is essential to build a relationship consistent and constant with our followers.

Are you interested in a social media strategy?

In our agency we have a digital marketing department with a team made up of community managers and social media planners specialized in social media. Our services include the design, management and measurement of results through social media content plans.