Top 10 Best Instagram Engagement Hacks

One of the most important factors the Instagram algorithm considers when recommending content on the platform is the engagement rate. That means to grow your Instagram account, you need to increase your engagement level. When doing Instagram marketing, you must focus on increasing the number of likes, comments, and shares.

What Is Instagram Engagement?

Instagram engagement is a calculation that considers the percentage of followers interacting with your account. The Instagram metric considers the number of people who react to your posts in different ways, such as:

• Comments
• Likes
• Shares
• Story views
• Saves
• Brand mentions
• Direct messages
• Link click-throughs .

It also considers the number of impressions a post gets. When your posts receive a high engagement rate, it is a sign that they resonate with your audience. 

Importance of a High Instagram Engagement Rate

There are several reasons why a high Instagram engagement rate matters. These include:

Improve Your Account Visibility

As noted earlier, one of the major considerations the Instagram algorithm uses when ranking content is the engagement rate. If your posts generate a lot of engagement, they are more likely to appear in the user's explore feed. Therefore, if you want to increase the visibility of your Instagram posts, you should focus on increasing engagement.

Grow Your Instagram Account

When you increase engagement, you can attract new audiences with higher visibility for your Instagram post. This is because the algorithm will recommend the posts to people likely to engage with them. If they like the content, they may follow your profile. That means a higher engagement rate will help grow your Instagram account.

Increase Credibility

Instagram users consider posts with a lot of engagement a sign that other users find the account useful. A higher engagement rate is social proof that will signify your brand authority. People are likely to trust your account when it gets a higher engagement.

How to Calculate the Instagram Engagement Rate

To calculate an Instagram post's engagement rate, divide the total number of interactions by the impressions and multiply the answer by 100. Instagram statistics indicate that a good engagement rate is 0.98%. Therefore, you are doing well if you get something around this number. However, you must still look for ways to increase your Instagram engagement.

How to Increase Your Instagram Engagement Rate

Here are some top tips on how to increase your Instagram engagement.

Interact With Your Audience

Remember that Instagram isn't a one-way street. If someone comments on your Instagram photo, video, or reel, they take the time to view it and share their thoughts. Therefore, if they put all that effort into it, you also have a reason to do so. If your social media followers comment on your posts without any response, they will eventually get tired and stop interacting with your account. 

Besides responding to their comments, stories, and DMs, there are other steps you can take to increase engagement. You can ask questions to spur responses from your followers.  When you get to a point where your account grows and the comments become too many, it might become harder for you to respond to every comment. In such instances, you can respond to as many as possible and like the rest.

Determine Your Best-performing Content

You must create posts that resonate well with your audience to drive engagement. To determine what works for them, look at your previous posts to see the best-performing ones. Consider whether there is a specific theme or format for such posts.

For instance, reels with background music might be the best-performing, so you might want to create more of them. The best place to find your best-performing posts is to use a third-party tool such as Sprout Social. Once you find what works for your Instagram account, you can focus on creating more of such content.

Leverage Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories has many features to help you drive engagement in your posts, such as Instagram stickers. Whenever someone interacts with those stickers, the algorithm will consider that engagement. You should, therefore, use stickers to conduct quizzes and polls and encourage questions from your followers. You can also use these stickers to host the AMA Sessions. To add to the fun and competitiveness, you can ask users to guess the right answer. You can then answer the questions using Instagram stories.

A recent Instagram trend is the Add Your Sticker. You can use such a sticker to start a challenge and increase engagement with your brand. Add a prompt to encourage users to participate in the challenge.

Cross-promote Your Instagram Content

Your Facebook page audience is most likely different from your Instagram audience. Some of your Facebook followers are already on Instagram, but do not know you exist there. By sharing your Instagram content on Facebook, you will bring them to the attention of your account.

Use Instagram Ads Strategically

You might have noticed a trend where you are shown more furniture stores when you visit a furniture store. This is the power of retargeting and custom audiences. Instagram is now part of the Facebook ad manager, which has opened up new targeting possibilities. While boosting your content works, you need to be strategic. You can customize your audience more using retargeting and custom audiences.

There are many different sources of custom audiences, such as:

• The newsletter lists.
• People who visit your store.
• Previous customers from your site.
• Those engaging with your Instagram or Facebook accounts.

While the Instagram advertising option can help you get ahead of the competition, retargeting can improve your ad costs and increase conversion.

Create Short-form Videos

Studies indicate that short-form videos are the most effective for driving engagement. Therefore, you should create more of such content. A good idea is to create more reels to boost IG engagement, as these can easily go viral.

No matter your field, there are endless possibilities for the type of reels you can create. These can include how-to videos, tips & tricks, and behind-the-scenes videos. You can also generate information videos with a listicle of what your followers want to know.

Use the Right Hashtags

Use the right hashtags in your content to increase your Instagram reach. With a bigger reach, you will also have an opportunity to increase your engagement. When you use the right hashtags, you will have an opportunity to put your content in the eyes of people searching for that hashtag.

Ensure you use relevant and niche hashtags to put your content in front of the right audience. When Instagram recommends your content to searchers, users will likely check out your page, increasing engagement.

Use the Instagram Collab Features

A great feature that was recently introduced to Instagram is the Collab posts. When you create such a post, it will appear on your timeline and that of your collaborator. This creates an opportunity to increase engagement. You should, therefore, leverage this feature to collaborate with brand partners, industry leaders, and influencers. By doing that, you will be putting your brand in front of a big and relevant audience. The post will generate thousands of comments and likes.

Share Teasers or Sneak Previews

Your followers will love it when you give them sneak previews of your brand. Even when you create public posts, you can provide sneak previews of your new products to make your audience feel special. It will encourage them to guess what could happen and even visit your page. When doing so, avoid giving too much information. Instead, let the reel provide a close-up shot of the new product.

Create Captivating Captions

For videos and reels, there is no better place to encourage engagement and include a call to action than in your Instagram captions. For instance, when you ask a question in the caption, you will encourage followers to provide answers in the comments. Alternatively, share a prompt to encourage your users to share their thoughts and experiences by commenting. With such a strategy, you can rack up a lot of comments from your fans.

Understand the Best Posting Time

You need to ensure that you post your content when your audience is mostly online. This is important as the Instagram algorithm considers the engagement rate of the first 30 minutes when deciding whether to recommend your content to other users. If you post at the wrong time, you will struggle to drive engagement.

You can determine the posting time by looking at the Instagram metrics if you have a business account. This will show you when your audience is mostly online. You can also use third-party social media tools. Once you find the information you seek, you can schedule your posts to when your audience is most likely to engage with them.

Conclusion

To grow your Instagram account, you need to focus on driving engagement. However, with the social media platform killing the reach of organic posts, it's becoming harder to grow engagement. Fortunately, the tips above can help you increase your Instagram organic reach and engagement level. We recommend you also read our guide on the importance of Instagram likes.