How To Increase Social Media Engagement On Instagram

This day and age, everyone is on social media: businesses and consumers alike. With such content-saturated platforms, it can be difficult for brands to make their content more visible for their target demographic, especially since the proven steps for increasing engagement are so well known.  

Here are our unique recommendations to increase your brand awareness and social media engagement on Instagram, while standing out from other brands.

Hashtags

Hashtags are a great way to engage those who may not follow you. There are several ways to utilize hashtags on Instagram. 

For one, be sure to include hashtags in both your stories and your static posts. These can be duplicate hashtags (ie, using hashtag #Hello in your post AND in your story caption).

Ideally, in your static post, aim for 30 relevant hashtags. This is the maximum number of hashtags Instagram allows per comment. Be sure to create a “first comment” under your post caption for these hashtags. This has been proven to be more effective than including your hashtags directly in your caption. 

Most of your hashtags should be popular hashtags related to your business. If you sell bicycles, for example, an appropriate popular hashtag could be #Bicylce. Around a quarter of your hashtags should be niche, brand-specific hashtags. For example, if your bicycle company is named “ABC Bikes,” a niche hashtag would be #ABCBikes. Optimizing both popular and niche hashtags not only attract your target demographic, but it makes your brand easier to follow if someone knows exactly what sort of content they are looking for.  

Capitalize the first letter of each word in your hashtags. Not many businesses know about this, but Instagram hashtags are more effective if they are written in a way to make it easier for those with vision-related disabilities to read. For example, #blueskies is much more difficult to read than #BlueSkies (capitalizing the first letter of each word ensures that whoever is reading the hashtag can read the hashtag as intended). 

Engage with Other Accounts

Engaging with other accounts is a great way to naturally boost your own engagement. There are several ways to do this, like following similar accounts, liking, and commenting on your followers’ posts and similar content, and cross-promoting and resharing content on your own page. Be sure to respond to all DMS and comments within a day, and don’t be afraid to reach out to others, even if just to say hello.

You can also work with influencers and partner with other brands to create content for your own business. These can be product features, giveaways, testimonials, and more. Always be sure to tag whoever you are partnering with in your post caption. (If you are interested in learning more about influencer collaborations, check out our other blogs!)

Make Sure Your Content is Engaging 

Everyone’s feed is saturated with single, static photo posts. While there are limited options for the types of posts you can do on Instagram, there are ways to make sure your posts are better at capturing consumer attention. Ideally, you want your potential customer to spend as much time on your content as possible. 

Be sure to post frequently, at optimal times for your page. If you are set up as a business account on Instagram, simply check the “Business Insights” tab for this info. 

Prioritize reels and videos over static posts. Reels and videos are a great way to include more content in just one post, and they hold the consumer’s attention much longer than any regular old photo. 

In your post captions and stories, be sure to include a call to action. This could be as simple as including a link to your website, or as simple as saying “shop now to save 20%”. This tactic is great at capturing your consumer’s attention by sharing valuable and extra information.

Talk about your topic, not just your brand. For example, if you are in the hair care industry, instead of just talking about your product, talk about hair trends, different ways to style your hair, the different hair types, and any other relevant topic. This is a great way to make sure your content is valuable to everyone seeing it. 

Create polls and surveys, and post carousels (a post with more than one image). Like reels and videos, these sorts of posts are great at holding your consumer’s attention for a longer time.  

 If you are interested in receiving a customized social media plan, feel free to contact us! Helm & Stern Branding is here to help.