6 Powerful Ways To Improve Your Instagram Engagement Rate

Many SMEs and up-and-coming brands chose Instagram to launch their products, and for a good reason. The image and video sharing social media site was the most downloaded app in the fourth quarter of 2021.

If you’re looking to expand the reach of your business, Instagram is the way to go. In late 2021, the platform reached 2 billion monthly active users and continues to be the second most widely used social media site in the world.

If you’ve decided that Instagram will be your platform of choice, you have to ensure you have great engagement because an account with no visible action is a big turn-off to many consumers.

What Is Engagement?

In social media, engagement is critical to the life of your brand as it’s one of the ways your followers can interact with your content. When you have a high Instagram engagement rate, you’ve made a measurable connection with your audience and maintained their loyalty for the duration of your presence on social media.

The following actions can measure Instagram engagement:

Likes
Comments
Shares
Saves

The average Instagram engagement today is 0.98%. Your engagement rate is calculated depending on your number of followers or impressions, so if you have a high follower count, the tendency is for your engagement rate to go down. If you find it challenging to increase your followers, it would be great to know that you can buy followers from reputable sources. To give you an idea, here’s how your engagement rate should be with your number of followers:

Fewer than 10,000 – 1.18%
10,000 -100,000 – 0.94%
More than 100,000 – 0.74%

Experts say a reasonable engagement rate is pegged at 1-5%.

How Do You Compute For Engagement?

There are several ways to compute for engagement:

By using your follower count – Total your likes and comments for a particular period, divide this by your number of followers and multiply by 100 to get the percentage.
By using impressions – Because not all your followers could see your posts or react to them at a given time, it wouldn’t be fair to count them. Another way is to use the impression count in your insights which show all the users who saw your posts and engaged with them. To compute this, divide your total likes and comments by your impressions, then multiply by 100 to get the percentage. You can only view insights from a business account.

Now that you know how to compute for engagement rate, it’s time to ramp up your engagement. Here are powerful ways you can do this:

1. Know Your Audience

The first step in creating compelling content is knowing who you’re making it for. When you know your audience, you can create content that resonates with them. Viral-worthy content won’t matter if it’s not aligned to your product’s market.

The most effective way to know your audience is to create a buyer persona. It’s a semi-fictional character that you envision using your product.

A defined buyer persona will help you create challenging situations wherein your product could help them. This will also stir up your team’s creative juices, so you can make related products to suit the needs of your persona. When you have a buyer persona, you can stay focused on your target audience and not lose your connection.

Lastly, if you have a buyer persona identified, you can tap relevant communities and reach out to them for possible collaboration. If you find this difficult to do, check out sources like Media Mister reviews. They’re known to help SMEs amplify their engagement rate effectively.

Also Read: Top Instagram Analytics Every Marketer Should Know

2. Utilize Captivating Images

The majority of the population is visual. If you consistently post captivating and well-thought-out images, you’re more likely to attract a bigger audience, even those outside your target niche.

Also, Instagram is an image-sharing site. Its users are more inclined to look at images because that’s what probably compelled them to sign up for it in the first place.

Content paired with an image gets 94% more engagement than those without. This is also because people’s attention span gets shorter in the age of technology.

3. Post Video Content

You can create video for Instagram when used correctly, an informative video can boost your product knowledge. When more people are knowledgeable about what you do or what you offer, they’ll have more reasons to patronize you.

Also, according to the latest numbers, 91% of the active Instagram users prefer watching videos on the platform. Videos offer sight, sound, and motion that could effectively tap into your target market’s emotions and eventually influence them to respond.

4. Use Relevant Hashtags

Not many people are aware, but users can also follow a hashtag. When you use one, it’ll make your post searchable on the platform.

If you plan on launching a campaign, hashtags are one of the most creative ways you can target your audience. Remember that even if Instagram allows as many as 30 hashtags to be used in one post, the ideal number of hashtags to make your post highly effective is 11.

5. Host A Giveaway

People love winning great items. A giveaway is an excellent way for people to engage and follow your account. Many brands host giveaways because the actions required to be eligible will instantly propel your engagement to the roof.

Most accounts that host giveaways will ask users to follow them, save and share their posts, and tag several friends toward other social platforms. If those interested in joining follow all the requirements, there’ll be a sizeable increase in engagement and a spike in followers.

Aside from increasing the engagement rate, hosting giveaways will also increase your brand loyalty, as this can be considered a great way to show gratitude to your followers.

6. Partner With Influencers

Nano influencers are Instagram stars with 10 000 followers, while micro-influencers are Instagram accounts with 10,000 to 200,000 followers. They can help give your engagement a boost. Their followers are attached to them and follow their lead. Whatever they recommend, their followers will likely patronize because that’s one of the reasons their followers are there to begin with.

Getting influencers on board for your campaign may require a budget as most of them ask for a posting fee. Not to worry because if you manage to get the service of an excellent influencer, there’ll be a substantial return on your investment anyway.

Conclusion

Even if you have a massive following, it’d be futile if they don’t engage with you. In today’s world of digital marketing, Newton’s third law of motion can be applied. For every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction. You’ll be pushed higher on the platform’s search page for every engagement you get. Hence, you have to strive harder to get your audience to react to your content.