There are many benefits to social media marketing for your business. Using Instagram, for example, is a free way to grow your audience and increase brand awareness. With over one billion monthly active users, Instagram is also a great platform to entice new customers with exciting images and graphics. However, maintaining and improving your Instagram engagement is another matter. 

The platform regularly changes its algorithm to favour certain content over others, so it can be hard to keep track of what’s engaging and what isn’t. If you’ve not looked at your Instagram strategy for a while you may notice your engagement starting to drop.

So, how can you boost your engagement on Instagram? In this blog, we take a look at five ways you can boost your Instagram engagement, from understanding your audience to making the most of all of Instagram’s features.

1. Get to know your audience

You can’t create engaging and compelling content for Instagram without first knowing who your audience is.

Hopefully, you’ll have done your market research and know your brand voice and its audience. Now you need to find out what your audience likes to see. Do they prefer Instagram carousel posts to single-image posts? Do they prefer reels (short-form video) to Instagram TV (long-form video)? You can work this out by looking at Instagram analytics under your account. Here you can examine engagement rates and the reach of each post.

From these insights, you can continue creating the posts that work well, and stop wasting time on posts your audience doesn’t like. By getting to know your audience and their needs, you’ll be sure to keep them engaged with relevant and timely content.

2. Create relevant and saveable content

Now that you know who your audience is and what they like to see on Instagram, you can now channel your content even further.

You may understand Instagram as a photo-sharing platform, but users now use it for more than just looking at aesthetic images. You need to create content that is educational, entertaining or a combination of both. The rise of ‘edutainment’ has prompted content creators to produce more than just a pretty image, and give their followers something they can learn from. Don’t be afraid to use more words in your graphics. If the content is helpful or informative, users will like and save it to return to later.

The more users that save your posts, the higher your engagement will be. Creating saveable content will thrust you into the spotlight as a useful resource and a thought-leader within your industry. It’s a win-win!

3. Write strong captions

Every one of your Instagram posts should have a compelling caption with a strong call-to-action.

The caption space is a great opportunity to tell your audience more about your brand, product or service. Use this space to share more of your brand voice, and add a call-to-action at the end to encourage followers to engage with your account. These might look like “visit the link in our bio to find out more” or “drop your favourite meal in the comments below”. This helps to open up a conversation between you and your followers, showing them that you care about what they have to say.

If you’re struggling for content ideas, a great tip is to ask your followers what they’d like to see! Your caption is the perfect place for that. Hearing from your followers will inspire content ideas and boost engagement later down the line.

4. Post short-form videos

Short-form video is set to be one of the biggest marketing trends of 2022. They’re quick and easy to make, and can boost your engagement ten-fold. We’ve seen a sharp drop in the average attention span when consuming social media (now only eight seconds). This means it’s important to create content that grabs viewers in the first few seconds.

Since Instagram added the reels feature in 2020, they have continued to grow in popularity as an alternative to TikTok. The Instagram algorithm also favours creators who make use of all Instagram’s features, including reels. This means that if you’re creating relevant and entertaining videos for reels, you’re likely to appear on more users’ feeds than if you stick to static posts only.

Showing your face on camera may sound a little daunting, but trust us, everyone is doing it! For content ideas, keep an eye on Instagram’s creators page, as they share trending topics, reels and tutorials.

5. Best way to boost Instagram engagement: Be yourself

Last but not least, be yourself. A trend that is here to stay is being authentic online. Authenticity and honesty are two values that social media users have come to appreciate and expect from their favourite brands.

This is a good way to stand out on Instagram, which has previously favoured aesthetic images and perfectly curated content. Now, Instagram users want to see the people behind the brand. This might mean sharing behind-the-scenes footage in an Instagram story, or a ‘meet the team’ carousel showcasing your staff.

Having a cheeky sense of humour, or an interesting backstory to your brand can help you come across more personable and boost your engagement. Genuine ideas and messaging help build that emotional connection. It also has the added benefit of making your brand more memorable, as followers can assign a face to a brand. A little less perfection and more authenticity will go a long way to boost your engagement on Instagram. 

These are just a few ways to boost Instagram engagement for your brand. We recommend trying a variety of these methods to see which resonates the most with your audience. The most important aspect of boosting engagement is creating relevant content consistently. That way you become a trusted brand with quality content that your audience will come to expect.

To find out more about how to boost your social media presence, get in touch with Posh Cockney today.