10 Tips For Massively Increasing Instagram Engagement
Instagram can be an incredible tool for various purposes whether it be for personal use, business or brand use, education – you name it. Any information you want to put out to the world or find is easily accessible especially on this platform. Unfortunately, there can be a bit of a learning curve to increasing your fanbase and boosting engagement. Luckily, we’ve compiled a guide for you of our top 10 tips for massively increasing Instagram engagement. Apply any of these tricks as needed and you’ll see immediate improvement in your engagement, guaranteed.
Know Your Target Audience
Your target audience is going to be one of the most important parts of your Instagram. These are the people who are going to be seeing and interacting with your posts! Being aware of your audience is a vital part of our top 10 tips for massively increasing Instagram engagement. It’s important to select a target audience within the same niche and genre as your posts as these people will be searching for the content that you are putting out and they want to be seeing that specific kind of content! Niches and targets can range from locations to specific hashtags all relating to what you’re seeking to promote or relate to.
To begin with, we recommend selective targeting of 15-20 various accounts. Interacting with users under the same followings and hashtags will help boost your account. The more specific the target to your account and niche, the better the results are going to be. This will ensure you will be receiving traffic and engagement that are genuinely interested in your content and material.
AlphaReady has an amazing tool called AlphaBoost which essentially assists in the targeting process and improving your engagement, making all these steps much easier for you.
Have Eye-Catching Content
Making sure that your content is eye-catching is a great way to attract followers. Having clear photos that are visible and not over edited or over filtered is an easy way to increase engagement on a post. The easier the photo is to understand and the less overwhelming it is to the viewer the more likely someone is to follow along with it and understand the content being presented.
To explain this a little bit more in depth, you want your photo to be comprehensible. Don’t layer it in filters and make sure that you’re taking a clear, focused image to begin with. People are way more likely to continue scrolling past your post if it’s been oversaturated, sharpened as much as possible and then draped in the filter Valencia. There are tons of guides out there on how to take a good image! Some key information to remember when capturing an image is always looking for proper lighting. If you need to, change your perspective. If you’re feeling adventurous play around with focal points.
Your picture should be able to speak for itself. It should grab a viewer’s attention and have them go, “What’s this?”. It should encourage them to read your caption and possibly even tune in for your future content. It’s important that it stands out and captures the audience that you’re projecting to as this is how you’re going to keep traffic flowing to your account.
An awesome example of a prominent image that attracts the viewer’s attention is on @beautifulcuisines account which has a clear intent. It is well focused, eye-catching, and has a phenomenal colour scheme. These things really draw viewers in whether they see this image on their dashboard or on the discovery page. They vividly describe the content seen and emphasize the details the viewer can see in the image. You can view this post here.
Have Instagram Specific Content
People want to see new and fresh content, simple as that! Make sure that you are creating posts that are just for Instagram so that they go to your account to view more information! If someone could find all your posts and information elsewhere, why would they specifically choose your Instagram to view that? After all, you’re reading a top 10 tips for massively increasing Instagram engagement, not Facebook or Twitter engagement. This is why it is important to create content for your Instagram alone. People will be pressed to know what new content you have to release and want to see what you’ve been up to and your Instagram will benefit from that!
On the odd chance you do decide to recycle content, make sure that it is relevant and fresh for all viewers regardless of which platforms they follow you on. Why would people tune in to your account if there was never any fresh content to see? The answer is they wouldn’t. They would quickly get bored and look for new material to engage in. Look for new and improved ways all the time to be fine-tuning your captions and images.
Post Daily
Post often – they always say “Out of sight, out of mind”, and this can be applied to your account. If you are not posting often, many followers will forget that your account is there or that you are releasing content. You want to remain relevant! On the contrary though, if you post too often and too much similar content, people will be less encouraged to view the same subject over and over again. It is important to find the balance between having relevant content while not over posting as that devalues the information being presented.
Try to come up with a consistent posting schedule so that people know when to expect content from you and when to be engaging with your new material. You can be posting twice a day even, whenever you find peak times are for engagement so that a routine is developed for your followers. Never go several days without posting, you’re likely to lose followers or engagement for being inactive, even if it’s only for a short time. People want consistency.
Engage With Your Followers!
Your followers are there for a reason. That reason is that they genuinely enjoy your content and the subjects that you post about! They’re interested in the same topics and information that you are. Make sure you’re reaching out to some of them or replying to the ones that like, comment and interact with your posts! You’re likely to increase engagement and traffic to your account doing this as people can read your responses and interact with them, sharing their opinions, experience, and knowledge.
Obviously, you don’t have to answer every comment or direct message. You’re going to get some weird responses, questions or spam messages on any platform from time to time, and answering them would be more than tedious. Making sure that you are on top of answering important questions or taking part in discussions related to your content is a huge part of improving your account though. Choose a few of your favorite responses and go from there.
If you’re looking for a way to earn extra income while engaging with your followers, check out our article all about affiliate links and affiliate programs. Here, you can help with your follower’s growth and engagement while improving your own.
Know What To Avoid
It’s important to know the strategies behind your posting and techniques to improve your content. It’s even more important to remember what you shouldn’t do with your account. Being unaware of these can be detrimental to your account’s growth, engagement, and traffic. There are many things that have been suggested to avoid in our list of top 10 tips for massively increasing Instagram engagement, but here is a summary of some key points to remember including some advice previously unmentioned.
- Avoid targeting famous accounts
- Avoid posting the same content more than once
- Don’t post too often – this can seem like spam and can decrease engagement
- Going AWOL and not posting content for several days
- Plagiarism, lack of citation and not giving due credit to other sources
- Don’t choose too broad of niches to target
- Don’t choose too few targets either, the more the merrier
- Unclear or unrecognizable images
- Unclear, grammatically or factually incorrect captions
- A lack of caption or description for your image and content
Have a Target Message
It’s important to know what you’re posting about and have a clear point to the post. A post that is easy to understand and follow along with will generally get a more positive reception than one that is hard to comprehend and that isn’t entirely clear. For example, if you see a photo of a meal with the caption, “Ah, how delicious” – you understand that the person is posting about good food and you may even relate to the photo or want the food in the image afterward. This is an example of a clear message and something easy to understand. Just like how the message of our article top 10 tips for massively increasing Instagram engagement is clearly stated in our title, your viewers should be able to simply interpret what you’re explaining to them.
Make sure to approach everything as if you were explaining something for the first time to someone. Also, try to make the point of your picture clear to viewers. Assume the consumer is completely unaware of what you’re explaining. Educate them on the in’s and out’s of what you’re posting whether it’s a personal blog post or a product you’re selling. Engagement will only increase when the viewer is aware of what they’re reading and spending their time on. Reinforcing this message in other posts or replies to comments will help with clarity as well! You can affirm your previous statements on other posts. You can also follow through with further explanation for those who are interested. This ties into rule 5; remember to engage with your followers!
Find the Right Time to Post
This one takes some trial and error but timing is important when it comes to your Instagram It is important to get to know your viewers and know when people will be most receptive to your account and topics. For example, if most of your followers are from the UK but you are posting during the middle of the day in the US, a bulk of your followers may not immediately be seeing your content. It could also get lost or pushed back by Instagram. There’s a chance your viewers may not even see it at all.
Choosing a routine posting time is equally important. Consumers can tune in when they know you’ll be posting to catch your content. They can consistently be there to engage with any new material you have to put out. Making sure that your followers are of your posting schedule will ensure that you’ll have people there to indulge in your new content each time it is released. How can you have an audience for a show without informing them when it’s happening? You can’t. Treat your account with this enthusiasm and point of view and make sure you are consistent with a schedule!
Post Consistent Content
Make sure that there is a clear theme to your page. Whether it be photography, makeup, automobiles or whatever genre – you name it, there needs to be a strong theme and consistent obvious genre to your page. Having tons of topics can be overwhelming for the viewer and often people are searching for very select topics at a time. Therefore, make sure that your Instagram is optimized to whatever niche you choose and stick with that. Be sure to make it clear about what it is you want to talk about.
If you’re an account known for having a specific theme or niche then stick to it. You’ll only confuse viewers throwing in an off-topic post contradicting your account. They’ll be left wondering if they’re following the same account as before or if they missed an important update. You could very well lose engagement and followers due to a lack of consistency. A lot of people will simply unfollow an account if it’s not the content they want to see on their newsfeed. Why would you unexpectedly switch up your niche then? Making sure everything ties together is important with broadcasting a clear message of what your account is about to new followers as well. If they see similar themes across your account then they can be assured of what content they’re viewing as well.
Do Not Be Overwhelmed – Things Take Time
Nothing happens overnight. Growth may take a while but using our tips and tricks. Luckily, you can achieve that growth on your Instagram overtime super easily. Don’t stress if it doesn’t happen immediately. Some things take time. As many famous quotes state, “Everything takes time”. Good things come to those who are patient. More importantly, to those who go above and beyond and put in tremendous amounts of work and effort. Be passionate about what you do and put your utmost effort into your account. Take the time to perfect every detail from your image to your captions, comments, direct messages, etc. Follow these top 10 tips for massively increasing Instagram engagement to your best ability and apply them where you can, and we can guarantee success with your account growth and engagement.
Think of it as an investment. You’re investing your time and effort into something and you’ll be reaping the benefits beyond the effort you put in. If you’re truly passionate and driven to do this, whether it is for personal reasons or to promote a brand or business and put the work in, you’ll be incredibly successful and see phenomenal results.
Benefits of the Top 10 Tips For Massively Increasing Instagram Engagement
You’re going to spend a lot of time working on your account. That isn’t to be underestimated. Over time, you’ll see all the hard work you put in pay off. Isn’t that all anybody wants in the end? Best of luck.
