How to Increase Engagement on Instagram: 11 Simple Yet Effective Strategies That Work

You see it happening all around you. Friends and even strangers go viral with Instagram posts, videos, or reels. You see their success and wonder when you’ll have your own moment of fame. 

If you’re thinking it’s an impossible task for you, then it’s time to redirect your way of thinking. The more engagement your Instagram account has, the more traffic it’ll receive. If you want to grow your following on Instagram, then you’ll need to learn how to increase engagement on Instagram. 

Once you know how to increase Instagram engagement, you can begin to increase Instagram followers and get the traffic to your account that you want! Are you ready to start seeing some results? Continue reading below to get started!

1. Determine Your Niche

Before you make your first post on Instagram (or your next one), you need to determine your niche. If you already have content on your account, don’t worry. You have the power to switch things up and start doing something different with your Instagram whenever you want to and that time is now. 

What type of content do you want to share with your followers? Are you selling a product or service? Are you an influencer looking to monetize your account? 

Figure out what your niche or brand is and then stay true to that throughout all of your content. As you make this transition, you might lose a few followers here and there, but you’ll soon begin to draw in all the right people to your account. 

2. Understand Your Target Audience

After determining your niche (what type of content you’ll post) you need to start understanding your target audience. Who is your target audience and what type of content will they expect from you? A great way to learn more about your target audience is to start posting your content. 

Post content that’s directly related to your niche and then see who’s liking and commenting on your posts. You can also take a look at any new followers as well. The more you understand your target audience, the better you can create content made just for them. 

3. Use Your “Insights” Tool

A private account won’t help you get more engagement or a larger following. You need to set your account to “public” to open access to all the right insights. Once you switch to a public account, you can then use the “insights” tool to view information on accounts reached, accountants engaged, and total followers. 

Accountants reached and accountants engaged will give you information about your followers, such as what cities and countries they’re located in, their age, and their gender. You can also see which of your posts got the most engagement. 

The total followers will give you information about your following growth/loss and times during the day when your followers are the most active. Use this information to help you create content your followers will love and post at the right times. 

4. Create a Posting Schedule

When you post is almost just as important as what you post. If you’re posting awesome content at the wrong times, then you might not get as much engagement as you’re wanting. It’s crucial to look into your insights and post on days and times when your followers are the most active. 

This is the best way to reach the majority of your followers, which will then give your post more engagement and help it reach accounts that aren’t already following you. You can post every day if you want, but you don’t need to. You should also avoid posting more than once a day on Instagram.

Posting at least 3-4 times a week is sufficient. Make sure to create a posting schedule that correlates with the days and times when your followers are the most active for the best results.

5. Post High-Quality Content

High-quality content will get you the most engagement. If it doesn’t happen right away, give it some time. Continue to post high-quality content and the results will soon come. 

When taking photos or videos for your account, make sure there’s great lighting. You want your photos to be clear with lighting that works well for the type of content you’re posting. Professional photos are always a good idea.

You can work with professional photographers who’ll ensure your photos look great each and every time. Photo and video visual quality is important but don’t forget to post something that brings value also. How will your content bring value to your followers?

Will it offer answers to some common questions? Will your content include a tutorial of some kind of a workout routine that others can follow? Put yourself in your follower’s shoes and think about what you might want to see.

6. Take Advantage of Hashtags and Location

Now that you have some awesome, high-quality content to post, make sure you use the right hashtags and include the location as well. Hashtags are a way to help people find content that might not already be following you. Some users follow certain hashtags and others look up different hashtags to find new content using the explore page. 

When including hashtags on your posts, though, it’s crucial to only use hashtags related to your content. If you include a bunch of hashtags that aren’t related to your content, it could actually negatively affect your engagement. Always make sure they’re relevant and only add the right location to your posts. 

7. Collaborate With Other Influencers 

Reaching a large target audience is something that takes time and doesn’t always happen overnight. You must stay consistent and post genuine content. One way to help boost your reach, however, is to work with other influencers. 

Reach out to other influencers on Instagram who post similar content to yours. You should also check your messages from time to time to see if another influencer is reaching out to you. Collaborate with them, share each other’s content, comment and save each other’s content as well. 

When both of you can bring more traffic to one another’s accounts, it’s a win-win situation. 

8. Start Making Instagram Reels

If you haven’t already tried out an Instagram reel, then now is the perfect time to do so. Instagram reels help direct more traffic to your account because they’ll appear in the “reels” section on the app. Users who scroll through various reels are likely to come across yours! 

If they like your content, then they could even turn into new followers. Don’t forget to add captions and hashtags to your reels as well. You can also consider going live on your account. 

Live stories will appear at the front of the story scroll and hopefully grab more people’s attention. 

9. Engage With Your Followers

If you want your account to have more engagement, then you need to contribute to that engagement. You can’t expect to post and remain silent and have lots of engagement. You’ll need to comment back when followers comment on your stories or posts.

You’ll also want to ask questions on your posts and stories for your followers to respond to. Try to communicate with your followers as much as possible. This will encourage them to engage with your content more. 

10. Give Followers a Reason to Share/Save Posts

Receiving a lot of likes on your posts is always great. Likes for likes is a way that many Instagram users get more likes from followers. This is one way to boost engagement, but saves and shares can do a lot for your reach as well. 

Try to give your followers a reason to share and save your posts. If you post essential information on your posts, such as workout routine details, healthy recipes, or the location of a cool place you visited, then followers are more likely to share and save this content. They’ll then be able to refer back to it when they want to reread what you posted. 

11. Stay Authentic to Yourself

Last but not least, remember to stay authentic to yourself. When you stay true to your own beliefs and values, it shows in your content. Not everyone will have the same beliefs, but you want to focus on the people who do and build a strong following of those types of people. 

Over time, all of the foodies or fitness junkies will know exactly where to go for the best content!

Let’s Increase Engagement on Instagram Today

Are you ready to increase engagement on Instagram? Becoming Instagram famous isn’t as simple as many popular influencers make it seem. There’s actually some strategic planning and skill that goes into the process. 

Use all of the helpful information listed above to begin your own journey towards Instagram success. If you’re interested in more topics similar to this one, then don’t forget to check back here on a daily basis.