Use these 5 steps to increase Instagram engagements

With Instagram and any other social media platform, an increase in engagements is always a goal. It doesn’t matter if it’s a personal or professional account, when we post content that our audience likes, they will engage and encourage others to engage too. To do this for a business Instagram account, we need to be aware of changes that happen on the platform and make sure that our content provides value to our clients.

In this article, we are going to go over 5 steps that you can use in any social media plan to increase Instagram engagements. For more on why you should make Instagram one of your business’s social platforms, read our article about finding the right social media for your brand.

Find the best time and frequency to post.

You can make brilliant posts but if they aren’t being posted when your clients are around, they will not perform as well as they can. You want your posts to go up when your clients are most likely to engage. Thanks to social media analytics, the data is all at our fingertips, but this does take time to test for the best results.

Don’t fall for the trap of thinking that your research for posting times on Facebook automatically translate to Instagram and don’t stop at being happy with just 1 post a day. You may find that your Instagram account would benefit from 2 updates a day, one in the afternoon and another in the evening. It all comes down to staying on top of your analytics. Never stop figuring out what works best on Instagram.

Use the right hashtags for your brand.

Hashtags are an important way for your clients and potential clients to find your Instagram posts. Using them correctly can be tricky because it is easy to think that generic and highly populated hashtags are the best. While this may work for some of your posts, they will quickly get drowned by the millions of other posts with the same hashtag. The best hashtags to use are a mix of trendy and industry-specific ones.

It is always important to research hashtags every time you use them. During our research, we want to determine 2 things; what the hashtag is really for and how many we should use.

When using a new hashtag, always look at what the results will give you. This will not only give you insights on how the hashtag gets used, but it will also stop you from using a hashtag that is actually for some of the more niche communities on Instagram. The internet is a wild place and this can save a lot of embarrassment.

We recommend using less than 7 hashtags on each of your Instagram posts. The platform allows much more but when they are all put together, it will look unprofessional and will negatively impact your engagements. This step also requires research to find what your clients will respond to the most. To increase your brand’s Instagram engagements, vary the number and type of hashtags and always include your brand’s one.

Utilise different types of content.

The most effective type of content will vary from brand to brand. However, one way to increase your Instagram engagements is to use more than one. This means mixing up videos, carousels, photos and links regularly. Social media analytics will help find which types of media work best and organically rotate around them. Use them to communicate the unique aspects of your brand with your clients.

Make use of user-generated content.

User-Generated Content is a dream for any brand to get on a social platform. When you clients create content about or with your brand, reposting it will greatly increase engagements on Instagram. When your share these photos, it will also encourage others to join in. But, how do we encourage this kind of interaction with our clients?

It starts with you. Find quality content from your clients and start sharing them. Letting your clients know how to tag your brand will greatly help in finding this content. So, creating a strong brand hashtag can be instrumental. Keep the conversation with your clients going by engaging with their posts even when you are not going to share it. Give it a like, leave a comment and let them know how much you appreciate that they want your brand to appear on their Instagram feed. If you want more advice on user-generated content, keep up to date with the Web2Web Blog for future posts. 

Always credit the original content creator. Including them in the content you share and giving them a shout out will encourage other users to share more content. Not only that, but it is also a requirement in Instagram’s terms and conditions. As a brand, you don’t want to break those.

Update your Instagram bio.

While this step may seem obvious, there are a surprising number of brands that leave their bio blank or out of date. This is a prime place to leave contact information, store locations and your brand hashtag. All bios must be within 150 characters and you can use emojis and @mentions too.

If you want to take your bio to the next level, update it with your current advertising campaign, brand events or partner accounts. What’s most important is to keep it fresh and up to date.

Get the most out of your social media marketing with Web2Web.

Optimising your company’s performance on Instagram can be incredibly beneficial for your brand. It’s a great way to keep current clients engaged while exposing your products and services to new potential clients. This is why finding an experienced team like Web2Web to manage your social media marketing can boost your business as a whole. From studying analytical data to creating posts that will draw attention, contact us if you want to increase your engagements on Instagram or any other social platform.