Instagram engagement is the key to more distribution of your content today and every day! We wanted to find out what real marketers are doing to boost their own Instagram engagement. Here’s what they said:
Christina Nicholson, Media Maven
I started having more fun with Instagram when I decided to make it fun. Yes, I use it for business and brand building, but people use Instagram to be educated and entertained, so I’m trying to make that fun.
I honestly don’t care about how many followers I have – which is rare for people in the media industry. What I care about is engagement. I want people to like what I’m posting, so I pay attention to the likes and comments.
I ask for comments. I try to have a call to action in every image I post.
In addition, I try to respond to every single comment I get because in a world of information overload every time we pick up our phone, it’s so nice when people take the time to comment on a post. If warranted, I’ll respond with a question and keep the conversation.
It is SOCIAL media after all.
When asked if making it more fun lead to more engagement. She said,
“Yes – because it’s fun to converse with people about the topics I’m posting about. So many people treat it like a billboard and never come back to read their comments. I’ve made amazing friendships and have had great business opportunities come to fruition through Instagram for this reason.”
Jeff Sieh, Manly Pinterest Tips
When a person or a store @mentions one of my Instagram clients, not only do I ask to see if I can repost in on Instagram, I also check to see if they shared that photo over on Facebook (they almost always do).
I then share that post on Facebook as well. Other people see the mention and start tagging us more and share our products because they want the brand’s love too!
Katie Grazer, Whatskatieupto.com
Having great engagement on your Instagram is all about telling a story and interacting with your audience! To achieve this, I personally love writing engaging captions. I try to open up about where I failed in my business but how I got through it or share a successful strategy and how they can apply it as well!
In order for people to fall in love with your account I would focus on building a connection and relationship with your audience. This means opening up to them, getting personal and vulnerable but also giving back.
Finally, I would try not to be something you’re not and engage in the comparison game! If you are funny, share funny stories! If you love writing poems, go for it! Do you love coaching people, let your audience know how they can live a better live! Be authentic and you will attract your tribe which is what I believe to be the secret to an engaged community on Instagram.
Nadine Rohner, nadinerohner.com
If you want to have engagement on your Instagram posts, then some random inspirational quote is not going to cut it anymore. You need to know your target audience inside out and then write your captions specifically for them.
Write down their particular pain points and desires and use it when creating your content. If you are not sure what your audience likes or what they want to read from you, ask them by using Instagram Stories. That’s a great way to really get to know your followers and on top of that, it is also a massive engagement booster.
Always remember that you are creating content for real people – sometimes we tend to forget that because there is a screen in between us but there is human on the other side of the screen.
Rebekah Radice, rebekahradice.com and Product Marketer at Tailwind:
If you want to increase Instagram engagement, get your hashtag strategy on point. Whether you’ve used a handful or a dozen of hashtags in the past, my bet is that you could be getting more from your hashtags.
Let’s say you’re a health and fitness coach looking to connect with would-be trainers. You might get drawn in to popular hashtags like “healthy food,” because WOAH, that reach.
Sounds like a good idea, but you’ll have much greater success if you can find hashtags that will help you hit the top posts area. That way, when people land on that hashtag, your pic is sitting front and center.
To do this, use a tool like Tailwind’s Hashtag Finder. This is an easy way to type in a hashtag like “healthy food,” and find related keywords. What you’re looking for are active, but smaller hashtags, somewhere between 50 to 100k in posts.
Now you might say, “but wait… doesn’t that defeat the purpose of getting found?” Quite the opposite! What you’re doing is building up authority with a tightly connected group of people looking for whatever it is you have to offer.
When it comes to Instagram hashtags, always go deep with smaller niche hashtags rather than going wide with large hard to rank for hashtags.
Instagram Marketing takes a lot of work but works if you work it! Engagement is the key to success on Instagram and there is no better way to do that than building an amazing community you can count on.
Giving weekly shout outs to your most engaged followers has been our secret sauce in addition to our vlogs.
Every Friday since July of 2015 we celebrate our community by thanking them and tagging those who have engaged with our page for the week. We also encourage those tagged to bring in others who have made their week extra fabulous by doing something special for them. The end result? A huge Instagram Fab Friday celebration!
Vlogs are an awesome way to succeed on Instagram! Share your expertise with your followers and always add value. Whether you are creating a post, sharing in Stories or IGTV make sure you are educating, engaging, delighting and entertaining your followers AND reciprocating the love authentically.
Instagram engagement requires smart marketing and a touch of what makes you, you! Which of these ideas will YOU add to your Instagram marketing? Let us know in the comments or share your own Pro tip in the comments. We’d love to hear from you, too!
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