Anybody else have a love-hate relationship with Instagram? We love the platform, but get so frustrated with not knowing how to actually grow there.
The one thing we do know for sure: engagement on Instagram is everything. In order to find your ideal audience and convert them into customers you have to build an authentic connection with them and convince them to actually stick around, and you do that through engagement.
But what does that actually mean? Lucky for you friend, your questions are answered in here. Keep reading to check out 5 quick and easy things that you can try that will give your Instagram engagement a little boost (and give you long-term results if you keep consistently doing these!)
1. Give love to get love.
If you want Instagram engagement, you have to…dun, dun, dun engage! Shocking, right?
Aside from the engagement you’re (hopefully) already doing try this little tip. Set aside 15-30 minutes a day (that’s not even a lot of time), preferably right after you just did a new post. Use that time to go through your favorite hashtags - the ones you use the most where your customers are definitely hanging out - and comment on every post you can.
By comment I mean give a real, relevant, full comment. This means you have to actually look at their photo and read (at least some of) the caption.
Come up with something to say that actually has to do with their post, and write more than 3 words about it. You can use emojis but don’t just put emojis.
Don’t write “Love your content” or “This is so good.” Think of something genuine and authentic to say. Doing this every day for tons of new people will results in those people wanting to engage on your content too, and potentially even following you.
2. Share other posts.
When you find someone else’s post that you love, share it!
If you’ve never done this, use the button under their post that looks like a paper airplane. A menu will pop up where the first option is “Add to your Story.” Click that and it will send the post to your Stories as a clickable post so your followers can click it to be taken to the original post.
When you share it to your Stories, write something over it that shows why you’re sharing it like “This is so true” or “100% agree with this” and tag the original poster. You’ll show up when they view the Story re-shares for that post, but because you tagged them they’ll also get a DM that says you mentioned them in your Stories.
Don’t bombard your followers with nothing but post shares in your Stories, but do this when you come across relevant content you love that you think your followers will enjoy.
3. Add more activity to your Stories.
There are so many ways to add engagement to your Stories.
If you’re not doing it already, you should be using the Poll option and Question box in your Stories on a regular basis. It doesn’t always have to be incredibly relevant and professional, but it’s a way to get your audience to engage with you.
Simply asking them to choose if they’re a coffee or tea person or to answer with their favorite song right now are great ways to get more engagement (and have a little fun with your followers!)
It also helps to mention other accounts in your Stories. Maybe you share three accounts that you’re loving right now, or do a segment every Friday where you pick one of your followers to highlight, or even have a day where you share about other businesses that you support.
You can get so creative with how you do this, but mentioning other accounts will prompt the person mentioned to engage with you, even if it’s just adding that mention to their own Stories.
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4. Ask questions.
You should always have a call-to-action in your post caption. It can be a question for viewers to answer in the comments or telling them to DM you, head to your Stories, or use the link in bio.
I stole this particular idea from my friend Doreen at @knap.creative. For your call-to-action, ask questions that your followers can’t resist answering.
Doreen recently did a post where she asked for followers to comment with their favorite Dad Jokes. It’s one of those questions that you want to answer, and it prompts comments that are fairly long, which is great for the algorithm.
When you’re using irresistible questions, you’re followers are more likely to leave a comment (or several) and even tag their friends to leave comments. Try asking for their favorite song right now, the food they hate that other people love, or what they’re currently obsessing over on Netflix. You’ve got to ask the right questions to get the answers.
5. Talk to new followers.
This is my favorite of these strategies, because it’s so personal and helps you play the long game.
Take a few minutes every day to send DMs to any new people that followed you that day. Not just a regular DM though - at the very least send an audio message, but if you want to go all in on this strategy, do a video message. This way they can see your face, hear your voice, and feel more connected to you knowing that it isn’t a bot or your assistant with a canned template response.
Create these 15-30 second video DMs to your new followers - including their name so they know you recorded it just for them - and introduce yourself and tell them thank you for following you.
Then highlight something you noticed in their bio or one of their most recent posts that you can relate to or get excited about. Are they in a similar industry to you? Did they post about attending a conference you’ve been to? Are they also obsessed with drinking Dr. Pepper?
Find whatever you want, but it just needs to be something you can find quickly and mention quickly to show them that you checked out their profile and can relate to them.
Then to close it out - and this is the most important part - ask them to tell you how you can support them. This opens the door for conversation, makes them feel like you’re a real person that they can actually talk to, and gives you a space to be a resource for them.
THIS IS HOW YOU BUILD CONNECTIONS THAT STICK AROUND FOR YOU TO SELL TO LATER. You’re opening the door for conversation, showing you’re supportive and resourceful, but not sending them something generic that sells to them right off the bat.
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