Simple Tips to Increase Instagram Engagement

Noticing your Instagram engagement is down? Get in line. Instagram’s algorithm seems to be against us all and generally engagement is declining across the board (for at least the last year). Fear not - there are always ways to optimize your posts and content strategies, so let’s get into it:

• Content Strategy

  • This isn’t always the case - but the content you were posting two years ago is most likely not the content that will perform today. Here’s a few things for sure: Instagram loves video. They love UGC style content and viral videos. Now let’s be honest - when you create a video do you think it will actually go viral by chance? Or are you creating a video with a “viral” strategy behind it? More often than not, you are just creating something and hoping. Other than that, changing up your editing and filming strategy can be helpful - here is a quick tutorial on hooks and video formats.

• Engagement & Social Listenting

  • Do not ignore those engaging with you! Engage with every single post, comment, tag, and DM that you can!

  • Do you know what social listening is? This is HUGE when it comes to Reels - comments on relevant posts can go just as viral as your own videos. Showing up matters!

• Change Up Your Posting Frequency

  • Only posting in feed single images? There is so much more to Instagram! Change up your posting frequency and post types.

    • In Feed Single Images

    • In Feed Carousels

    • Reels (note: any videos posted on Instagram are considered a Reel)

    • Stories

    • Guides

• Keywords & Hashtags

  • Hashtags can be iffy, but here’s what we know: Use 5-8 hashtags per post, mixing post and account related hashtags, widely used hashtags and smaller ones

  • Social media is generally a search tool now, make sure you create your captions (and alt-text) keyword rich

• Additional Features

  • Making sure to use the features Instagram gives us is important, especially utilizing new features as soon as they roll out. Here are a few you need to be using or looking out for as they are still rolling these out to accounts:

    • Topics

    • Shopping Tags

    • Notes

    • Post Music

    • Broadcast Channels

    • Paid Verification

Looking for more tips? Check out these updates from Instagram’s CEO Adam Mosseri