HOW TO INCREASE INSTAGRAM ENGAGEMENT & KEEP PEOPLE ON YOUR PAGE
There is nothing more humbling than spending thirty minutes making a Reel…only for it to get two likes 😒 Seriously, what’s up? The truth is, IG engagement is a vicious cycle. You want to increase engagement so your content reaches more people. But in order for your content to reach more people, Instagram wants to see higher engagement. WTF. Luckily, increasing Instagram engagement isn’t a guessing game.
In order to increase your engagement, you need people to stay on your page longer. The more time people spend on your profile, the more likely they are to like, share, comment, or DM. Instagram is also smart enough to recognize when people enjoy your content, which means your content will show up in more people’s feed.
HOW TO GET MORE INSTAGRAM ENGAGEMENT
As I mentioned, you want to keep your audience on your page for as long as possible. In the digital age, that’s probs only a few seconds or maybe a minute - but that’s long enough for them to save, like, comment, and so on.
#1 REELS
We know Instagram loves Reels. And tbh, so does your audience. The good news is you don’t need to spend hours creating Reels. They can be simple talking head videos or a Gif with music. Here are a few Reel ideas to increase the time spent watching your content -
Short, 7-15 second Reels that are bingeable
Reels with a seamless beginning and end, so it runs on a loop
Reels with text that causes the audience to rewatch (without being annoying)
Educational Reels that your audience can save and reference later
#2 POSTS
Forget that you’ve heard: posts are not out. There is still a ton of potential for increasing Instagram engagement with static posts and chances are - your audience still wants to see posts as well. However, the types of posts that will get more engagement and keep people around for longer might be different than what you’re used to -
Carousels with limited text (say “no” to paragraphs, alright?)
Relatable content that increases comment responses
Graphics that they need to follow, like a circle, graph, etc.
Educational how-tos
Real moments in time, not just stock photos
Controversial or hot takes
Industry related memes
#3 CAPTIONS
Long gone are the days of Instagram being only a photo sharing app. Your captions do matter, especially if you're concerned about increasing Instagram engagement. And btw, can we stop cramming graphics with text? Not only is it hard to read, but you overwhelm the viewer before they even try to digest your message. Instead, here’s how to write captions that stop the scroll -
Long captions that encourage your audience to hit “read more”
Unpopular opinions that entice responses
Relatable thoughts that others may not be sharing
A strong call to action, like sending a DM or commenting
Create a conversation in your comment section
Moral of the story: if you want to increase engagement, you need to start by increasing how long people stay on your content. Make sure your content is truly bingeable and leaves your audience wanting more.
Feeling stuck creating your Instagram content calendar? Need help increasing Instagram engagement? Book a 1:1 strategy call to uplevel your IG. During the Disco Partner Call, we can chat strategy, hashtags, content creation, ideal clients, and more.
