Five Hacks To Boost Your Organic Instagram Engagement
Posting left and right but not getting any traction on Instagram? If you are tired of hearing crickets whenever you post, this blog will give you six hacks you can apply to start increasing your engagement rate.
Instagram Engagement Rate 101
Before we take a deep dive on how you can increase your engagement rate on Instagram, the first step you need to take is to identify what is your current Instagram Engagement Rate and compare it against what is above average, average, and below-average engagement rate.
You don’t have to manually do this, you can use these two tools to help you compute it!
Favikon - this is a paid tool but you can use the one free account audit for your account. All you need to do is sign up for the free account and search for your profile. Here you will already see if your engagement rate is good, average, or bad.
NotJustAnalytics - you can use this to do a scan of your page for free. Same with Favikon, it will share the engagement rate you have and how it compares to the average performance.
The industry standard is to achieve at least a 1 - 3% engagement rate on Instagram. A better way to look at it though is based on the number of followers. This is based on different sources and I tried to look at the average.
So now, compare your average engagement rate vs. the Instagram Engagement rates above. Are you good or should you be doing more?
Five Hacks To Boost Your Organic Instagram Engagement
Hack 1: Check Your Insights
You need to check your insights and understand what content gets engagement and what doesn’t. If you haven’t turned your account into a business or creator account yet, this is your sign to do it now.
Once you are in your insights, go to posts and sort by interaction. It should look like this. Now you will get an idea of what posts get good engagement and what doesn’t.
Hack 2: Before you post add a geo-tag and alt text
Adding a geo-tag will help your post gain more reach which can result in more engagement - especially if it’s good and valuable content. Alt text on the other hand helps your posts become more accessible and also search-friendly. If you schedule your posts in advance like me, you can easily add both by scheduling your posts via Creator Studio. Below is a snapshot of what it looks like via Creator Studio. Just go to Create Post>Instagram Feed>Advanced Settings to see it!
Hack 3: Focus on quality over quantity
I’m not just talking about content here but also in engagement. While it might be tempting to go on a like and comment spree you have to remember that there are Instagram limits to certain actions and you should focus on leaving comments that will make a good impression.
Honestly ask yourself if leaving that emoji will make such a big contribution or not. So if you only have an hour or less to engage, use it wisely by leaving valuable comments.
Hack 4: Don’t post and ghost
It might be tempting but instead of just posting and ghosting, spend time engaging with other accounts. Remember, Instagram is a social platform therefore socializing is an important factor. If you only have 30 minutes or an hour to engage in a day - best to allocate most of that to engaging before and after you post and this includes:
Engaging with posts on your feed
Viewing stories and engaging with those stories
Reaching out to at least 5-10 new people each day via hashtags
Replying right away to comments you get once your post is up
Hack 5: Like previous comments left on your posts
This has been a game-changer for me. Before, I would like the comments I get on my post right after getting those comments. Now, I leave the comments unliked but I reply to them. I would do the liking of the comments a few minutes before or after I have posted a new update. Why? It will send a notification to that person who engaged with me that I liked their post. So, it will give them a higher chance of checking my page out again..
Above is just a snapshot of my best performing posts getting not just good amount of organic likes but also achieving 80+ comments!
Ready for my secret hack?
It is…
I give love back to those who comment on my posts! How? I visit their page and engage back.
Why? It helps them see that I reciprocate and it would, in turn, increase the chance of them coming back to engage with my next posts again. Doing all of the above has helped me gain a lot of likes, comments, saves, and shares on my posts.
Feel like you need better guidance on Instagram engagement? Let me help you out!
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It’s been three years since I resigned from my corporate job and started my business. It has been an amazing ride so far but the one thing I realized is that I had moments when I felt burned out from everything I was doing. This is when I knew I had to take better care of myself.