Today, people spend a lot of time on their smart devices to use social media platforms. It is up to brands and businesses “how” they garner attention and maintain engagement for an extended period. Since half of the users around the world are using social media platforms, brands want to utilize channels to step up their engagement efforts and reach out to more prospects and customers.
Part of the process is to generate new leads and raise brand awareness. Instagram is right behind Facebook as the most accessible social media platform with the second biggest network. The visual-driven social media platform now has more than a billion monthly active users. It is no wonder more and more brands now want to buy comments for Instagram to boost engagement. But this is not necessary. You can always follow the algorithm yourself and get a good result.
Importance of Social Media Engagement
Social media engagement has become the Holy Grail for organizations, startups, and individuals in the digital age. And why wouldn’t it be? It allows businesses to build valuable relationships with their user base, boost customer loyalty, and increase brand awareness.
According to a HubSpot report on “Instagram engagement,” around 90% of Instagram users follow at least one brand or business. With over a billion monthly active Instagram users, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that up to 80% of Instagram users discover a new service or product on the platform regularly.
The fact is that brands that develop and maintain solid interactions through engagement on Instagram continue to skyrocket their business efforts. Since more than 70% of American-based businesses use Instagram, it makes sense to spend time and resources to leverage this platform.
In the U.S. alone, there are more than 140 million Instagram users. What’s interesting is that almost 45% of all Instagram users are between 18 and 44 years old. Businesses should opt for a reliable service that promises high-quality followers and can deliver so that brands can easily gain thousands of Instagram followers.
How Brands Can Hit More Interactions and Engagement
Brands that want to buy thousands of Instagram followers need to implement the right strategies. Social media is all about “being social,” and brands and businesses that want to succeed have to encourage more social interactions.
Social media engagement often doesn’t lead to sales. The trick is figuring out whether or not brands can maintain their interactions and engagement efforts and convert prospects into loyal customers. This is when social media engagement translates into increased sales.
On Instagram, the name of the game is generating the “right” consumer touchpoints that help businesses create a successful conversion journey. More engagement and interactions mean bigger social media outreach and more opportunities to engage followers and gain new ones.
Social media engagement allows businesses to instill trust in their brands, expand audience reach, maintain a more robust SEO presence, and get more valuable feedback.
With consistent social media engagement, brands get the chance to highlight that their products or services don’t come across as robotic and address concerns, queries, and questions based on feedback. This helps brands improve their visibility and credibility.
Tips for Boosting Instagram Interactions
Instagram’s engagement involves measuring how people interact with a broad range of content. It includes elements like follower count and interactions that lead to more comments, saves, likes, and shares. It is arguably the most valuable metric that helps brands understand how well their content is positioned and whether or not it resonates with their target audience.
Keeping that in mind, let’s break down the essential tips to boost Instagram interactions:
Make User Engagement Consistent
When it comes to building engagement, understand that it will take some time before a brand can retain consistent interactions on posts. Like renowned brands, ask questions and then respond to different comments. Of course, replying to Instagram Stories has become one of the best ways to boost engagement with the target audience. Plus, hiring the right talent and ensuring they have social media marketing experience will ensure your business can attain the best results.
The more an Instagram account grows, the more comments there will be, which means responding to more users. Brands often automate a lot of elements, and that’s normal. Ideally, brands should focus on responding and replying to as many comments as possible.
Directly Engage with Target Audience
To drive consistent engagement from followers, interactions with the users have to be real and down to earth. Instagram, like other social media platforms, is not a one-way street. In fact, building and maintaining an engaged user base starts with acknowledging followers.
Remember that each comment has a unique meaning, and it is up to the brands how they interpret the audiences’ thoughts and then share their views. But the key is to respond, even if brands are dealing with simple user comments.
More prompt responses mean more opportunities to build up overall engagement. Once the conversations take off, it is only a matter of time before Instagram stories work their magic and garner the attention of more users.
Leverage Instagram Stories
Businesses and brands often make the mistake of overlooking or underestimating Instagram Stories. Instagram features several diverse features that help brands drive consistent engagement, and one of those features is Stories. Every time a user engages with a sticker, it will boost engagement.
Brands can use stickers to host quizzes and polls or let their entire user base ask questions, like in a Reddit session. But try to make each poll and quiz fun and engaging. Otherwise, users will get bored and move on. Businesses on Instagram can also ask their users to guess the right answers with quizzes to drive more engagement.
Mimic Top-Performing IG Posts
Not every Instagram post is going to be successful. After all, what works for one brand probably wouldn’t work for another brand. So, review the high-performing posts of the last few months and pay close attention to top performers with similar themes.
For instance, brands often notice that images with bold and bright colors get a lot of likes. Similarly, users tend to engage with Instagram Reels that have background music. Businesses can use their Instagram dashboard to spot the best-performing posts. Next, compare and look for common elements between these posts, and incorporate the factors that stand out.
Provide Hints and Sneak Peeks
Instagram is all about fun and games, and when brands offer sneak peeks and hints about their new products, services, partnerships, or events, it sparks the interest of their target audience. It’s a great way for brands to let users in on the secret.
With Instagram public posts, brands can give hints and sneak peeks about new releases and let the imagination of the target audience run wild. It makes users feel like the brand has made them part of a unique circle and special group.
For instance, film studios and production houses often release multiple teasers, trailers, and TV spots before the final release of the film on Instagram and other social media platforms. Continuous guesswork at play means added interest from users that propel them to check out a brand’s profile more often in the hope of finding a new announcement.
Promote IG Posts Across Different Networks
The target audience of a brand on Facebook is different from its Instagram account. Still, there is a good chance a lot of brands’ Instagram users have active profiles on Facebook. So, don’t hold back and run some cross-social media network posts to encourage more users to engage.
Be Strategic About Instagram Ads
Using Ads Manager, the possibilities of ad targeting are endless on Instagram and Facebook. But in the quest to promote a brand’s Instagram account or post, make sure the ads are strategic and nuanced. Make the most out of ad customizations using retargeting so that a brand’s message can reach out to “custom” audiences.
Post Content During Peak Hours
A lot of things can go wrong when brands and businesses post content at unsuitable hours on Instagram. Brands can use Instagram analytics to determine the best hours to post Instagram content. The idea of posting content at peak hours is that most followers will be visible and can engage with the information. Using hashtags is a perfect way to organize user content and get noticed by more people.
Even when it comes to posting one Instagram image with a smart caption, make sure to post it at the time when it can hit the highest engagement. Brands often take an extra step beyond Instagram analytics and do their own research to find out exactly when their target audience is online so that they can post content more accurately and drive unprecedented engagement.
Write Captivating Captions to Boost Engagement
One of the most effective ways for brands to drive more engagement is to write attention-grabbing and smart captions. Established businesses understand that Instagram captions are opportunities to include intuitive and catchy call-to-action lines.
This action is also a form of engagement. Oftentimes, brands share their thoughts and make direct comments in “calls to action.” It’s a great way to trigger comments from the most enthusiastic followers.
Use More Relevant Instagram Hashtags
It is common knowledge that using hashtags grows overall reach. But there’s a difference between overstuffing hashtags and incorporating the “right” hashtags. In fact, increased reach stems from boosted engagement, and using the most relevant hashtags can make a huge difference.
Focus on the hashtags that would likely be seen by the target user base and increase the chances of engagement. Use niche and relevant hashtags to attract the attention of the right audience too.
Host a Giveaway Contest
Who doesn’t like to win free giveaway stuff? Use social media giveaways to boost Instagram engagement. Startups often get surprised to see a spike in engagement when they host a free giveaway contest. It is up to the brand to set the stage for the contest. Whether it’s sharing a post, or commenting on a story, it is bound to drive engagement.
But make sure giveaway contests are direct and strategic. It means the rules of the giveaway contest should be clear to the users from the start. The most ambitious brands boost their engagement by offering attractive giveaway prizes in contests. So, make sure the giveaway prize is valuable enough to convince Instagram users to participate.
Get the SMM Success You Need & Deserve
Success in the SMM space is all about “how” a brand creates and targets a uniform social media strategy that improves its online performance. Use the tactics that lead to better interactions with the IG user base and boost overall reach.
Analyze key metrics to find out whether or not the brand needs to shift gears and head in a different direction. The social media space will continue to evolve, and new trends are always on the horizon. So, instead of generalizing trends and best SMM practices, create a strategic approach to grow the target audience and make a defining mark on Instagram.
- When it comes to Instagram engagement and interactions, set goals from the start and aim for long-term success. Make every post on Instagram purposeful and unique, and create a positive energy and vibe around Instagram content.
- Don’t always look for the “right” answers because there are none. Instead, brands should focus on improving their Instagram feed and only post content that gets the attention of their target audience and sells more products.
- Create an Instagram strategy to create resourceful content and render more engagement. Be consistent in creating interesting content and getting more engagement.
- Focus on the content that is newsworthy and create a brand face through storytelling.
- Engaging with followers comes down to building a thriving online community that feels personable.
- Focus on responding to and liking comments, creating quizzes and polls, and taking advantage of live-streaming. And never lose sight of analyzing, tracking, and measuring key Instagram metrics.
Successful marketing comes down to creating a consistent and interactive customer experience integrated across several platforms. When it comes to reaching out to more customers, brands, and businesses need to tap into social media engagement.
It’s 2023, and it has become clear to most brands that Instagram is more than just about personal use — it’s a global hub for businesses to showcase their products, humanize valued content, inspire target audiences, and even hire new talent.
Follow the lead of the most successful brands in a specific niche and industry to boost engagement on Instagram. Look beyond one big spike in engagement — opt for consistency and maintain a high level of engagement to get real results.