11 Actionable Tips To Increase Your Instagram Engagement Rate In 2023

As per the latest statistics, the Instagram app has 2.3 billion active users internationally.

There are a number of reasons why people use this popular app - to connect, be inspired, or discover.

Instagram is one of the most influential platforms on the internet, ranks as the 2nd most downloaded app worldwide across all platforms and users spend an average of 30.6 minutes daily on the app. The majority of individuals, approximately 38%, use Instagram to share their cherished moments through pictures and videos, making it the most prevalent purpose for usage.

If you are a brand looking to grow your business online, it's a potent platform that you should definitely leverage.

Brands around the world use this social media platform to engage with their target audience. Then, why should you be the one that's left behind?

Generating the right engagement on Instagram develops your brand's community and boosts brand reach and awareness. This, in turn, adds generously to your online presence.

Now, the thing is, generating engagement on Instagram can be quite challenging, especially for businesses that have just started to use it for business growth.

But don't worry! In this post, we'll discuss some proven tips on how to increase Instagram engagement rate for the coming year. These tips will help ensure that your content quickly reaches your target audience, which, in turn, will lead to an increase in engagement. Let's start:

What Is Instagram Engagement Rate? How Do You Measure It?

Here's how you define an engagement rate:

The rate measures how many interactions your content receives based on your audience size, followers, or reach. Examples of such interactions include:

• Comments
• Reactions
• Likes
• Direct messages
• Saves
• Shares
• Click-Throughs
• Mentions

The significant reason you need to calculate your Instagram engagement rate is because you get clarity on how your audience reacts to the content you are sharing on this social platform. Another reason for knowing this rate is because it sheds light on the type of content that connects more with your audience.

Now, to the more important question How to measure Instagram engagement rate?

The method you use for calculating this rate depends on your social media goals. But, here's a formula that offers the simplest way to compute your Instagram engagement rate:

Engagement Rate = (Likes+Comments+Share)/Followers x 100

Image Source: Buffer

Tips To Increase Your Instagram Engagement Rate In 2023

You can always implement some tried and tested tips that will help increase Instagram likes, shares, comments, followers, views, and more. This way, you will be able to develop a strong and lasting engagement over time. Let's discuss these tips:

1. Your Images Must Stand Out

Instagram is a visual medium. However, you don't need to be a professional photographer in order to leverage this platform for your brand. You just need to create images that stand out.

To create impactful images, focus on creating main feed images that encourage people to check out what you have to say and prompt them to like, share, or comment.

To boost the oomph factor of your images, you can use a number of tools out there. Some of the Instagram editing apps you can use to jazz up your images include VSCO and Avatan Photo Editor. You can also use such apps to make your Instagram images look more consistent. When you maintain consistency in your images, your followers start to identify your content and are more likely to pause to take a look at your images while browsing.

2. Learn More About Your Audience

As you are curating content for your audience, it's best to know in detail about them. For instance, you need to know about the demographics of your target audience. Knowing this information helps define a number of crucial things, such as:

• The type of content you should post
• The times and days to publish
• Your brand voice

Instagram Analytics is the best way to learn about audience demographics.

Another way through which you can understand your audience is by using the polls and questions stickers in Stories. This way, you get to fathom what your audience really wishes to see on your Instagram account. Plus, you get bonus engagement and real-time feedback when you do this.

3. Create Video Content

If you are looking for ways on how to increase Instagram engagement rate at a skyrocketed pace, then it's about time you create and post video content on Instagram.

As per the latest stats, Instagram videos get 2x more engagement. Moreover, posts that have videos get 38% more engagement than those with images.

One of the most effective ways to create video content on Instagram is to narrate a story or offer valuable information in your videos. Doing so will help you grab instant attention and boost engagement.

Take a look at how John Liang uses Instagram videos to generate engagement. He helps his audience understand complex finance topics in an interesting, funny way through Instagram reels:

Image Source: Keyhole

Note: Instagram offers a variety of video options, namely: Story videos, reels, video posts, Instagram Lives, and IGTV.

Pro Tip: Whether you want to engage with educational video content or create entertaining reels, we recommend that you create a social media strategy for Instagram on how to fully utilize this platform for videos. This will help guarantee you long-term engagement.

4. Don't Underestimate Captions

While wondering about how to increase Instagram engagement rate, one aspect of Instagram is easily overlooked by many. Yes, we are talking about captions!

Captions are powerful indicators of your brand's personality and hold the ability to boost engagement for your posts. So, ensure you write enticing and insightful captions.

Note: The maximum length of Instagram captions is 2,200 characters, giving you plenty of space to create engaging captions for your posts. You can always create short and sweet captions for your posts, but don't be afraid to write longer captions if you have a great story to share with your audience.

5. Respond to DMs and Comments

A cardinal sin that many brands commit on Instagram and other social media platforms is not replying to comments and DMs. In case you are doing so too, always remember:

If you ignore your audience, they may ignore you too in the future.

Image Source: SproutSocial

Hence, when you see comments on your posts starting to pour in, join the conversation and respond to them. It's polite to do so plus your followers feel seen and heard. They even feel excited and look forward to having a conversation with you sometime again in the future.

Tip: Take out the time to engage with other accounts in your niche as well. We recommend that you like posts of your top fans or comment on important posts in your industry. And who knows? All the engagement love that you send out may get reciprocated to you in some way or the other.

6. Post Carousels

When you learn how to create attention-grabbing images by using the tools we mentioned before, you can consider posting some images with carousels as well.

Now, what are carousels, you may ask?

Carousels are posts on Instagram that possess a number of images. Surprisingly enough, the social team of Hootsuite have seen their carousel posts getting 3.1x more engagement than their regular posts (on average).

Image Source: Oberlo

7. Post Consistently and at Optimal Times

Our list of tips on how to increase Instagram engagement rate cannot be truly over without talking about the importance of consistent posting and the right time to post.

Ensure you follow a consistent posting schedule to keep your Instagram followers engaged. This will ensure you don't keep them waiting whenever they expect a new post from you every time.

Also, posting at the right time is vital. You don't want to be posting content while your audience is fast asleep in their beds, do you? Learn about the best time to post on social media and you are set!

Tip: For increasing engagement rate you can implement Instagram automation. It helps in automating comment replies, DM responses, story mention replies and posts scheduling.

8. Partner With Influencers

When influencers market your offerings, it increases your online presence and helps develop trust. Hence, an amazing way to broaden your reach and boost your engagement rate is to leverage influencer marketing. And the great news is, Instagram is simply the best social media platform for influencer marketing.

Take a look at how you can find influencers on Instagram:

• Carry out hashtag research
• See who your rivals are pairing up with
• Check out your Discover page
• Use an app called Upfluence

The best part about using influencer marketing is that you get great results without spending much. But this can only happen if you collaborate with nano influencers and not the high-budget ones. Nano influencers have a following of 1,000-5,000.

Pro Tip: While it's important to convey your expectations to the influencers you are collaborating with, ensure you give them the necessary creative freedom to promote your offerings.

9. Conduct Giveaways

Another effective way in which you can grow your engagement rate is by harnessing the power of giveaways.

Hosting a giveaway is something that your audience is more likely to participate in given how fun they are and that a prize is involved.

But what's in for you, you may wonder? Well, a lot of comments, likes, and shares. Also, you get to increase your brand awareness and followers.

If you decide to conduct a giveaway, here's what you need to keep in mind:

• Determine the goal of your giveaway. For instance ā do you want your audience to create on-brand user-generated content for you? Or, do you wish to increase your follower count?
• Post a clear picture that announces your giveaway.
• Clearly state what you expect from your audience in the caption. Write down the rules of the giveaway and announce the prize.

10. Go Live!

A tried-and-tested way to increase your Instagram engagement rate is going live on this social media platform. There can be plenty of reasons for you to go live: to sell a product, educate people, or have a chat with your audience.

Going live on Instagram helps you connect with your potential customers and showcase authenticity. Also, when brands use Instagram Live, these live broadcasts are pushed to the top of feeds, further increasing the chance of driving engagement. Your followers will even receive a notification stating that you have gone live.

Pro Tip: Take a look at the things you need to keep in mind before going live on Instagram:

• Make sure the video quality and lighting are excellent.
• There should be no background noise and the sound quality needs to be good.
• You can also co-host a session with an expert. If you do so, you can also quickly reply to the comments while the other speaker is speaking. Responding to the comments will further increase your engagement.

11. Analyze Your Performance

Lastly, don't forget to analyze the performance of the content you put out on Instagram.

To measure performance, you can use the Instagram analytics tool. The tool helps you track your growth and engagement rate. It also lets you know about the posts which showed a great performance and which didn't.

Note: The data you find in Instagram analytics tool will help you inform your approach to creating engagement on Instagram. It will assist you in creating content that catches the attention of your audience and engages them.

Hire Instagram Ads Management Specialists

A lot of digital marketing agencies find it difficult to fulfill their client campaigns. This is one of the biggest reasons why they use Instagram Ads outsourcing services for their clients. If you are an agency that's facing a similar situation, you can also consider opting for these services. The best white label agency to partner with to hire these services is DashClicks.

It's important to note that DashClicks offers Instagram Ads with its white label Facebook ads services. Using this agency's Instagram Ads outsourcing services will help drive qualified sales and leads for your clients.

Also, here's what you can expect when you hire Instagram ads services from DashClicks:

• The team will conduct maintenance and optimization once per week (at a minimum).
• You get a weekly optimization breakdown from the team.
• The experts at DashClicks possess the required certifications to guide your campaigns and ads.
• Results are guaranteed without unnecessary ad spending.

Wrapping It Up

From creating useful video content to collaborating with influencers, there are so many effective ways in which you can increase your engagement rate on Instagram. These tips encourage your audience to interact with your brand's content on Instagram, giving a boost to your reach and followers. A good engagement rate can increase your visibility and boost your reputation and credibility. So, ensure you diligently implement these tips to see fruitful results! All the best.