6 Ways to Increase Your Engagement Rate on Instagram

Three years back, all of the focus was on the size of an influencer's viewers -- just how many Instagram"followers" they had. Brands and entrepreneurs alike supposed that with more followersmeant more earned for each dollar spent, so they believed.

As entrepreneurs navigated their way through the complex jungle of influencer advertising, a new significant metric emerged: the engagement rate (ER).
An ER steps how much of an audience is engaged with an influencer's content. A very low ER is a reason for concern, however the cause of which could be a range of things.
Before I tell you how you can increase your ER, I will lay out some of the main factors in what can make it be low.

To calculate your ER, it is possible to use one of the free Instagram tools like the MightyScout engagement rate calculator. It is calculated by adding your comments and likes and dividing it from your follower count -- usually given as a consequence of the average ER over the previous 30 articles.
While a 2.5% ER for an influencer with 2,500 followers would be considered low, it would be considered average for one with more than a million followers. That said, let us look at some business benchmarks.
Greater than 2 percent = Low participation rate.
Between 2% and 4% = Great engagement rate.
Above 4% = High engagement rate.
Why is your engagement rate important?
Like I said, marketers value this metric and hold it high when assessing what they'll offer you, or even if they'll contact you in the first place. A poor ER means they're putting their marketing dollars at risk. Whether you use Instagram for business, or for yourself, increasing your ER should be top of mind.
Top 6 Ways To Raise Your Engagement Rate
Boost your viewers with genuine followers
Although, this approach should not be relied on as your core development plan as it attracts the vast majority of robots and other influencers that are simply only following and unfollowing.
I believe building your account to acquire more social proof is vital. Having over 10,000 followers provides you more standing. When real Instagrammers land on your profile, they'll be more likely to follow you.
If you saw my movie about the best way to increase your follower count, you'd have noticed that engaging on market hashtags with personalized comments and a strong call-to-action to follow you, is among the greatest ways to develop an authentic audience that values the content you create for them.
2. Boost the quality of your articles
Definitely one of the most important elements in boosting your ER is the quality of your content. It's also no secret that Instagram captions are key to creating content that is engaging. The caption you write must also include a minumum of one question (preferably as the first sentence).
Should you overlook your creative ability to curate high excellent content, then gather inspiration from other successful influencers. Adhere to those that you aspire to be like and also get started mimicking the content they produce, right down to what's in the backgrounds of the photographs and what Instagram filters they use. Great, replicate it.
While you may not consider yourself creative or artistic right now, you can replicate people who are till you yourself are. These are skills which can be developed with practice, not a matter of"you either have it, or you do not."
You have the answers to this exam, all you have to do is copy them on paper.
3. Post according to your audience opinions
If you haven't already switched your Instagram profile from an individual to a business account, take action now. There aren't any downfalls to having a business account, nor can it be even reserved for companies. Among other perks, you'll receive access to audience insights. This will breakdown as soon as your audience is the most active, supplying you with the very best times to upload your articles. However, you need to aim to post one hour or two before your summit engagement window, especially if this window falls 9PM or after. Reason being, your post is only going to be seen for a couple hours before most of your followers will soon be shutting off their phones at night before heading to bed.

4. Focus on providing value
If you're a student of ours, then you will have seen me preach over and over on providing value for your viewers. I've mentioned it before and I will say it again; people do not care about you, they just care about everything you can do for them.
Family and friends aside, strangers will only be drawn to you whenever they believe you can provide them worth. Be it entertainment, business training, fitness tips, or tech recommendations -- you have to choose what skill set you have that others may gain from.
When your audience appears to you for assistance and guidance on a More information specific subject, they'll obviously be more in tune with your content. I use this case a Good Deal, also for good reason:
You're a style influencer who specializes in providing affordable fashion information to lower and working class folk. You teach people how they could dress stylishly, without breaking the bank. Your audience enjoys your articles and seeks your advice -- you supply them value.
However, most fashion influencers simply share their favorite outfits in too staged photographs using straightforward post captions. There is nothing that makes that influencer unique and their viewer's interest in them often stops at appearance.
If you're fighting to find a means to give value, begin by becoming a student of your own craft. As you create articles and develop your audience, participate in Facebook groups, masterminds, and subreddits. They say you are the topic of the five people you spend the most time with -- why can not one of these five be whole communities in your area of expertise or interest?
When you feel confident enough to begin teaching others your craft, incorporate it into your content. You can even utilize Instagram Stories to survey our viewers to see what kind of content they would discover valuable.
5. Archive or delete low engaging posts
Quick, simple, and simple. This will immediately raise your ER since these articles will no longer be skewing your numbers.
6. Use market hashtags
You probably use hashtags already, but how much thought do you give to which ones you use? The reason hashtags work for many people is because they either already have a large account and can show up in the'Top Articles' for that niche, or they are smart and choosing market hashtags.
Immediately after you upload a post, paste them inside the very first remark.
When building your bank of hashtags, focus on people who have between 50,000 and 500,000 unique tags, as in, the number of times people hashtags are used in a comment or post. If you pick just those that were used countless times, you will only show up at'Recent' to get a couple of minutes before you're too far down the feed for anyone to find you.


7. BONUS: Combine engagement pods*
Engagement pods are Immediate Message (DM) groups of influencers up to 32 individuals, who will each share their articles to the team to possess another members move into like and comment on their articles.
You can find these pods by appearing on Reddit or inside Facebook Groups. They are easy enough to locate within a couple of minutes. Ensure that you're active in them, enjoying and commenting on every member's articles.
Although these may be powerful, they really do have their downfalls. It's common practice to article generic comments like"OMG I need this" on class member's sponsored articles, which is easily spotted by brands. When the only people commenting on a post are other influencers, it is apparent that they are busy in engagement pods.
They will also be time consuming as you'll often have to enjoy and remark on dozens of articles every day. Who wants to open their Instagram program and find they have 87 articles that they need to enjoy and comment on? Not I. If I were you, I'd only use these to kickstart your expansion then ditch them once you've got right here momentum.
What is the buzz around Instagram automation tools?
Don't. Can Instagrammers not learn their lesson if Instagram banned millions of accounts for buying likes and remarks? All these Instagram bot automation tools are not just expensive, they don't promise any results and are frequently run by 17 year old, self-proclaimed marketing gurus. They are also against Instagram's Terms of Service, which means there's a high risk of being caught in one of their mass accounts cleanups they perform a few times each year.
How would you like to spend all of the money and time growing an Instagram account through automation programs, only to open the program one day and see your account has been banned? I don't imagine you would find that enjoyable.

Getting an influencer is something worth putting the time and effort into. It retains potential to make you more than a 9--5, at a portion of the time. Soak up as much information as possible online, put these practices into position, and have patience.