Getting followers on Instagram is generally the primary goal of most users, but what's the point of a huge following (aka vanity metric) if nobody is paying attention? Engagement on Instagram - we're talking about Likes, Comments, Shares, Messages and Saves - is the true measure of influence on the platform, so we put together 9 useful ways you can increase your engagement on Instagram organically. Prefer video? No problem, we got you. Check out our piece on YouTube below:

The 3 Tag Approach

If you're going to tag, tag hard. Our 3 Tag Approach consists of tagging accounts, tagging your location, and using hashtags. Literally tag anything you're able to in both your Stories and on the Feed. Tag any accounts who are included in the post, including colleagues, contributors and especially brands - you never know who's attention you might catch. Always tag locations so you can be found via location searches, which are more and more predominant. And always use all 30 hashtags every time, as it gives you 30 chances to be discovered. Ignore anyone who tells you otherwise, that's some nonsense if we've ever heard it.

Portraits Over Squares

There's been some talk about this in the past, but we can confirm that it's optimal to choose vertical images over squares. The 4:5 vertical images fill the feed and and literally take over the entire phone screen. Most accounts will see an increase in engagement when a vertical image is used, so we'd encourage you to check your Insights and see what trends you notice. In our experience, it's been incredibly consistently weighted towards vertical images.

Use Niche Hashtags

While most folks are aware of the benefits of using hashtags, something that isn't often discussed is which hashtags you should be using. If you stick to the hashtags with millions of uses, it's very unlikely that you'll be discovered as the stream of content is just so strong. On the flip side, if you're using hashtags with like 50 uses, it's even more unlikely that folks will see it as nobody is really checking for it. Your best bet is to use niche, industry-specific hashtags, somewhere between 50,000 and 300,000 - these are niche enough to allow for discovery and large enough to give you a breadth of users tapping them.

Ask A Question

Social Media is supposed to be social, right? One of the best ways to ensure it remains that way is to ask a question, both in your feed and in Stories. This not only helps build and strengthen your community, but it also helps engagement and ups the chances that your posts rank. When you ask questions, you generate organic engagement from your audience and that's the true aim here. Also - reply to every comment! This automatically doubles the number of comments, but in reality, this is what you're supposed to be doing anyway. Get conversations started and you'll see your posts ranking higher in the algorithm. You could even use some of the stickers we posted about recently via YouTube.

Use Stories Daily

Using Instagram Stories is by far the easiest and lowest hanging fruit to increasing your engagement. With less stress on your as they're less formal and less designed, you have the freedom to be more natural and a little raw. You can post motivational quotes, behind the scenes videos from your company, or even ask a question via the Poll or other stickers. With Instagram placing a huge focus on Stories by even interrupting the feed with it, it's clear that this is where the needle is moving and you certainly need to ensure you're giving it the time it deserves.

User Generated Content

UGC is super key for brands on Instagram. They're essentially social proof that people are actually using your products or services, and if we're honest, the psychology is that that's how a lot of people buy - they like things that other people already like. Rip and share tagged posts from followers via both Stories and the feed as often as possible, always with credit (it's certainly best to ask permission first, of course). Any time someone goes to the trouble of sharing what you do, show them some love back!

Be A Tease

If you're working on something new and exciting, show it off! Sometimes you're not able to give them a lot but you can almost always give people a taste of what you're up to. People often relate to seeing a work in progress, so even if what you're doing is unfinished, it may even be appreciated even more when it's finally completed and out to the public as they were part of your journey in creating it.

Share Existing Blog Posts

If you have a blog, you very likely shared your posts across your platforms. Due to our old friend (or nemesis?) the algorithm, there's a large chance that your followers never saw it the first few times you put it out there. So we'd encourage you to share and then reshare your blog posts, both for new followers and the old. It'll help drive more traffic to your website and via the valuable information you're sharing, it'll boost your authority in your niche.

Get Long With It

This is the antithesis to what most people do, but since the algorithm ranks your content via how long people stay engaged on your posts, using lengthier captions will help keen them around. You could write compelling stories, be honest about the process of creating a new product or speak on the relatable ups and downs of running a business. Whatever works for your brand, but find a way to test out some longer captions and see if it helps your engagement.

Work With Influencers

There's always a lot of talk about Influencer Marketing, but the fact remains that this is an extremely effective way of generating interest in your company. You'll be able to acquire better content by using the right content creators, you can tap into their audience if you're able to get them to post about what you do, you can grow your own audience by drawing more traffic to your page. You can watch and read more about Influencer Marketing via our blog posts and video.

Share Feed Posts In Stories

Our final suggestion for how you can increase your engagement on Instagram is to share your feed posts to Stories as soon as you post them. Send them to Stories and use a NEW POST! sticker to alert your followers. One strategy is, for example, if you're posting an image of a human or a product, cover the face or the product with an emoji to encourage people to tap into your feed. People always want what they can't have! You can also reshare older posts to generate new traffic bursts and to fill in any lulls in your Stories schedule.  

Still having trouble getting likes and comments on Instagram? Give us a shout, we'll help you out.