Instagram is one of the major social media platforms that has been used by millions of users from different backgrounds. This fact means that Instagram is one of the best platforms to promote your business, brand, or creations online. It will also gain a loyal following, and build a community that supports your business.

However, Instagram has an algorithm that manages which accounts will appear on its users' timelines. To get prioritized by Instagram, you need to increase your Instagram engagement. Here we already covered 9 strategies to elevate your Instagram engagement for you.

Be Familiar with Your Audience

The first step to boost your Instagram engagement is to have interaction and build relationships with your audience. To get it, you need to understand your audience. It will be hard to get good engagement with your audience if you don’t know who you’re talking to.

To create engaging content, you need to optimize it so it will fit well with your audience. You have to use Instagram analytics to get the full information on the profile and demographic of your audience and what kind of post your audience enjoys the most. This information will help you with the right posting hours, type of content, and also your tone.

Create Share-Worthy Instagram Content

The Instagram algorithm prioritizes the best posts, measured by several ranking factors such as relationship with the users, conveyed interest, and relevancy. This means that the most relevant posts are pushed toward the top and give them the most visibility.

If you create content that your audience is likely to engage with and share with their friends or relatives, your posts will continue to be prioritized in their feeds.

Content that is worth sharing is more than just a standard Instagram post. To be share-worthy, your post has to engage the audience in some way—whether you’re giving knowledge they can’t learn anywhere else, entertaining them, or sparking their curiosity in some way.

It is known that Instagram users love to share motivational words, parts of song lyrics, and quotes on their Instagram page—especially if they’re both moving and aesthetically pleasing. This type of content is highly engaging on Instagram.

Be Active, Respond to Comments

If you're trying to grow your Instagram account, you need to build your community. It can be achieved by responding to questions/comments you get from your followers, keeping the conversation flowing. This way, the Instagram algorithm will favor you at a good rate on your Instagram engagement.

Moreover, by responding to comments, your audience will know that you value them and make them want to stick around. It takes time but it’s worth it. You can try to reply to longer comments. Answer any given questions, or you can put questions in your caption section to start the conversation.

Explore Instagram Reels

Instagram Reels offer more exposure for your Instagram account. It increases the chances to be trending through video content. To increase engagement on Instagram, you should not step back from exploring the use of Reels. The Instagram algorithm will play in your favor-rewarding your Instagram Reels with a better engagement than your regular video posts.

Put yourself on your audience’s point of view with creative ideas for your reels.

You can also use the Collabs feature to co-author content through Instagram Reels, facilitating collaborations. It is known to be more effective in giving you greater Instagram engagement.

Use Instagram Collabs Feature

Discover a skillful partner with significant social media skills. Collaborating with a strong creative Instagram influencer means you can expect high-quality content; images, graphics, video, and messaging that is crafted to engage your audience. 

Leverage the use of the Instagram Collabs feature to boost your Instagram engagement while you're doing a partnership with another Instagram user. This will double your exposure and engagement because the post will be shown to both accounts' audiences.

Boost Your Post

One quick and easy way to build Instagram engagement and hopefully increase the number of your followers is getting your post to be shown to a broader audience.

Instagram offers a potential audience of more than 9 million active users. Moreover, you can manage those who can see your boosted post using criteria that you can decide upon. Using Instagram ads or boosted posts can be a strategic way of getting your name in front of the right people.

Getting your posts in front of your audience is also great for your engagement rates. They can boost your number of followers, and thus help you with the engagement on your page. Here are a few types of Instagram ads you can utilize:

• Image ads
• Video ads
• Carousel ads
• Stories ads
• Explore ads
• Shopping ads

In addition, you can tailor the ads for reels, depending on your business needs. Advertising your products or services on Instagram can reach exactly the followers you wish, which is why allocating some money for this is advisable.

Post Instagram Stories Regularly

Explore the use of Instagram Stories. Even though Instagram stories only last 24 hours (although you can save them to your story highlights on your profile for those who missed it). Stories will give you a significant impact. You need to master the use of Instagram Story to boost your engagement.

Every time you post a new Story, your profile image gets a red circle around it, indicating to your followers that there is new content. By posting Story regularly—at least once a day, you keep the content fresh for your audience with a constant suggestion of your new content. Your followers will come every day to see if you have made a new Story. This way, you will improve your Instagram engagement.

Remember to use hashtags in your Stories, just like you would in Instagram feed posts. 

Share Your Audience’s Content

Reposting content from your followers has various benefits. It shows that you care about your customers and you’re paying attention to their presence. In addition, it allows potential customers to see the actual review and feedback from real people. Testimonials are an incredibly influential marketing tool. This way, Instagram algorithms will give you a great Instagram engagement rate.

Listen to Your Analytics

Whether you get your analytics directly from Instagram or a third-party service like Analisa.io, pay close attention to them. Using Instagram analytics, you can gather valuable information on;

• The kind of content that performs well
• The best time to post and get the most comments
• The demographics of your followers 

Measure the results of your strategies using Instagram analytics. The more you know about your audience the easier it will be to produce engaging content for them.

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, that’s all it comes down to. If you managed to elevate your Instagram engagement using these nine strategies, hopefully, you’ll start seeing results very soon. Instagram can be frustrating at times but the platform rewards you for the time and efforts that you give.