Instagram marketing is going through a transformation. Where having as many followers as possible was once the primary goal, engagement is superseding it for marketing purposes. Micro and nano influencer marketing has become an effective strategy over the last year. 

Engagement is a form of connectivity and trust. Here are five ways you can improve your Instagram engagement.

Initiate with a Question

Every great conversation starts with a question. Before you dive into captions that talk about your content, ask the audience a simple question. It could be anything that relates to your content, from asking them what their favorite type of taco is to if they prefer coffee or tea. The point is to get them talking.

By answering questions and interacting with your content on a deeper level, you’ll see an increase in your engagement. This response will help improve your algorithm and reach more people while facilitating a rapport and building trust with your audience. 

Use Long-Form Content

One of the key elements in learning how to increase Instagram engagement is understanding what that term means. Engagement is registered when someone pauses and views your content for three or more seconds. While this may seem like a relatively short period, it’s quite long in the digital age. In fact, as most marketers are aware, the average consumer attention span is approximately two seconds. 

Using long-form content that encourages your viewers to stop and read your caption can dramatically increase your engagement. Even if they only read a few lines of everything you’ve written, you’re still creating that three-second pause that makes an impact.

Analyze and Adapt

When was the last time you took a good look at your analytics beyond the likes and follows? Take time to look at the unique insights for each post, with a special focus on those that perform well. Consider how people found you, diving into your impressions.

Highlight things which features are making your top performers work for you. Then, shift your posting strategy toward those features. You might find that adding more videos is the key to building engagement. Alternatively, your audience might like more photos with you rather than quotes or scenery. Whatever the case may be, that’s your key to better engagement.

Use All of Your Hashtags

We love to hate the hashtag culture, but it’s not going away. As the saying goes: if you can’t beat them, join them. When you craft an Instagram post, you have the opportunity to use up to 30 hashtags. So use 30 hashtags. 

Take time to create a hashtag mix that blends both trending topics and less-popular tags as well. This approach will give you a diverse mix of viewers and make it more likely to show up on someone’s discovery page. If you only post within trending hashtags, it’s likely that your content will get lost in the noise. By adding hashtags that have fewer than 20,000 posts, you increase the likelihood of being randomly discovered.

Respond and Elaborate

The work doesn’t end when someone comments on your post. If you don’t respond back, you’re missing a fantastic opportunity to boost your engagement.

Take time to respond to each post and acknowledge that the individual took the time to comment. If possible, elaborate on the topic and ask a follow-up question. 

The back and forth will continue to boost your engagement and keep your post fresh and relevant. It also creates a rapport with your audience that shows them that there’s a human on the other side of the screen. This feeling of a connection will encourage your audience to comment on future posts as well.

With these five tips, you can consistently boost your Instagram engagement and achieve your marketing goals.