Getting Instagram engagement is nowadays more important than ever before. It is also one of the metrics commonly used to determine where your content shows up in your followers’ feeds. If you have users that constantly comment and like your posts, Instagram will see it as a sign that they want to see more of your content.

Instead of going online and buying social media packages, we got you covered with some of the most clever ways to get more Instagram comments. Read them in the list below.

1. Develop an editorial calendar

The first thing you should do if you want more comments on Instagram is to develop an editorial calendar. A calendar like this would be the place where you would plan your posts and make sure you don’t repeat yourself over time. Instagram is one of the best social channels for content distribution, so you don’t want to leave things out unplanned.

Timing is an important factor in the algorithm if you want more comments, so time your posts accordingly and make sure your posts are frequent so that you look active and up-to-date. Having a well-planned editorial calendar makes publishing on Instagram easy and hassle-free. You can sit down, take your time and figure out the best posts ahead of time, and only execute them throughout the month.

2. Consider geotagging your posts

Location tags can help you grow your Instagram engagement and get more comments. By switching up your location tags, you can get in front of more people and boost your engagement levels.

Some of the best ways to do that include tagging different neighbourhoods, small cities, businesses, country clubs, coffee shops, as well as broader locations such as cities or states. Adding locations to your posts will position your post among the latest posts in that specific location, and get you a higher social reach. Plus, you don’t actually have to be in that location to tag it on your post (as long as it is relevant to it).

3. Make your captions more eye-catching

Another big piece of the engagement puzzle on Instagram is your captions. To make them more eye-catching and comment-provoking, you can use an Instagram caption generator or figure out something new. After all, your copy is an essential aspect of your captions – make sure to be short and clear, ask questions, and use interesting words that align with your brand’s philosophy.

Another useful tip when writing better Instagram captions is to make use of relevant emojis – select ones that seem appropriate for your post or brand. Two to three emojis can be enough to balance your text, but don’t go overboard with too many of them.

4. Use relevant hashtags

Posting content with relevant and popular hashtags directly puts your content in searches for those hashtags and the “Explore” tab. Studies have shown that posts with at least one hashtag attain greater engagement, which is why it makes sense to use hashtags in each post.

Some of the popular ideas here include asking your followers how they celebrated #SundayFunday, acknowledging a #ThrowbackThursday, adding a relevant #PhotoOfTheDay, etc. Make sure that your Instagram hashtags are relevant to your industry or content – this is one of the best ways to get more Instagram comments.

5. Share posts to your stories

Sharing your best performing posts to your Instagram Stories is certainly an annoying way to get your followers’ attention once again, but it is also a strategy that works. First of all, doing this gives your followers two chances to see the same piece of content. If they missed in in their feed (which is common), they can see it on your story and engage with it again.

Additionally, sharing posts to your stories triggers the algorithm in a good way, showing Instagram that you are an obedient user and that you love the platform. People viewing and interacting with your Story is always good and a potential way for them to see your content more often in their feed.

6. Post engaging comments on your own photos

Adding comments to your own photos is another great way to start up a conversation and invite more people to join it. For example, if you are a personal trainer marketing with Instagram, sharing a video of your newest workout is good, but how about explaining more about the movement in the comments section?

Aside from giving your followers more information, you could also start a conversation there and drive more traffic to the comments section. Many influencers use this strategy where they would add an interesting call to action in the caption and then another one in the comments.

7. Reply to every comment on your posts

One of the best ways to encourage people to comment on your posts is to appreciate their efforts and reward them with a reply. Users love getting replies to their comments – if this is done during the first hour of the post, they are more likely to comment again.

Aside from giving them the “feel good” moment, replying to comments also encourages other people to check out what all the fuss is about, and possibly comment themselves. When people see an account commenting back, they get excited at the opportunity to interact with the person or brand, which is a great way to spark your Instagram engagement.

8. Go live with a Q&A session and ask followers to comment with their questions

Instagram has increased its variety of features – they included Instagram Stories and IGTV to encourage accounts to host their own Q&A sessions, announcements, etc. You can do the same and host or promote a live session where you interview someone over a live feed, or publish a few standard posts to promote your event. This will also help you manage your brand reputation and maintain it on a high level. 

If you are hosting a Q&A or inviting a guest, you could use the promotional posts before the event to ask users to comment with questions that they’d like to ask during the event. Depending on the subject or guest, you might see a flood of question comments from users. A strategy like this will also allow your followers to feel like they are directly communicating with you and contributing to your content.

Summary

In the end, engagement on a social platform does not mean asking for a lifetime commitment. It means commenting, liking, saving posts, and messaging. Instagram is a platform that rewards accounts and users who spend more time on it and is a great social channel for building a community and driving more traffic to your website or any other channel. 

However, not every comment is a good comment. You will likely face a lot of spam but the good news is that you can use a profanity filter on Instagram to filter out all of the specific words, phrases, or numbers that you want to hide. To do that, navigate to Privacy > Security on the left > Comments > Edit Comment Settings, and type all of the words you don’t want to see in your comments to automatically hide them.

We hope that the hacks from above will help you get more Instagram comments, show up in the Explore tab more often and get more likes and greater engagement on what’s known as the most engaging social media platform out there.