11 Tips and Tricks to Use to Build Your Instagram Engagement

2. Engage with your followers — by paying the love forward!      Skip saying, “thank you!” and then tagging a bunch of commenters on your own post. You may have the right intentions, but it comes off as disingenuous. Respond to questions only on your own post! Instead, go to commenters’ personal pages and engage with their posts! They will love it and eventually return the love again.

3. Tag brands in your caption and your photo      If you are hoping to get reposted, this is the way to do it! Along with using brand hashtags, tagging them in the caption and in the photo grabs their attention, and keeps you in their tagged feed when they are looking for content. It also helps other users strike a conversation about the object of your pictures. Tagging brands is said to earn you 56% more engagement!

4. Post daily      This was important before Instagram rolled out changes, but it’s almost essential with the new algorithm. The Instagram algorithm favors the users that get the most likes, comments, or engagement! If someone is a follower engaging with your posts, you will go to the top of their feed whenever you post! Thus, by providing content everyday, you are promoting more interaction. More interaction = higher up in the feed. High up in someone’s feed = more interaction again. It really is cyclical. I like to think of the new algorithm as a capitalist society (the rich get richer, the poor get poorer) — those who post often get more engagement and get more popular, those who post less often, get less engagement, and get less popular. *If you want to get more InstaStory views, this also applies. When you post, it goes to the top of the Story feed. If you are continuously posting, you’ll stay near the front, thus getting more views.

5. Use a hashtag group in your comments    Now, don’t overload your caption with hashtags — that is a big NO-NO! What you can do is put the hashtags in the comment immediately after the caption. I like to post the photo and then have my hashtags copied so that I can put them there before anyone else is able to comment. I keep a couple notes on my iPhone with a list of 20 hashtags catered to the type of post I am doing (lifestyle, beauty, fashion, hometown). Because Instagram limits the amount of words seen in any particular comment unless you click “more”, many people like to put three dots or periods before the beginning of the hashtags to try and hide them when you post them in a comment.

6. Post clear, bright, and curated photos      This should be pretty obvious, but people who post beautiful, artistic, easy to see photos that are on brand are going to get more engagement on them! People like you to be consistent with the aesthetic of your feed. Open colors and single dominant photos are going to get you more likes!

7. Tell a story      Everyone has a unique story. We all come from different walks of life, culture, states, and backgrounds. Our day-to-day lives are even original to our story! Show that to your followers. They come to you to see YOU, not the other social media influencers that are all posting the same outfit and captions!

8. Offer something unique, and brand yourself      This is very similar to the last one, but find your signature thing. Is it red lips or hair bows? Edgy style or dark humor? What ever you are good at, stick with it! Along with that, tell your followers a tip, trick, or fact they won’t find anywhere else!

9. Join an engagement pod      These are newer to the Instagram community. It simply is a DM of 14 other influencers or business owners that post in the group message every time they have a photo go live. When they post in the DM, everyone knows to go like and comment on their most recent photo! The hope and main idea is that you get enough engagement within the first 15 minutes and then hour to get your to the picture to the popular page and to stay at the top of the hashtag feed. It’s jailbreaking the system! It actually promotes others to comment on your post as well because there isn’t the fear of being the only one.

10. Pose a question in your caption      Are you giving your readers reason to comment? Pose a question and your followers will automatically have a conversation starter and something to say!

11. Add a location      * I have to post a warning about this one: when using a location, it will geotag your photo on your profile. If you are worried about crazy stalkers coming into your life, this is not the best option to have! * If you aren’t too worried and you are pretty careful to post your photos when you aren’t in an actual area (like you have left the establishment), this can work well. By tagging the location, it allows those in the area to find you easier, as well as those looking at photos in that certain place! This can increase people commenting because they will have a similarity to you.