Instagram engagement AIN’T EASY (and it can be extremely time-consuming, especially if you don’t do it right).
You probably know by now that Instagram growth relies more on how strategic you are (and how much you WANT this).
Yes, there are many advantages to being popular on the world’s most famous photo sharing platform such as getting products, being offered stays ate paradise resorts you would never have afforded otherwise, and depending on how big you are, even getting invited to top VIP events around the globe.
Yes, the benefits are attracting enough to wake up an interest on even those who insist they don’t need these things in life.
I mean I get it, life is not about getting free clothes or staying at a floating villa in the Maldives. But who would be crazy to let an opportunity like that go by?
Truth be told, it is definitely not easy to grow in the platform(and this goes back to my first paragraph). Your success on Instagram all comes down to ”how much do you want this to happen”?
Because I am from the opinion that yes, anyone can be an influencer. But because the path is so arduous, many people give up. And think about it, if it was EASY, everyone would be an influencer, don’t you agree?
So here I want to share with you some extremely useful hacks to apply immediately that will guarantee you to help increase your Instagram engagement.
Are you ready? Let’s go!
YOUR COMPETITORS’ FOLLOWERS MATTER
Instead of commenting on your competitors photos, respond to your competitors followers
Find a competitor within your niche. See what other people are commenting on her photo and if anything they say stands out to you that you could interact. Respond to this person’s audience and get a different type of exposure right there.
The reason why you do this, is because when you comment very large influencers that has a lot of people also commenting their feed, your comment will most probably get lost within the wave of people and you will probably be wasting your time commenting on something that won’t give you a big return.
Her follower with then get a notification that @labellesociety has liked and answered to their comment and will probably get curious about who you are (human nature).
Furthermore, you have the added benefit of knowing that these followers are in your niche, because they are commenting on someone who is in the same niche as yours.
A WORD OF CAUTION: Be EXTRA respectful to your competitor and don’t spam their account, or annoy the followers they have. Always be mindful not to be spammy and to be sharing love by being as genuine as possible with this approach.
POST NOTIFICATIONS
Turn on post notifications to larger accounts within your niche
And try and comment as soon as you notice the notification pop up in your phone. This is good for a number of reasons:
- It makes it much smoother to always comment on the same accounts, thus making sure that the big influencer will eventually notice you. Bonus points if you manage to build a relationship with that said influencer
- It makes it easier to comment throughout the day (and not have to be hours after work commenting everywhere). So the moment I get notified that someone posted something, I immediately comment and call it a day with that influencer.
Important: Focus on your competitors, on your most valuable followers and on people who are in the similar niche than you. If your goal is to quickly increase your Instagram engagement, then you need to be extra strategic to target the right people to interact with.
Liked your picture? Check their story!
This is my super trick that I haven’t read anywhere out there, so pay attention now.
Check out the people who have liked your picture and you will immediately see who of these guys posted something to their story (remember the little circle around the persons’ profile that indicates who has a new story to be viewed?).
Watch as many as these stories as possible. Interact with the ones you can relate to.
As an example, one of my followers that I was not familiar with posted just yesterday that he was eating a burger (by the way, if there is anything you should know about me is that I am burger-OBSESSED).
I HAD to comment back saying how much I love burgers and that it looked delicious. He was happy to reply me and mentioned he also has a major burger addiction. We laughed about being so in love with eating burgers, to the point that by the end of the conversation we were using #TeamBurger to identify ourselves with.
We immediately bonded and I felt closer to him in a different level. Go Team Burger!
If you notice at the top we were having a conversation with @doc.vwang another day, also speaking about burgers (when we first connected). The photo you see below is of when he ate a burger and remembered our conversation, so he sent it back to me. I was so happy to see him sending me a picture of a burger. That really created a bond between us (go team burger!) 
This one with Andrea,on the other hand, was when I proactively sent her something that reminded me of her. A few months back she was in Hawaii and she was drinking my favorite beer (it is called Big Wave and it is Hawaiian). When Cris came back from Japan he brought me a bottle of Big Wave. I took a picture and sent it to Andrea to give continuation to the story.
Comment back with a question
I use this quite a lot (and mostly because I genuinely care about the answer).
So whenever I post a picture of, for example, Iceland, and someone comments ‘’Wow, this looks so beautiful’’, I will typically answer this person ‘’yes, isn’t it? Have you ever considered going to Iceland yourself?’’
Not only do people reply back, but when they do it is an amazing conversation starter (and relationship building).
And DON’T STOP THERE! If you comment someone else’s post and their reply to you gives you an opening to say something back, by all means, GO FOR IT! Don’t miss out these tiny little opportunities to build a community. Tiny steps can take you veeeery far!
PERSONALIZEEE
If you don’t know yet, I have graduated in a hospitality business school in Switzerland.
This means I am all about high quality service (if you ever spoke to me via email, you will quickly understand what I mean).
After being educated by the gurus of the Hospitality industry (if there is anyone in the world who knows about quality service, it is the Swiss), I can safely affirm I understand a thing or two about impressing my customers through service.
And if there is ONE word that you should always aim to keep in your mind if you want to keep impressing people everywhere you go, that would be: PERSONALIZATION.
But how do I personalize through Instagram? You might be wondering.
Well that is easy peasy, lemon squeeze, my friend!
(And I will even teach you a way to be MORE efficient and not waste time):
Someone leaves you a comment on your picture. BEFORE answering to that person, go to their profile and check their first name in their bio. Leave them a comment in their last picture as you normally would.
Now go back to your Instagram, and reply to that person’s comment by using their first name!
I guarantee you the person will be happy to be referred to in his/hers first name, as opposed to @wanderlusteroftheworldunited (fake account of course, but you get the gist).
Not only will you WOW your follower by knowing their name, but they will feel valued (and ultimately feeling happy to follow you, since you know them at a more intimate level).
‘’WELCOME, MY FRIEND!’’
This one is a nice touch to whoever started following you recently.
Don’t stress too much thinking you have to do this to every new follower (depending on how many people follow you in one day this is unsustainable).
But every once in a while, go back to someone who has started following you and engage with them (comment their picture, check out their story if they have posted to it).
I like to comment something in the lines of ’ Hi (insert name here). I saw that you followed me and I wanted to introduce myself to you firsthand! My name is Ana and I am very excited to have you onboard @labellesociey’
Or even better (this I really just learned yesterday and I already seen it working): If you see someone who added you has the little story circle around their profile indicating they posted a story, check it out! Comment back, interact.
If you interact with the people that started following you, the chances of them hitting the unfollow button eventually are greatly reduced. You will have already established some rapport. Try it out! I am sure you will LOVE this strategy!
ENGAGE BEFORE AND AFTER POSTING
I know, this is the part most people hate (but the ones who do this well are the ones with the highest Instagram engagement).
Did you know that the first hour is the most crucial to have engagement in Instagram? So having comments and likes to your picture within the first hour indicates to Instagram that you have high quality, engaging content (and they reward you by giving you higher exposure in future posts).
It is tough and especially if you want to have a life, you have to learn how to take advantage of the spare time you have in order to be able to comply to this.
What I mean is, you know those times where you are commuting and just scrolling through Facebook? Or those moments when you are writing to board a plane?
Basically ANY TIME you have to spare during your day, try and engage. I promise this will take a lot of the pressure of having to sit down for one hour between your workout and dinner to comment on other people’s accounts.
I did this at first and I cannot tell you the amount of times I had to have a late dinner because I got hooked into commenting to other people’s posts and stories.
Now, every time I have a few minutes to spare, instead of wasting it, I try and make the most of it.
That is why you can always expect to have me commenting early in the mornings (when I am walking to work), or around 18h when I leave work for the gym. I also comment when I am waiting for my coffee to be ready, when I am waiting for the microwave to heat up, when I am having a pedicure… You get the picture, right?
EVERY TIME YOU HAVE TO SPARE IS A GOOD TIME FOR YOUR INSTAGRAM ENGAGEMENT.
Use your time wisely and comment when you have time to spare. You will quickly see how much easier it is to engage with other people when it doesn’t become a 1h obligation.
And that’s a wrap for now guys. I am sure if you apply these 6 tips wisely you will have no problem growing your Instagram engagement. Keep in mind that it is a lot of work to have an engaged account (if it was easy, everyone would become an influencer, right?).
But the moment you start soaring you will see how easier it gets. Plus, you will start making actual REAL friends throughout Instagram, I kid you not. It is beautiful to connect with like-minded individuals. And if you get close to an influencer in your region, you can eventually even have the opportunity to meet up with them.
But hey, that is a story for another post 🙂
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Do you have any tricks tricks to increase your Instagram engagement? Do you agree with the above tips given? Share your thoughts below
- How I went from 0 to 5K Engaged Instagram Followers FAST
- 9 Mistakes that are Hurting your Instagram Engagement (and you don’t even know it)
