Why You Should Include Engagement in Your Instagram Strategy
This month, I began incorporating engagement into my strategy with one of my clients. She initially wasn't interested in this offering, but decided we should give it a try for the new year. In just the first week, her account gained 125 new followers on Instagram (previously averaging 5-10 new follows per week), weekly reach more than quadrupled, and their conversions increased significantly.
Again, this is just with one week of adding 20 minutes of engagement on posting days. That's only one hour of extra time on Instagram, and we already got these results! So if you're currently just posting and ghosting, it may be time to get a bit more engaged with the platform.
What is Instagram Engagement?
Instagram Engagement is basically just spending time on the app interacting with people in your target market. That's it! It’s taking the time to like and comment on relevant users’ posts in a genuine way to show them support and pique their interest in your brand.
Engagement is a way to show your brand to more people that the algorithm may not be sharing it with. It gets you in front of your target market organically and invites them to come check out your product or service in a passive, no-pressure way.
How Does Engagement Help Me Grow on Instagram?
There are three chief ways an engagement strategy can help you grow your Instagram account:
1. Engagement = Following
Each account you engage with is a potential follower in the making! As I said earlier, when you engage with someone on Instagram, it introduces your brand to them in a no-pressure situation. Commenting on a post doesn't have the same salesy feel as ads or even organic posts can have, because all you're doing is showing them support by saying something encouraging or affirming.
We've all seen those engagement bots on Instagram that spam comments telling you to go follow them, or commenting the same emoji over and over again. First of all, I don't recommend using bots on Instagram EVER (and Instagram doesn't like it either and may ban your account). It feels disingenuous and spammy and doesn’t build any kind of trust! But one benefit to other brands who aren’t making this mistake is it can make real, authentic comments stand out and feel so refreshing!
When my posts have received nothing but spam comments for a week and then suddenly I get a “This is great advice, thank you for sharing!” from someone real, it’s like an instant endorphin boost! If you say something that is short and sweet, but also shows you took the time to actually read their post, people are more willing to actually go see what you're about because they recognize that you value authenticity and making real connections.
2. Engagement = Reach
Engagement does more than just create connections with the people you directly engage (although that's important too!) When you spend time on the Instagram app interacting with your target market, you're telling Instagram more about who you are and what you do. Who you engage with teaches the algorithm how to categorize your content and who it should share your posts with.
In one hour of Instagram engagement for my client, I probably directly interacted with 100 separate accounts. By the end of the week, her reach had gone from an average of 2,000 to 10,000! That’s 8,000 more accounts the algorithm was able to match to my client as a potential audience than it could before. Then she received 125 new followers, which is 25 more than I directly interacted with! The better your reach, the more users will see your content, giving you more opportunities to gain followers automatically thanks to the algorithm! See? Algorithms aren’t so scary!
3. Engagement = Engaged Audience
Have you ever seen those accounts with a hundred thousand followers but only a handful of likes and zero comments? These accounts likely used follow/unfollow strategies and didn't incorporate engagement into their strategy. Part of why you should engage with both accounts that follow you and accounts that don't is because it encourages them to return the favor.
A follower is an empty number if they’re not seeing your content, so be sure to take the time to interact with some of your current followers in addition to potential new ones! When they see your comment or like pop up in their notifications, it will remind them to go check out what’s new with your brand. As soon as they like or comment on your content again, you’ll be showing up in their feed again for a while, because they just told the algorithm that they want to see your posts!
This is why I always engage for 20 minutes immediately after posting. It increases the chance that those who I engage with will then go and like or comment on my most recent post in exchange, growing that post’s reach in the process. Just be careful not to pigeonhole yourself to the same group of people liking and commenting on every post - you want different people interacting to really help your post’s performance and account’s growth.
What About Engagement Pods?
An engagement pod is when a group of accounts agrees to like and comment on each other's posts in an effort to boost reach and engagement for each other. One of the problems with pods is that a lot of times people within them aren't going to be your target market, so all it does is confuse the algorithm about who to show your content to. The real end result will be the algorithm showing your posts to those specific people in your pod over and over again, rather than a new audience.
If you're all in the same niche that can work better, but it still pigeonholes you to only reaching those within your pod. The larger the pod, the more time it will take you each day to engage with all of the accounts. I find it a much better use of my time to engage with my current followers and new potential followers for 20 minutes, rather than spending 20 minutes or more engaging with the same people I see every day on the app.
How Do I Find the Right People?
If you don't know how to find the right people to engage with, I recommend you start by looking at those who already follow you and those who are engaging with your most popular posts (other than bots, of course). Looking at who else they follow (and who follows them) is a great way to find others who may be equally interested in what you have to offer!
I will be releasing a mini course on Instagram engagement later this year, but until then I am offering one-on-one social media coaching and would love to teach you all my best kept engagement secrets so you can start your own engagement strategy.
I Don't Have Time TO DO IT MYSELF!
No problem! I also offer engagement as part of my social media strategy services, and would even be happy to curate a package just for you. Contact me to see how I can help! I also share a ton of social media tips and tricks on my Instagram if you prefer the stalker approach. Don’t be shy, I won’t judge.
