- Get 'social' with these user engagement tips...
You have a business account on Instagram and are now looking for ways to turn it into one of the most trending social media profiles on the platform. What can you do to enhance your social media marketing strategy in a way that will bring you more visibility and reach? Your priority here should be to increase your Instagram engagement rate. Why? The higher your engagement rate, the higher your visibility, and hence, your chance to attract more active followers on Instagram. This, in effect, means that every like, comment, share, save and tag your posts receive from real IG users can make the platform’s algorithms work significantly in your favor.
What’s more, you might even find many of these new IG followers turn into customers and service associates for your business. Gaining social proof is hence, undoubtedly, the key to Instagram success. For optimum results in this matter, you need your engagement to rise not just on the new content you post but also on previously published material. This includes content that did not attract much audience traction at the time of publishing.
However, this is easier said than done as Instagram’s current algorithms favor engagement over chronological feed presentation. In other words, if your post is not attracting some attention as soon as it is getting posted, chances are it may not be visible on your followers’ feeds at all, even when it is brand new. This creates the scenario of publishing missed posts (having little or no engagement) which can be detrimental to one’s brand-building efforts on Instagram. The question here is: “is it possible to increase the engagement rate on missed posts?” The answer is yes. There are several ways to lift engagement on missed posts. It all depends on how much time, planning, and money you are willing to invest for the purpose. If you are not running on a shoestring budget, you could use professional services. Buy Instagram likes, saves, or shares for a quick short-term solution and make the platform’s algorithms work to boost your visibility. You can alternatively hire marketing professionals specifically for maintaining your social media presence.
A few changes to your existing marketing strategy can bring about the desired results too. Most of these changes do not cost you much as long as you are willing to make time to incorporate the changes.
Here are seven tried and tested hacks you can use to bring engagement to posts that your audience has missed checking out earlier:
1. Create Throwback or Reflective Posts
As the name suggests, showcase your old content by repurposing them. Alliterative hashtags like #throwbacktuesday, #throwbackthursday, and #TBT are popular trends on Instagram. There are many kinds of posts that you can use to incorporate the benefits of such hashtags in your marketing strategy. Use them frequently to:
- Create reposts of the same content.
- Write nostalgic captions on fresh content that refer back to old posts.
- Review how far you may have come since an old post.
- Remember old feedback and tag your followers in appreciation posts linking to old content.
- Cross-reference previous content casually in a new post.
The whole concept of throwback posts revolves around creating audience connections and humanizing your brand. Select posts that you feel will speak to your audience for creating throwback content. You also need to ensure your posts get noticed and not scrolled past when it appears on someone’s IG feed. When you generate throwback posts, think how you can make your post:
- Relatable;
- Appealing;
- Eye-catching.
This is sure to bring your missed posts the engagement you are aiming for!
2. Create Stories Around Old Posts
One of the most popular kinds of posts on Instagram nowadays is IG Stories. Stories appear in a separate vertically positioned timeline on the top of your feed. You can only see Stories posted by IG users who you follow and vice versa. As they remain accessible for only 24 hours from the time of posting, Instagram users tend to check out new Stories more frequently than regular posts on their feed. In other words, IG Stories are likely to bring you the most audience engagement as they work by directly engaging with your audience’s curiosity.
Moreover, the latest updates let you add clickable links as part of your Story content. This directs real-time traffic to your original post. All you have to do is add a direct CTA asking your followers to “swipe” the link you post. If your viewer clicks it, you will have registered engagement on your Story and the original post! It is worth incorporating frequent Story updates in your Instagram marketing strategy.
3. Collaborate
If it suits your budget, collaborate with others on the social networking platform. When you work in collaboration, you open your content to followers of your partners in the project. This means a higher reach and impression for you! You can promote old posts by creatively incorporating them into your new collaborative posts. Types of IG users who can benefit you in such joint content ventures include:
- Influencers,
- Content creators,
- Fellow business accounts from your niche,
- Allied business partners,
- Real customers.
Getting someone else to speak for your business regarding your old content positively will bring your missed posts the desired engagement growth. It will also help you build solid social proof. Thus, this marketing strategy brings you multiple benefits. You may also be able to generate real-time sales using this strategy!
Before you partner up, be sure to do thorough research on your potential collaborator’s influence and reach. Conduct any background checks you may need to ensure you are collaborating with authentic users.
4. Create Contests
Another way to bring audience attention to your old posts is by using them as part of new contests and giveaways. Some easy and quick types of interactive posts you can make include:
- Conduct polls and surveys. You can use IG Stories, go live or let your collaborators hold such contests for you. Here are some ideas of how to repurpose old content into competitions:
- Pit two or more posts against each other and ask your audience to choose which one they prefer.
- Ask viewers to rate select posts on a scale of relatability.
- Tag friends, save or comment on them in response to a contest question.
- Create caption contests or hashtag contests on nostalgia by using your old posts.
5. Use Instagram Promotional Tools
Instagram allows business account holders several convenient options to enhance visibility and reach by using inbuilt paid promotions. If you have your micro-goals in place, getting engagement on missed posts can be easily achieved by using these promotional features. Moreover, as this is the platform’s inbuilt paid promotion service, you can be assured that the new audience you are reaching out to are genuine IG account holders. This is a safe means of conducting organic promotion of your content. All you have to do is
- Choose the post you want to promote.
- Convert it into an ad by selecting the “promote” button below it.
- Specify details for your target:
- Goal,
- Audience,
- Budget,
- Duration for promotion.
- Submit the post for review.
If your post meets Instagram’s rules and policies (this may vary from country to country), it will convert into a promotional position as per the specifications you selected. Link your Facebook account for a better experience of using this Instagram feature. If your country of residence allows it, you can also include shopping tags in the promotional post you create. This will improve your chances of generating more post engagement alongside opportunities of making direct sales via Instagram.
What is more, you can also create Special Ads relating to housing, credit, and socio-political causes. If your ad is for a non-profit, you may get additional benefits like tax exemptions and the ability to fundraise.
6. Organize Your Post-publishing Schedule
One sure way to get your active followers interested in your account enough to not miss out on any of your content is to be consistent in your posting patterns. Organize what, when, and how to post in advance. Organizing your posting schedule will:
- Build audience anticipation and expectations.
- Encourage more viewers to check your feed.
- Increase your audience demographic.
- Push your content higher on Instagram’s visibility algorithms.
When this happens, your new followers and first-time visitors are sure to look through your Instagram account and check out your previous postings.
Here is the easiest way to organize your posting schedule:
- Make use of Instagram Insights to check.
- When does your target audience interact the quickest with your posts?
- Who does your content derive most engagement from?
- What kind of posts brings your account the most engagement?
- Which hashtags and keywords work best for your business?
- Who are your inactive followers?
- Create your posts in advance by using the data obtained. It’s a good idea to use different post formats that cross-refer to each other. Let your content organically lead your audience from one post to another. IG users tend to binge-watch Stories, Reels, and IGTV episodes. You can use more of these types of posts in your marketing strategy, adding cliffhangers, announcements, and teasers that serialize your content.
- Use a scheduling tool to auto-post your content at the set time consistently. This will help you build a regular and active fan base. There are several scheduling tools available for social media posting. Most are free to use or require a nominal purchasing fee.
7. Be Social
The more interactive you are as an IG user, the more reciprocation you are likely to receive from other active users of the platform. You can skillfully use conversations to draw attention to posts you want engagement to pick up on. Here are some ways you can do this:
- Use direct CTA asking others to check out your older posts when you are discussing a relevant topic.
- Cross-post your content in different formats. For instance, draw attention to an earlier IGTV episode by using Reels or Stories and vice versa.
- Optimize your posts for saves and shares. This will enable your posts to retain visibility over a sustained period. Sharing and saving content makes the audience return to the posts. This means the same post is likely to gain fresh engagement for a more extended period.
- Cross post your content on any other social media site you use. For instance, you can enable simultaneous publishing on Facebook in your Instagram settings. Twitter, too allows the posting of Instagram links on its feed. Make use of such cross-posting opportunities to direct engagement from all possible audience pools.
Conclusion
Missed posts and low engagement rates occur because Instagram algorithms decide visibility quotient using several types of data like nature of the post, the time of posting, the engagement it receives in the shortest time, and by whom. Calculations for engagement rate differ when a publication gets engagement from followers and non-followers. As an IG user who is keen to lift the engagement rate on missed posts, you must pay special attention to the activities of your followers on your post. At the same time, you must work towards organically converting active visitors into followers. You must also periodically purge your account of inactive followers to boost your engagement rates.
In addition, you should pay close attention to what kind of posts are bringing you the most engagement. Concentrating on such post types for future content will help reduce the occurrence of missed posts. Furthermore, you must be attentive to your audience and your interaction history, engage with other accounts the way you would want them to engage with yours, and create content that is likely to be saved and shared. All these little details will help you ace Instagram’s algorithms and push your content higher in terms of visibility and reach. If you can incorporate all of this into your Instagram marketing strategy, you will soon no longer have to worry about missed posts and low engagement rates.