If you’ve spent hours crafting an Instagram post you were sure would go viral, only to get just a few likes from robot accounts, you’re not alone. It’s easy to get discouraged when you see other brands get thousands of social media followers seemingly overnight while you’re left behind.
Luckily, Instagram provides a lot of tools to help brands and creators foster engagement. Plus, there are some great Instagram marketing tips anyone can use to make quality content and increase their reach.
If you want to learn the techniques successful Instagram accounts use to get sky-high engagement, keep reading. We’ll even link to examples of some of the best brand accounts.
What is Instagram engagement?
Instagram engagement encompasses all the ways people respond to your Instagram content, including:
- Likes
- Comments
- Saves
- Sharing with a friend
- Private replies
Each time someone engages with your content, it helps extend your reach to more people. If people like and comment on your post, for example, Instagram’s algorithm assumes it must be interesting and shows it to more people.
Instagram engagement rates indicate the percentage of people who interact with your post after seeing it. Higher engagement rates mean your posts effectively capture Instagram users’ attention and interest.
In 2023, the average engagement rate across all industries was 0.47%. However, some industries experienced up to a 2.58% engagement rate. A “good” or “bad” engagement rate varies based on context. It’s useful to compare your engagement rate to your competitors to understand what’s realistic for you.
How to track Instagram engagement
Monitoring your audience engagement is an important step for improving engagement rates. When you pay attention to how your followers respond to your posts, you can determine what techniques work best for you. You can also change things up if your current strategy stops working.
Instagram offers built-in analytics called “account insights” to help brands track their engagement. Account insights are only available on business or creator accounts. If you want access to these engagement metrics, you will need one of these account types.
To view account insights:
1. Go to your profile page.
2. Tap the Menu button on the top right (the three horizontal lines).
3. Tap Insights in the menu.
4. This will open the Overview section. From there, you can explore the metrics Instagram offers.
Some of the key metrics that Instagram shares in account insights include:
- Number of accounts reached
- Number of unique accounts that interacted with your content
- Total follower count
- Content interactions
Account insights also allow you to choose a timeframe for the report and view data from up to the past 90 days. If you’ve only recently converted to a business or creator profile, it could take time for the analytics to generate.
While the metrics offered by Instagram analytics are pretty basic, it’s enough to get started with a data-driven strategy. Regularly monitoring your analytics can help you see what’s working and what’s not.
Analytics make it easier to compare campaign performance. For example, you could run a campaign idea one month and then a different campaign idea the following month. Comparing how they perform through account analytics gives you more information about what content interests your audience.
You should also consider keeping a record of your analytics outside of Instagram so you don’t lose historical data.
Tips for boosting your Instagram engagement and creating impact
Whether you upload photo or video content, it’s important to craft your post thoughtfully to foster engagement. But how? While there are endless ideas out there, following these best practices can go a long way.
Note: The examples discussed below were found during our online research for this article.
Consistently create more interesting and valuable content
On a platform buzzing with content, only high-quality posts truly stand out. Before you post content, ask yourself: “Will my audience care about this?” Better yet, be honest with yourself: “Would I like this if another brand posted it?”
To get engagement on Instagram, you need to post the types of content your audience finds valuable. “Value” can mean a range of things. For example, making people laugh and helping people learn are both valuable.
The content should also be relevant to your unique audience—posting content that doesn’t connect to your primary focus will confuse and turn off followers. At the same time, repetitive content will bore your followers.
The best accounts stay focused on the topics their audiences care about while attacking pain points from new angles every day. They even cross-promote with brands that have similar audiences through tags and reposts.
Cocokind Skincare has an Instagram account with an engaged community of followers. They achieve high engagement rates by posting about a variety of topics and inviting audience interaction while always tying it back to natural skincare for sensitive skin.
Cocokind’s posts include a mix of influencer reels, references to widespread memes that connect to their brand, and Q&A sessions with skincare experts. They also feature product announcements and polls asking what products they should make next.
Create a killer Instagram bio
Your Instagram bio is prime real estate to promote your brand, and it’s the only place your community can click through to learn more, shop, or read a blog post. Crafting a good Instagram bio that’s relevant, engaging, and specific to your brand is key to capturing your audience and getting your community to engage.
When writing your bio, include your full name or company name and your contact info. You can also add your handles for other social profiles, which is a great way to get your Instagram community to connect with you on other platforms.
If your brand has its own hashtag, be sure to add it in the bio so your community knows how to tag their photos. Most importantly, you’ll want to add a link to your website, blog, or specific post or product you are trying to promote.
You can maximize your bio by linking to a microsite that contains multiple links to all the most important landing pages, guiding people to what’s relevant for them. Bitly Link-in-bio makes it simple to create, maintain, and update your microsite—without the challenges of hosting a unique microsite yourself.
Track your links
When someone clicks on your Instagram bio link, the traffic source will just show up as “direct” in Google Analytics instead of “Instagram.” So, adding a trackable link is very important if you want to track your traffic and the success of your marketing efforts.
The best way to track your traffic from Instagram is to use a Bitly link in your bio, which includes campaign management analytics. You can track your clicks, get more detailed information about where your traffic is coming from, and even see what times of day are most popular.
Build a brand through visuals
Visual consistency on Instagram helps you build your brand. Ideally, you want people to instantly recognize your posts when they pop up on their feeds so they stop scrolling and engage.
Visual branding can involve a lot of different elements, including:
- Colors and textures
- Image motifs
- Use of emojis and icons
- Logos
- Font choices
- Video and photo editing styles
Chef Jesse Jenkins uses a beautiful and distinct editing style for his cooking videos on Instagram. When one of his posts pops up on your feed, you know who made it without even looking at the username.
The unique filter, use of vignette, color palette, and font choice make it easy to identify his videos. Plus, his signature sign-off of showing the empty plate at the end of each video has become an inside joke viewers look forward to with each post.
Each of these choices seems simple, but in reality, they’re thoughtful and intentional. Used consistently together, these visual choices become a specific brand look.
Tag your content
Tagging content helps you reach new audiences across Instagram, expanding your influence beyond your immediate social network. Tagging also helps people find specific content they’re looking for. People can use the tags to search public posts across Instagram, including from accounts they don’t follow.
Location tags help people find content related to a certain location—for example, travel tips—while Instagram hashtags can lead them to content about certain topics. They may look for haircut inspiration with the hashtag #hairinspo or recipe ideas with the hashtag #recipes.
If you want to reach people who might find your content or brand interesting, tags can help. People who like your content will interact with it or even follow you, helping you gain new audiences.
Unique, branded hashtags can also help organize posts about something specific. For example, event tags like #conventionname can help attendees find each other online, generating excitement around the event each year.
Talk to your audience
Talking to your Instagram followers directly can inspire genuine engagement. For instance, you can use a question sticker to directly invite DM responses or use a poll to invite followers to vote. These techniques are effective because people like to share their opinions and be heard.
Calls to action can prompt your audience to do more. A direct ask, like “Buy now!” can be compelling. For example, you can ask your audience to check out a product, take advantage of a sale, or contribute to a cause.
Reposting user-generated content that tags you or your products is a great way to boost engagement as well. Not only do you talk to that person directly, cementing their loyalty for life, but you encourage other followers to tag you in hopes of getting featured.
GQ Recommends is a great example of a brand that talks to its audience in every post to drive engagement. Almost every post directly asks the audience to check out the link in their bio. Plus, they’re a fan of using polls. For example, they might ask, “Who wore it better?” or “Do you prefer to tie your tie with a four-in-hand or a Windsor knot?”
Schedule your Instagram posts
Social media management can be overwhelming. Scheduling your posts makes managing your Instagram throughout the week a breeze.
By taking the time to curate content and plan out your Instagram feed, you can post more consistently and schedule your Instagram posts for optimal times. This will elevate your exposure, increase your traffic, and help grow your followers.
You can also use scheduling to ensure you post time-sensitive, topical content at the optimal moment. For example, scheduling can help a catering company post about holiday dinners in time for the holiday party rush. Or a cybersecurity company might want to plan relevant posts during cybersecurity awareness month.
Use Instagram stories and reels for a multiformat approach
While it can be overwhelming to learn several different types of posts, it’s important to use all the formats Instagram has to offer in order to reach a broad audience.
Everyone uses Instagram differently. Some people prefer swiping through stories all day, while others are dedicated to their feeds. Some like exploring their discovery page. Still, others only watch Instagram reels.
To reach everyone in your target audience, take a multiformat approach, but remember to keep it visually unified. Visual consistency can keep your Instagram profile page looking neat, clear, and on-brand, even when using multiple formats.
Florence by Mills does a great job of curating a beautiful, unified page despite using a variety of post formats, including stories, reels, and carousel posts. The account achieves this through a consistent color story.
All the posts on the grid use cool purple tones with some blue and pink worked in. Since purple is the skincare brand’s primary color, it also helps Florence by Mills build its brand.
Change up your linking strategy
Don’t be afraid to experiment with new link strategies to see what works. Your Link-in-bio is the most important link on your profile, so you should update it often. Bitly Link-in-bio microsites are simple to adjust, which means you can easily feature the most relevant, of-the-moment links right at the top of your Link-in-bio.
Since you can’t put clickable links in Instagram captions, branded short links are a great alternative. Short, easy-to-type URLs are simple to open—plus, they’re more attractive and trustworthy. Customized short links from Bitly can even include a compelling message or call to action (CTA) in the text, like “yourbrand.com/buynow.”
You can also use branded short links in story stickers. Since link stickers default to the domain text, a custom short link can greatly impact your story content.
Leverage Bitly for the ultimate Instagram strategy
Understanding how to use links within a complicated environment like Instagram is an important part of an effective social media strategy. Aesthetically pleasing links combined with compelling messaging are a powerful combination.
Bitly Link-in-bio and branded short links turn default links into brand experiences that impact your audience. Our links can help build your brand and make you memorable.
Plus, our analytics features make Bitly links twice as powerful. Learn more about your audience and get engagement insights each time someone clicks your Bitly link. Our data helps refine your Instagram marketing strategy for higher performance.
Get started with Bitly today and turn your Instagram presence into a brand asset.
