{"id":1545,"date":"2018-07-06T17:49:25","date_gmt":"2018-07-06T17:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wendevs.com\/gofortress\/?p=1545"},"modified":"2021-09-27T18:29:18","modified_gmt":"2021-09-27T18:29:18","slug":"5-ways-to-boost-engagement-and-grow-your-instagram-following","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wendevs.com\/gofortress\/5-ways-to-boost-engagement-and-grow-your-instagram-following\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Ways to Boost Engagement and Grow Your Instagram Following"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Instagram is quickly gaining popularity in the social media world. After being bought by Facebook in 2012, the app has evolved from the photos-only platform launched in 2010 to include new features and a variety of mediums to share your brand with the world. Instagram is a great way to engage different demographics, especially millennials, in ways that Facebook can\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"mce-hs-more\" style=\"height: 20px !important;\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-mce-placeholder=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Growing a following on Instagram can be difficult because users are generally more selective with following businesses. The average Facebook user likes around 40 company pages while the 80% of Instagram users follow at least\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.hootsuite.com\/instagram-statistics\/\">1 business account<\/a>. Instagram users tend to curate a more intimate feed, following family, friends, and businesses that they personally use. Instagram makes it easy to integrate an e-commerce site that links directly through the app. Because of this,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.hootsuite.com\/instagram-statistics\/\">75% of users<\/a>\u00a0are likely to take action after seeing your post \u2013 like visiting your site \u2013 and are\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.hootsuite.com\/instagram-statistics\/\">70% more likely<\/a>\u00a0to make a mobile purchase than Facebook users. Interacting with your followers and catching the attention of new followers is the best way to get them to return the engagement and increase business.<\/p>\n<p>Here are 5 ways to improve your engagement and grow your brand on Instagram:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>1. Find the best times of the day to post your content.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sproutsocial.com\/insights\/best-times-to-post-on-social-media\/\">Sprout Social study<\/a>\u00a0found that the best time of day to post new content is weekdays between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. So, to maximize engagement, make sure that you\u2019re posting closer to lunch time or the end of the work day rather than right away in the morning or before going to bed. The engagement may be slightly different for your target demographic and it can take some testing to figure out exactly the best time of day to make your post.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn2.hubspot.net\/hubfs\/435306\/Picture1.png\" alt=\"Picture1\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Source:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sproutsocial.com\/insights\/best-times-to-post-on-social-media\/\">Sprout Social<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. Utilize Instagram stories<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Since Instagram stories were introduced in 2017, they have proven one of the most used features on Instagram with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.adweek.com\/digital\/pius-boachie-guest-post-instagram-stories\/\">300 million daily users<\/a>. Unlike the rest of your feed, Instagram stories\u00a0<em>do\u00a0<\/em>show up chronologically to all your followers. This is a great platform to engage with your followers by creating polls and including \u201cswipe up\u201d links to your website. Just like normal posts, you can include hashtags and mentions which can increase engagement with your brand. Recently, the app introduced the Highlights feature for stories. This is a back-log of stories that you can keep around for longer than the normal 24 hours. These are great to highlight events you\u2019ve hosted, product launches, or other stories that center around the same topic. The highlights can be added to at any time and will help keep your favorite stories around for good!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn2.hubspot.net\/hubfs\/435306\/Picture2.png\" alt=\"Picture2\" \/><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/foundr.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Foundr<\/a>\u00a0utilizes the highlights feature to keep their favorite stories permanently<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn2.hubspot.net\/hubfs\/435306\/Picture3.png\" alt=\"Picture3\" \/><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/nikesportswear\/\">Nike Sportswear<\/a>\u00a0features a new product on their story with a \u201cswipe up\u201d link to their website<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. Take advantage of new Instagram features to vary content<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Instagram has added several new content sharing features since the photos-only-app launched in 2010 including videos, boomerangs, and carousel photos. These help you increase engagement and vary your content. Videos and boomerangs generate more consumption than photos but, are liked less. Make sure that your videos are well-made and really highlight the culture of your business. Carousel \u2013 the feature that allows you to post multiple photos in one post \u2013 is great for showcasing a collection of photos from events and projects or before-and-after\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn2.hubspot.net\/hubfs\/435306\/Picture4.png\" alt=\"Picture4\" \/><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/gofortress\/\">Fortress<\/a>\u00a0creates a poll using the carousel feature to make a poll that increases engagement resulting in 35% more likes than the average single photo.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn2.hubspot.net\/hubfs\/435306\/Picture5.png\" alt=\"Picture5\" \/><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/entrepreneur\/\">Entrepreneur<\/a>\u00a0consistently posts high-quality videos that are less than one minute long to boost engagement and increase awareness of their services.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>4. Post consistently<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Whether you are using all the new Instagram features or are loyal to the original concept of the app, posting consistent, high-quality content is important. All else aside, your followers will not engage with your content if it isn\u2019t worth engaging. So, make sure that you\u2019re following a variety of similar accounts to draw inspiration from, creating a feed that is consistent and relevant to your target audience, use captions that draw in and captivate your audience and relevant, original photos and videos.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn2.hubspot.net\/hubfs\/435306\/Picture6.png\" alt=\"Picture6\" \/><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/forbes\/\">Forbes<\/a>\u00a0posts daily or twice daily to produce a cohesive feed that is relevant to their followers including article-specific photos as well as inspirational quotes relevant to business.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>5. Stay up to date<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Just like any other app, Instagram is constantly pushing out new updates with new features and improved functionality. On June 20th Instagram unveiled its newest feature, IGTV, allowing users to post videos up to an hour long. This competes directly with YouTube and gives Instagram another useful feature all contained within one app. Each new feature can open new doors for your brand to interact with your followers and gain their support. IGTV is not the last new feature that Instagram will add to its fleet so make sure that you stay up to date with the app and all that it can do for you.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/instagram\/\">Instagram<\/a>\u00a0posts a 17-minute video creatively introducing the new IGTV feature to their 241 million followers. This video received over 1.5 million views.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn2.hubspot.net\/hubfs\/435306\/Picture7.png\" alt=\"Picture7\" \/><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Instagram is quickly gaining popularity in the social media world. After being bought by Facebook in 2012, the app has evolved from the photos-only platform launched in 2010 to include new features and a variety.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[169],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wendevs.com\/gofortress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wendevs.com\/gofortress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wendevs.com\/gofortress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wendevs.com\/gofortress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wendevs.com\/gofortress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1545"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wendevs.com\/gofortress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2618,"href":"https:\/\/wendevs.com\/gofortress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1545\/revisions\/2618"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wendevs.com\/gofortress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wendevs.com\/gofortress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wendevs.com\/gofortress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wendevs.com\/gofortress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}