"Hello, is anyone there? Can you see me? Can you hear me?"
That's my lovely impersonation of most people when they feel like their
Instagram engagement has tanked. They feel down and out,
like the app has personally rejected them. But here's the thing...
low engagement on your Instagram Feed,
especially as your account grows, it's a sign.
It's a sign that it's time to switch it up.
So settle in and hit the subscribe button if you haven't yet,
because in today's video,
I'm going to cover Instagram engagement strategies that are working today for
both your Feed posts and your Stories. First,
let's talk about how to boost the engagement of your Feed posts on Instagram.
The first thing you can do when it comes to boosting the engagement on your Feed
is to think about making content that's a whole lot more saveable.
You've probably noticed the flag icon that is around your posts.
This allows your followers to save your posts so that they can reference them in
the future. So when you create content, as much as you can,
encourage your audience to save the content. And by that, I mean,
it can't be fluffy. It's gotta be high value.
It's gotta be something that they're gonna want to reference in the future.
The more you can do this...
there are rumors that when people save your content, it actually booths,
*mentally resets* it
actually boosts your posts in the algorithm. Now, of course,
we don't have official confirmation from Instagram. This is anecdotal evidence,
but I have seen great success by creating saveable content.
Take this post, for example, where I shared six caption templates.
You can see it in my Feed and from the outset,
you might see that it has just over 500 likes. Meh.
That's not that great for my account size, but when I open my insights,
you can see that there are *victorious trumpet sound* over 900 saves.
And I care about that more than the likes. Even though from the outside,
you don't know how many saves that post got, from my perspective,
I'm really happy because over 900 people thought that this post was so good they
were going to save it and reference it in the future.
The next type of content I want you to think about is shareable content.
Slightly different than saveable content,
because shareable content is content that makes your follower look
good. It makes them look smarter. It makes them look more put together,
or like they're the source of something juicy because when you create content
like this, they can then hit the icon that looks like a paper airplane.
When they hit this icon,
they have the chance to share your content to their Stories or to DM it
to one of their contacts. More often than not,
I think people will share that type of content to their Stories, because again,
it makes them look good. It makes them appear smarter.
It's almost like bumper stickers. Remember, bumper stickers,
back in the day you would put them on your car.
And that meant that you were proud to represent whatever it was that you had on
your bumper sticker. I know with my family,
we were big listeners of one of our local radio stations and I think we actually
had their bumper sticker on our car, which says a lot. Like,
if we're driving around the city, advertising another brand,
that's the same idea of when you create content and someone
likes it enough that they're willing to share it to their Stories and advocate
for you and your content with their followers. Take this account, @bachelordata,
as an example.
After every episode of The Bachelor,
this account puts together information into very shareable
infographics.
These are so shareable and they're so informative.
I have seen this account grow and kind of blow up because of this content
strategy.
The next way to boost engagement with your Feed posts is to write longer
captions. Don't run away,
but I hate to be the bearer of bad news - captions are only getting longer.
We have this data from Fohr.
Fohr looked at the average number of characters that are used in
captions. And in 2016, that number was 142. In 2017,
it went up to one 199. In 2018, it went up to 281. 2019, it
went up to 336. And in 2020,
it was projected to be 405 characters per post.
That's more than double since 2016.
The reason why longer captions improve your engagement is because it keeps
people on your post longer. And as we know,
when the Instagram algorithm sees that your post is captivating people's
attention, well, it's then going to show it to even more people.
If hearing this is stressing you out and you really despise writing captions,
especially for your business, I got something for you.
Head to elisedarma.co/captions
and you're going to get 12 free caption templates that I've written for you -
the coach, the service provider and the product creator.
So head to elisedarma.co/captions. It's free.
Other things you can do to boost your Feed posts include turning your photo or
graphic-based posts into a video.
I've been using this tactic for well over a year and it really has helped to
boost my engagement.
My static photo posts used to *sad noise* in the Feed.
And then by simply using an app like Pixaloop or Canva,
I'm able to animate that same photo and turn it into a video.
Then when I post that video to my Feed, instead of getting like 500 likes,
I'm getting like 5,000 views. So for more on this topic,
I encourage you to check out this video
[How to Make INSTAGRAM VIDEOS For Business] on my channel right here ,
where I walk you through all the apps and tools I use to make videos.
The next thing you can do to easily boost the engagement of your Feed posts is
when you are publishing Reels or IGTV,
make sure that you select to have 'Preview in the Feed' turned on.
If you're not familiar with what I'm talking about,
both IGTV and Reels have their own Feed on your profile when you
start publishing them.
So you have the option...you could just publish them to their own Feeds or you
can share a preview in your actual Feed (your grid).
And this is what I highly recommend.
It's been proven and I've tested this as well.
I've published some without the preview and some with.
And I find that when I have that preview in the Feed turned on,
my views are way higher.
Last but not least, when it comes to boosting your engagement in the Feed,
my last piece of advice is this: try something new.
Over the last six months,
I've experimented with memes and GIFs and Reels like never before. And yes,
my Feed doesn't look as pretty or cohesive anymore.
(I don't know what that was). You know what I mean? But the good news is,
the Feed design, it doesn't matter as much. So go ahead and try something new.
When it comes to making memes and GIFs for your Instagram Feed,
check out this video
[How to Make MEMES for Instagram (INSTAGRAM CONTENT STRATEGY)] right here.
I cover all the steps you need to know. And hey,
if you're enjoying this video so far, don't forget (oh my God,
my foot's asleep). If you're enjoying this video so far,
don't forget to subscribe and hit the bell so that you don't miss any future
trainings, just like this one. Next,
let's cover how to boost engagement in your Stories.
The first thing you can do here is to use the engagement stickers that Instagram
actually gives us to use in our Stories. Did you know that? Yeah,
Instagram wants to help us boost our engagement in our Stories.
So it gives us stickers like the poll sticker, the quiz sticker,
the DM me sticker, the question sticker, the slider sticker.
They're all very easy ways that your audience, who's viewing your Stories,
can take a simple action to show that they're engaged with your content.
This is the easiest, fastest way to instantly boost your engagement.
And I've covered this topic more in-depth right here in this video
[How To Plan Instagram Stories | INSTAGRAM STORY IDEAS]. Go ahead and check it out. The second thing you can do to boost engagement in your Stories is to cater your content, to talk about myths and beliefs, and maybe even controversies in your industry. Believe me, this is going to get people talking and that's what you need sometimes in your business.
Sometimes you need to put your stake in the ground and say, "Hey,
this is what I believe in. This is what I don't stand for in our industry.
And you need to own it." By sharing this in your Stories,
you're sure to generate conversation. Replies to your Stories,
which turn into direct message threads.
When the Instagram algorithm sees that people are intently watching your Story
content and replying or sharing it, if they can,
then what do you think is going to happen?
More people in your audience are going to see that Story content.
So just something to think about when there's a news headline or something big
going on in your industry, lend your voice to it, share your stance on it,
share it with your audience, and encourage them to reply to your Stories,
to have that conversation in your DMs. Lastly, when it comes to your Stories,
I want you to tag other relevant accounts. So, not competitors,
but people who are working to build a similar audience as you.
I want you to find a reason of why you can shout them out and tag them in your
story. When you tag other relevant accounts,
they then get a notification that you've tagged them and they can share your
Story in their Story.
So they're effectively recommending your content to their audience.
This is a brilliant way to gain exposure from other people's accounts on
Instagram and get more views over to your Stories.
Now I cover the ins and outs of this strategy,
which I've called the Story Seasons Method right here in this video
[How to use INSTAGRAM STORIES for Business - INSTAGRAM SALES FUNNEL]. Go ahead and check it out and learn more about this amazing visibility strategy that we have as a tool within Instagram Stories. For even more ideas on what you can share in your Stories, including 800 of them that I've already brainstormed for you,
I want you to check out Story Vault.
Story Vault is my answer to your question of,
"What do I post today to actually grow my business?" Inside Story Vault,
you're going to get 400 business to business ideas and 400 business to
consumer ideas. So you'll choose the model that works best for you.
Then you'll choose the Story category of what your business needs the most right
now. Is it visibility, engagement, leads, or sales?
I cover all the details over on Story Vault.co.
I'll leave the link right below this video.
Go ahead and check it out and grab Story Vault today. To ease and revenue,
I'll see you in the next video.
Which way am I pointing? It's this way? Yeah.
Like, what hand do I start with, I dunno why I'm so confused.
I think I normally start with my right.