Since a good time, you have been on social media but still struggling with scheduling posts on Instagram? Then you aren’t the only one. Instagram, which once used to be a visually aesthetic social media platform with beautiful pictures, is now more about branding your business, engaging with your customers, influencer marketing, stories, and more.

With 2 billion people downloading and using Instagram monthly, this app is competitively holding its place as a leading social media app in the market and digital world.

So let’s imagine you are a business that joined Instagram and started editing photos like a famous blogger and posting them all over. You put your valuable time and money into promotional ads but literally, it doesn’t help you to increase your Instagram engagement.

With changing algorithms every year, we wonder the best way to boost your Instagram engagement in the year 2022, excited?

An Instagram management tool can do all the work and be of great help but before diving into the details, let’s learn a bit about the basics here.

What Does Instagram Engagement Mean?

Insta engagement is not all about the number of followers or your content reach as perceived, but precisely more about how well people respond to your published content. An easy explanation will be, the total number of people who interact or take an action on your content with respect to your overall following determines your Instagram engagement.

These actions can be calculated with an Instagram engagement calculator from various different key metrics, like:

• Likes
• Comments
• Saves
• Shares
• Direct Messages
• Mentions
• Followers count

Instagram offers a detailed analysis dashboard as ‘Insights’ for all the professional accounts where you can check the basic data metrics and how your posts are performing among your audience.

How Does Instagram Engagement Make a Difference?

How would you feel if you cooked dinner, but nobody ate? Awful, I would. The same is when you post content in various formats on your Instagram account, but nobody reacts You need Instagram likes, which boosts subsequent engagement.

So when your audience engages with your content, there are three basic things you should know.

First, your posts’ engagement will ascertain that people like your created content, it has value to them, and thus they prefer interacting with it.

Second, your content is reaching the right and relevant audience, and your followers are the target customers that you should sustain.

Lastly and most importantly, your engagement is a critical factor in aligning with the Instagram algorithm. The better the engagement, the more are the chances for your content to automatically be visible in explore and newsfeed catching more impressions.

Once you get hold of how people are interacting with your content and follow a social media marketing guide for a winning strategy, let’s delve deeper into understanding what rate of Insta engagement your account is receiving.

A Good Instagram Engagement Rate

An overall IG engagement does make sense but knowing about how frequently your following interacts with your posts measures the Insta engagement rate for your account. In other words, you wish to know what percentage of the people who saw your post engaged with it too?

Instagram would consider any action taken to your feed posts, stories, or Reels as engagement in the form of Likes, Comments, Saves, Shares, Direct Messages, website clicks, story replies, etc. Insta engagement rate can be calculated depending upon your social media goals with respect to the number of followers, impressions, or post reach.

Universally there is no specific range for a ‘good’ engagement rate. There are various factors that influence this number and all-encompassing won’t be fair. So globally, to have a clear idea of an average engagement rate, you can look into your specific niche and do some research on businesses to develop a baseline good for yourself. However, industry experts do believe that anything that falls between a range of 1% to 5% is considered solid.

If we look at global statistics, as of October 2021, an average IG engagement rate for an Instagram business account with respect to all posts types was 0.83% – which is quite good. Aiming for a high engagement rate and landing near 2% or more is appreciated.

How to Calculate Instagram Engagement Rate?

An Instagram engagement calculator doesn’t require much – simply gather all the data of your key engagement metrics (likes, shares, comments, story responses, direct messages, saves) and then divide the total sum received per post by the total number of account followers.

This can also be done with respect to the total reach of the post or the impressions per post.

Let me break this down for you:

Let’s say that you want to calculate the Insta engagement rate for a specific Reel you posted based on your total followers. In this case, you will take the number of responses on the particular Reel, divide it by your total number of followers, and multiply by 100. Your answer will be the engagement rate of the significant Reel post, tadaa!

So if there are 25 likes, 25 comments, and 10 shares to the posted Reel, making it 60 actions received in total, and if you have around 1500 followers, then your average engagement rate will be 4%. This percentage will be helpful to know what percentage of followers interact with your posts, determining the relevance of the audience and how they feel about the content posted.

Increase Instagram Engagement in 2023 – 5 Best Ways to Do

Once we are clear about the basics of Insta engagement and how an engagement rate can be measured on the basis of your social media goals. Let’s pitch the most critical aspect of this topic.

You did everything right with your Instagram engagement post ideas but when you calculated the engagement rate, it came out bad – really bad. You do not have an idea what could have gone wrong or what are you missing. So I bring you the 5 best ways to increase Instagram engagement keeping all social trends that will influence the year 2022. Let’s dive in:

1. 1. Carousels Do Wonders – The Right Ones

       You heard me right! Carousels are a treasure trove – the best performing Instagram engagement post idea to be used.

      Carousels are majorly used for storytelling purposes; a purpose served well. The format allows you to select, upload and post up to 10 images, videos, or text banners per post.

      You have an option to post a series of photos describing the most eventful day of your life, a visual story of how you started your business, or maybe an informative series on brand strategy as visual texts. Relatable content makes it more savable and shareable, boosting IG engagement for a post.

      People primarily engage with a carousel post based on social media tips or hacks, which they can visit later to learn from it. Carousels mainly focus on interactive content that tends to receive responses as comments.

      

      On average, in the year 2021, Instagram accounts with up to or equal to 5K followers tend to have the highest engagement rate on carousel post-type – 4.90%. This percentage was followed by videos with an average Instagram engagement rate of 4.04%.

      Somehow these stats change for accounts up to 10K or more followers where video post-type did better concerning an average IG engagement rate.

      The startling aspect is for accounts with up to 100K followers or more, as carousels posts once again bring the highest engagement rate here.

      Does this make you ponder, why didn’t the videos work well?

      It’s a game of attention span!

      Instagram used to support videos not longer than 60 seconds until they retired IGTV recently and have started accepting longer videos on feed. Videos do not ‘get to the point’ as quick as carousels. Users on social media tend to have a shorter attention span and carousels allow them to have all the major information in less time as they swap away.

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1. Instagram Reels – What Is the Magic About?

   Here, there and everywhere, people are talking about Instagram Reels and how amazing they are – but why?

   

   So initially, Instagram was all about feed image, video posts, and stories but then TikTok came in 2017, which swept away the users, affecting the overall Insta engagement and reach. The struggle got real, and businesses started considering TikTok over Instagram to reach the masses, especially when it hit the milestone of 1 billion monthly active users before the giants.

   But as I mentioned before, Instagram is competitive, and irrespective of the difficult times, it tested and launched a short-form video stream as Reels in August 2020. This format attracts engagement on Instagram without a doubt.

   It was first introduced with a 15 seconds time limit which was super cool, but then the competitor doubled the supported video length, and so did Instagram up to 30 seconds and now supports 60 seconds maximum.

   So, What is Reels magic all about?

   Unlike standard video posts, Reels come with audio, visual effects, and creative tools, allowing the social media creators to be innovative while relevant. You just cannot mess up with Reels. There are some significant reasons for Reels to be a great Instagram engagement post idea to work so well for brands and businesses to achieve their target engagement rates, like:

   To the Point Content

   Reels work like your first impression to your audience. You grab your audience’s attention, and before you know, the time is up! The content needs to be crisp, precise, and definitely to the point, so there is no chance of missing your message when a Reel reaches your target customers. Humans tend to have a minimal attention span, and if you have delivered within that, you have a win-win situation.

   Exceptional Visibility

   When we talk about Instagram engagement, the first step is to be seen by the people you are trying to reach. Reels, in a way, immensely align with Instagram’s algorithm, whether as content videos or as promotional ads that, if relevant to your niche, will result in higher impression and post reach.

   To enhance the visibility, Instagram introduced a dedicated tab to Reels on the main account just above the grid. This way, along with the feed, videos, and mentions option, you will find the Reels tab are well, and anyone can access all your created content within, in one go.

   Reels Tab by thestatesman

   Much Wanted Discoverability

   You probably won’t be visible to the people who do not follow you or maybe never even heard of you. So is the dream of sky-high Instagram engagement lost? Nay!

   If your Instagram account is public, then you can share your Reels to a dedicated space in Explore, where the chances of being discovered are the highest within a wide community.

   Instagram Reels can also be shared with your followers by posting them to the feed as well. The discovery of Reels enhances when it can be searched and found on certain dedicated pages for featured music, songs, hashtags, visual effects, or certain audio used in a Reel.

   Shareability Unlike Stories

   Reels favors high Instagram engagement for its creators, especially on a key metric, Shares. Stories on Instagram vanish away in 24hrs, which has its charm and sense of trust, yet this decreases the chances of being shared over the period. If you missed a story, then it is missed, voila!

   This isn’t the case with Instagram Reels; Reels are there forever – until deleted. The shareability of this format is unlike stories, and because it is in video format, it aligns well with the user’s attention span   

2. Interactive Features on Stories

   After celebrating two successful Instagram engagement post ideas, it is time to explore Instagram Stories better with respect to the newly integrated, interactive features.

   Feed posts (carousels, videos, images, or memes) and Reels are more content-centric, creating new content or repurposing focusing on making a statement by earning more saves, likes, and comments – Stories are more ‘response centric’. Does this make sense?

   Let me make it simple! We know that Instagram engagement calculation is based on various data metrics indicating interactions with your content. Different content formats, including repurposing content, serve other purposes to your account and to its overall reach; for example, feed posts are easy to save or like by tapping on the tab.

   Meanwhile, content on stories is more daily updates or relatable post shares where interactive features can result in an increase of responses in DM’s as story replies and reactions.

   

   To increase engagement with Instagram Stories the first question is, what are the most used interactive features to be used?

   As it is asked, I will spill my magic beans about the 3 major Instagram engagement hacks within Stories to boost engagement.

   Link Stickers

   Initially, availing links as ‘swipe-up links’ on Instagram Stories was only possible for businesses and creator accounts with 10K or more followers. Until recently, Instagram discontinued swipe-up links and introduced Link Stickers – For Everyone!

   Brands now as a startup or new in-line can equally drive traffic to their websites, landing pages, email subscription forms, or any page of choice just like bigger names in the market. If your Instagram engagement strategy is focused on getting a higher conversion rate from social media, then Link Stickers can be your best friend.

   You can also customize the text of Link Stickers to a creative name that may drive more clicks to it resulting in desirable traffic to your website.

   

   Polls and Questions

   Who doesn’t know of social media polls? Those who do not use social media.

   Because, if you are on social media and specifically on Instagram, you have no chance to have missed on ‘Poll Sticker’ and ‘Questions Sticker’. One of the safest choices for having a boom in your engagement rate is interacting with your audience via stories using these stickers.

   Poll Stickers are the most rewarding. A poll will consist of a question (within the supported word limit) and a choice between two options. Let’s consider; you create a poll ‘Is it beneficial to use a social media management tool?’ given with two options, Yes or No. Your audience will view your story, and if it’s relevant, they’ll tap on any option casting their vote.

   In the case of Questions Sticker, either you can create a question with several answers, with one being the correct answer, or you can post a question for your followers to respond and interact with you.

   

    

   Location Sticker

   Safely the most favorite and most used interactive sticker on an Instagram story is the ‘Location Sticker’. Whether you like using stickers or not, to ensure increased interaction, Instagram engagement hacks likes posting a picture of a place in your story update, informing your audience about it by a clickable location sticker is a great idea.

   Well-captured pictures and intriguing video recordings of beautiful places or maybe food within a story trigger curiosity. Where is this place? Can you share location details?

   And a simple answer to these can be a location sticker placed wisely within your story feed.

   

3. Act Human – Engage in Conversations

    You are at a dinner party and did everything right. Well-dressed, hair on point, shoes shining to their best, but you keep standing in the corner. How often do you think that someone might come and interact with you? The chances are quite less.

   In todays’ busy life where everyone is rushing towards a goal, making up with someone is a task. People are trying to flourish businesses online, saving time for pending tasks, and so much more that nobody has time to interact with someone who looks pretty but doesn’t talk.

   An impactful Instagram engagement is possible in its truest meaning when there is a two-way conversation.

   Instagram engagement goes down, nobody will know of you unless you might appear on their stories, Reels, or feed posts complimenting their content or how informative you find their posts.  Or maybe, you have a question for them. Once a conversation has started, there is a bright chance for the opposite party to be interested in knowing you or your brand better. This may lead them to view your account, respond to your posts and possibly end up following you, tadaa!

   Create a balance. Act like a human and not a bot. Do things that you expect your audience to do when they come across your Instagram account and impact it on the overall engagement. This way your audience will feel more welcome while new people may easily discover you as well. Frequent interactions result in pushing your posts up in front of people again and again which captures more eyes, eventually.   

4. Consistency is The Key

   If I can emphasize one best way to fuel up your Instagram engagement game, then that would be being consistent – over and out!

   People are posting on Instagram every minute and there is a complete chance for your post to get pushed down and disappear from the newsfeed. In this case, comments or audience interactions on such posts play a vital role to keep pushing up the content posts in the feed. There will be a time when this post will no longer be new or easily found on the feed by new active users – this is why post consistency matters!

   It is considered ideal to at least post 2-3 times a day from your Instagram account to maintain your social presence. It is also very important to choose and post at the right times when your majority audience is active on Instagram to trigger conversations leading to much anticipated Insta engagement.

Is There No Way to Automate Instagram Postings?

Instagram automation and scheduling social media posts to get handy when it comes to saving time and maintaining post consistency. One way to automate is using Social Champ, a social media management tool to help schedule social media posts in bulk for over a period of time without missing out on any chance.

You know, why is post scheduling a good option on Instagram?

You have a social media calendar all filled up and ready to post. You are about to create a post but, unfortunately, get busy with something else, and once you get back to it, you have missed the ideal time slot to post.

Social media scheduling tools play the wizard to maintain post consistency which reflects on your target engagement rate on Instagram posts. Create several posts with the required attachments, relevant hashtags, and emojis and push them in a queue to automatically post at the right time.

On The Whole 

Instagram is testing more advanced, better features often now to keep up its presence and hold in the social media market. Anything new automatically boosts the algorithm resulting in exceptional Instagram engagement. The key is to stay active as a business, create savable and relevant content, make the most of features like Reels, utilize the Carousel format of content posts and attract interactions on your Instagram stories.

Every business has its own identity and brand voice – Insta engagement is not a competition. Still, it is about standing different from others so people can find you, recognize you and interact with your content. Brands invest a lot of money and valuable time running successful Instagram campaigns, but if you don’t know how to drive engagement, the hard work will be lost.

To help you out, we did the research, experimented, and decided to bring it forth so you can make the most of it without putting in the hard work where it is not needed.