Building an audience on Instagram takes more than just posting great original content – although that’s the best place to start. One important and often overlooked strategy to improve your reach and engagement is to actually reach out and engage with other accounts.
Engaging with other profiles first can help to boost your own reach, engagement, and following on Instagram. Try these tips to use engagement to grow your Instagram!
Follow and support similar accounts
Do some research to find accounts similar to yours, whether they’re in the same niche, industry, or local area. Follow them and show support for their content by liking their posts, leaving comments, or even reaching out via DM to start a conversation! You can follow bigger, successful accounts as well as other up-and-coming accounts like your own to support other creators on their journey.
It’s likely that when they see you as a new follower or notice your comments, they’ll check out your profile and may even follow back – especially if you’re posting quality content.
Build a community of support
By following and engaging with other Instagram creators, you can begin to build an online community. Try to be consistent in liking, commenting, and starting conversations with other accounts. The more you do, the more likely you are to find that they will engage back, which can help improve your posts reach and boost engagement on your own profile. You might even find genuine friendships by engaging with people in your niche with similar interests!
It’s also important to engage with your own followers. If someone leaves a comment on your posts, reply if possible! Try to start conversations by writing interesting captions or asking questions for followers to respond to. If you get direct messages or Story responses, make sure you respond and foster those relationships.
By showing interest in your followers, they’ll feel more connected to you and are more likely to continue to like, comment, share and engage with your content.
If you work to build a supportive network on Instagram, you’ll find easier organic growth. Support other creators and you’re likely to find support back, and engage with your followers so that they continue to come back to your content!
Collaborate with other creators
Whether you find a large online community or you connect with a few like-minded creators, take the opportunity to collaborate with them on content! The Instagram Collabs feature makes it easier than ever to share an audience with another user.
By creating a Collab, you can share a post to both of your audiences at once, potentially helping both of you find new followers and reach a larger audience together. This can not only help you build up your online community and presence, but it also make for fresh, interesting content for your profile.
Use the Favorites feature
One way to better keep up with accounts you love is to mark them as one of your “Favorites”. Instagram. When you click the Instagram logo at the top left of your screen, you can choose to organize your feed based on people you’re following, or by favorites. If you click “Favorites,” you’ll be prompted to choose which accounts you want included.
Using Favorites can be a great way to ensure you’re keeping up with your community, that way you don’t miss a post and you can keep up with your engagement goals. You can also encourage your followers to add you to their Favorites list so that they consistently see your posts.
Use Story stickers
Instagram Story stickers are a great way to engage with other accounts and to encourage followers to engage with you. Instagram counts sticker responses as an engagement, so this will boost your stats and help you connect with your followers and with other creators.
The best sticker for engagement is the question sticker, where you ask a question and followers can respond. You can then post their response on another story and respond yourself! You can even open up to questions from followers by posting the question sticker and hosting an “ask me anything” session.
You can also further engage with your community by responding to other creator’s Story stickers, whether it’s a poll, a question, or another interactive sticker.
Try using engagement as a way to boost your own reach and performance on Instagram – by supporting other creators and engaging with your followers, you’re more likely to build a true online community and a committed follower base over time. Building genuine connections takes time, but with consistent engagement and high quality content, you are sure to grow your Instagram.
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