Published October 19th, 2021.

Information in this blog post was obtained from HubSpot.

Image courtesy of Pixel.

Engagement. Why aren’t any of my posts getting any engagement? You contemplate to yourself about if your social media posts are even worth it. You think to yourself “am I missing something?” or “am I doing something wrong?” A simple task of posting on social media has become the biggest challenge you’ve had to face so far at your new job. You feel like getting engagement on your post sometimes feels like the hardest part of social media marketing. One day your post gets over 1,000 likes and 20 comments and the next it barely gets 100 likes with no comments. You're consistent with your posting, you curate content, you find the perfect time frame to post, and you make a content calendar. Why isn’t it working?

Posting content on Instagram can sometimes be tricky with finding the right algorithms and ensuring your post is valuable to your followers. The algorithms are always changing, leaving you wondering what your next step is. When posting, a lot of people forget about little details that can make your posts stand out from others. It’s not as simple as choosing a picture you like and adding a meaningful caption. That IS important, but the picture you post should have meaning and represent what you’re trying to portray to your audience. It should represent your brand and stand out from other’s posts. But don’t worry, we’ve found 3 easy tricks to get your Instagram game back on top that you can implement into your everyday posting.

Tip #1: Edit Your Pictures

One tip is editing your photos that you post. Many people skip this step when posting on social media and it can make a big impact on getting engagement. This also makes your posts look aesthetically pleasing and can become a part of your brand on how you edit your photos. If one picture is edited differently from the next, many followers can get confused on who your brand is and are less attracted to your posts.

Image obtained from KatherineDream's Etsy store

One way to edit your pictures is by buying filters to use on photos. The app Lightroom makes putting a filter on a picture quick, easy, and very accessible. You will never have to worry about finding the perfect filter again or overusing a filter too much. Once you download the Lightroom app, Etsy.com has many different downloadable options of filter packages that are inexpensive and can be used within the Lightroom app. These filters can also be known as “presets” on the Lightroom app. Once you find the filter(s) that suits you best, they send instructions on how to add the filters to Lightroom under “presets” and you now have an easy way to edit your pictures with the click of a button. Lightroom is available on the app store and also for download on your computer for free. Once you pay for the filters, they are a one-time fee and you have them forever for you to use to your extent. Lightroom also lets you adjust the lighting of the picture and has more editing techniques that can be beneficial. To learn more about filters, click here.

Tip #2: Increasing Comments

If you post a lot on Instagram, you may understand how hard it is to get people to comment on your posts. Instagram’s algorithm depends on how much engagement that your post gets. If your post doesn’t get much engagement, more people are less likely to see it because it won’t show up on their feed. Instagram’s feed is based on engagement and posts with the most engagement will show up longer than those that have less engagement. If that person doesn’t engage in your posts, it is less likely to show up on their feed. This is critical when posting on Instagram because the algorithm decides if your post should be seen on people’s feeds or not depending on how much engagement you get. People that have more engagement on their posts get comments and saves from people who follow them and interact with them.

Image obtained from Pretty Little Marketers Instagram page.

An easy way to get more engagement is having people interact with your posts and asking questions in your caption that generates an interest in the topic in the comments. This also creates a sense of community on your page interacting with your followers and gaining their trust about your content. It only takes one comment to generate other people feeling the need to give their opinion on the topic. Ensure your followers never miss your post again by asking questions, doing a giveaway, or by promoting a future Q&A and having them comment on your post. Once someone has commented on your post, be sure to reply as soon as possible to keep up with the engagement. You don’t have to ask a question on every single post, but implementing asking questions into every other post could be beneficial. Increasing engagement and gaining trust from your followers from asking a simple question is super easy and a huge win to get more engagement. Read more about getting Instagram comments here.

Tip #3: Curating Instagram Posts

Another easy way to increase engagement is resharing content from other people. Many of us think to curate content when writing blog posts or sharing things on Facebook, but Instagram is also an easy way to reshare content. There are many “repost” apps available on the App Store that make it easy to share others' content at the tip of your fingertips. There’s no better way to switch up your feed by easily implementing curated content that you found resonates with your brand. Many of your followers may also follow these brands which gives them trust in your brand that you know what you’re doing. Many people that make those posts on Instagram also don’t have blog posts to look back on, so resharing their content is an easy way to get around copyright issues or stealing someone’s post. Read more curating Instagram posts here.

All you have to do is download the Repost app and pick a post off your Instagram feed that you want to repost. Click the three dots in the corner of the post on Instagram and click “copy” and the post will show up on the clipboard in the Repost app with the picture and caption ready to be posted. It tags the post where you got it from and you can also add your own text to the top of the caption. On the picture, it adds a repost hashtag and tags the account where the picture is from. Simple and easy way to curate content on Instagram when you can’t think of anything to post or find a really good post that you want to share with your followers.

A screenshot from within the Repost app reposting Pretty Little Marketers Instagram Post.

Adding these three tips into your everyday Instagram feed is simple, yet effective when it comes to engagement. Whether you’re stuck on what to post or feel like your page is lacking something, try these tips to get you back on track to make your page stand out from others.

Resources:

Bernazzani, S. (2019, July 21). 13 Clever Ways to Get More Comments on Instagram this Month. HubSpot Blog. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/comments-on-instagram

Bernazzani, S. (2020, November 18). How to Repost on Instagram: 4 Ways to Reshare Content From Other Users. HubSpot Blog. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-repost-on-instagram

Miller, A. (2020, December 23). Top Social Media Tools You Need to Use in 2021. HubSpot Blog. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/social-media-tools