Are you a business enthusiast or a social media influencer who wants to better his Instagram engagement rate? If yes, then you are at the right place! We got the easiest ways to calculate and boost your brand’s Instagram engagement rate.
Instagram is one of the most used social media marketing applications on the internet. To market yourself or your brand on Instagram, it’s crucial to understand your Instagram engagement rate.
What is Instagram Engagement rate? |
The Instagram engagement rate is a quantitative measure of how well you connect with your targeted audience.
Simply put, it tells you whether your content fascinates the netizens. If yes, how passionate they are about your brand based on the metrics collection, i.e., comments, shares, likes, saves, mentions, hashtags, DM’s, accounts engagement, and click-throughs.
Why does monitoring Instagram Engagement rates matters?
Keeping an eye on the engagement rate has several significant benefits, which are listed below:
- It is a crucial indicator of how well your audience responds to your content.
- It is a great way to conduct primary market research to help understand your customers and their interests.
- It helps to understand what types of content along with ways to write engaging posts that perform best on the social media platform, allowing you to prioritize your social media effort.
- If you are running a business, then monitoring and maintaining your social media engagement rate will help you increase your sales by increasing the number of customers engaged on your social media.
- It helps to measure the success of specific social media campaigns (product launches, holiday sales, etc.).
Instagram Engagement Rate Calculator |
Let’s now jump onto the most pivotal step of calculating the Instagram engagement rate.
There’s no single way to decide how to calculate Instagram engagement rate. But one can measure the percentage of the audience engaged with the content created by the user. However, the most common Instagram engagement rate formula is:
- Engagement by Followers,
- Engagement by Impressions,
- and Factored Instagram Engagement Rate.
- Engagement by Followers:
To calculate the Instagram engagement rate based on your followers. Divide the sum of likes and comments by the total number of followers and then multiply by 100.
Engagement = Likes + Comments / Followers X 100
It is ideal for those who want to keep an eye on their competitors to make performance comparisons. Also, those who collaborate with Instagram influencers can check whether the person or brand they collaborate with impacts their followers.
- Engagement by Impressions:
To calculate the Instagram engagement rate with this method, divide the sum of likes, comments, and saves by the number of impressions and then multiply it by 100.
Engagement = (Likes + Comments + Saves) / Impressions x 100
Using this formula will certainly give you more accurate results as it considers the actual number of people who saw your content and decided whether to engage with it
- Factored Instagram Engagement Rate:
Some might put more emphasis on certain factors than others. For instance, to some, comments carry more weight than likes, so it should be multiplied by 2, while to others it may not.
Engagement = [ (Comments x 2) + Other interactions ] / Impressions x 100
Note: We don’t recommend using this formula, as the results can be highly deceptive.
Average Instagram Engagement Rate |
While calculating the Instagram engagement rate by any formula (Engagement by Followers, Engagement by Impressions, Factored Instagram Engagement Rate), it is essential to check whether the result stands out as low/average/ high.
Knowing a rough idea about your performance will tell you that whatever strategies you are applying are worthwhile or if there is any requirement to change the technique.
To make an easy comparison, go through the figures listed below:
- Between 1% and 3.5% is the average Instagram engagement rate per post.
- Less than 1% is considered a low engagement rate per post.
- Between 3.5% and 6% is regarded as a high engagement rate.
- Above 6% is viewed as a very high engagement rate.
18 tips to increase engagement on Instagram |
- Post Regularly:
Being active on Instagram is certainly crucial for attracting more customers/ followers/ audience to boost Instagram engagement rate. Now comes the question, how busy should the brands be? Uploading 1-2 posts daily will help to keep the feed fresh and active. On top of it, knowing the best time to post on social media platforms including Instagram is yet another essential thing to understand when dealing with Instagram’s algorithmic timeline.
- Don’t preach – tell stories instead:
Storytelling is a great way to connect with your audiences. Display your content through micro-stories via your captions, videos, and Instagram stories to make the content captivating in the eyes of the audience, which will attract more attention. Extended captions with the element of storytelling are compelling because they enable brands to appear more human and build deeper connections with their targeted audiences.
- Choose the proper hashtags:
Hashtags are powerful as they let your content be on the top or sink to the bottom of the feed. So, choosing the right hashtags is very crucial. Try to pick a mix of trending and industry-specific hashtags to connect with your targeted audience. Research each hashtag beforehand to get the best result. Search content using the hashtag and then watch the number of likes on its top-performing posts. If your content matches its top-performing positions, then you are good to go with that hashtag to improve your engagement rate.
- Put subtitles and closed captions on Instagram videos:
As per the Instagram reports, around 40% of the audience does not view stories with their sound on. That’s why subtitles have become crucial for marketers to enable the core message to be delivered on-screen alongside visuals. As per the reports published by the parent company of Instagram, i.e., Facebook, the captioning of videos has increased its average view time by 12%.
- Activate Instagram Reels:
Create and share short, entertaining video content using Instagram reels to show your brand’s authenticity. Most audiences spend a maximum number of hours scrolling Instagram reels, so it’s a great option to increase your Instagram engagement rate by using this fantastic feature. You can also invest in a recently introduced feature, reel ads by Instagram, for better reach and engagement with your audience.
- Welcome Instagram AR filters:
Instagram with spark AR studio has opened up the use of AR (Augmented reality) filters to the public, providing an opportunity for your brand to gain the followers and engagement required. Augmented reality filters are computer-generated effects designed to be superimposed on real-life images. Adding AR filters make your videos look more beautiful.
- Give GIFs a chance:
The GIF (cost and time-effective) format is more appealing than photos, shared more in either JPEG or PNG formats. Research has shown that most people watch full videos that last for only 15 seconds or less. Moreover, GIF is a medium that inspired Instagram to create its riff on the GIF — the Boomerang. With over 1 million gifs existing today, these videos are a gif that allows users to make content more exciting and engaging.
- Use Instagram traffic to increase website traffic:
Maximize the potential of your links with special offers to encourage followers to click through. Instagram provides an option to put a single clickable link in the bio, which allows Instagram traffic to increase visits to your website. If you have partnered with influencers, ask them to promote your URL in their content. Lastly, to view traffic statistics, use analytics software to view insights on which Instagram content is bringing traffic to your website so that you can target your campaign further.
- Use SEO to ‘win’ Instagram:
Creating a proper SEO strategy for your Instagram handle is certainly vital on the increasingly competitive platform. The key areas that affect SEO are your account name and profile. The ‘@’ name that you register with should reflect the sector in which your business operates. Make this short and precise.
Insert your industry name or a keyword related to your business in the name field, which appears under your profile picture, to get the most out of it. Think of words that people could use while searching on Instagram. Reports have shown a significant correlation between social engagement and rankings.
- Partner with micro-influencers to create brand authenticity:
A social media influencer with a follower base landing between 1,000 and 100,000 followers, more significant than an ordinary person but less than a celebrity. Therefore, reaching out to micro-influencers to promote your brand is another great way to increase brand awareness among the targeted audiences.
It is because influencers are seen as independent, and aligning your brand with its authoritative voice can add genuine authenticity to your messaging. Micro-influencers have a more personal connection to their audiences, are perceived as more authentic, and are affordable.
Micro-influencers have higher engagement rates, around 2-3%, compared to the average of 1.7% of macro-influencers.
- Host an Instagram contest:
Organizing Contests on Instagram generates more audience engagement than regular posts do. The most popular contest type on Instagram is the giveaway.
For instance, giving away a product or service to the top 3 followers on some conditions like asking the users to follow your Instagram account, like the post, and tag your friends in the post. This can become a powerful technique to boost brand awareness and engagement if executed well.
- Convert Instagram followers into email subscribers:
Email remains an excellent channel for building true customer relations. Brands convert Instagram followers into email subscribers via three established steps to create compelling Instagram marketing for email.
Primarily, create a clickable incentive in your posts regarding your targeted audience. Such as offering a prize, free content, or a discount.
Further, ensure the landing page features a solid CTA (Call to action) linked to an email submission form once the audience clicks through. Lastly, create a mailing list to effectively wrangle your new email subscribers so you can develop more meaningful relationships with them.
- Promote your Instagram channel on other social accounts:
Spread the word about your Instagram handles as far as possible. One way to promote your Instagram account on Facebook is by announcing your channel there with a clickable link to your Instagram page.
You can also use Instagram’s cross-promotional tools. These tools allow you to instantly post from Instagram to Facebook, Twitter, and more, bringing followers together across your social networks.
Remember to avoid cross-promote all your Instagram posts to other social media platforms to avoid ‘cannibalizing’ your content and negating the need for followers to visit your Instagram account in the first place.
- Answer comments and DMs:
When the comments begin bombarding, it’s only polite to respond. Responding to your followers makes them feel seen, heard, and excited to chat with you again. However, if you ignore them, the possibility of them ignoring you is high.
Make it easy on yourself and your team by sharing the load among team members. You can set up saved replies to simplify answering common questions.
Comment on relevant posts within your industry, like posts from your top fans, and look for ways to be a good Instagram citizen. When you share the engagement love, it comes back to you in spades.
- Post carousels:
Have you ever read a spreadsheet and got utterly lost in the urge to determine the result? Unlike static posts that allow you to choose only one image/video to capture a story, you can introduce multiple visual images, up to 10 photos/videos, namely carousels.
They have fantastic engagement when compared to other post types. Once you’ve gotten the hang of creating eye-catching images, try posting a few with carousels.
Carousels have noticed a higher engagement rate than any other post type on Instagram. This is great for brands looking to bump up their engagement.
- Put Instagram Stories:
Recently, posting stories has become the most popular feature on Instagram, with around 500 million daily users. It has been heard that stories are taking the place of the main feed and are on the path to becoming the main feature of Instagram.
In stories, you can post a mix of images in a single post that will disappear after 24 hours. But the highlighting feature of Instagram allows the user to highlight the stories on its feed forever. With stories, you can make your brand more approachable.
Meanwhile, Live stories seem ideal for drawing people in because they’re happening now. At the same time, pre-recorded stories are suitable for in-depth coverage of the products, one-time quickfire promotions, or sharing narratives.
- Make effective use of emojis:
The power of images over words spreads to emojis. Millennials and Gen Z are so habitual to emojis that they watch messages without them as cold. With thousands of emojis available, it is crucial to create a strategy for using emojis that captures your brand without looking too informal.
Few things to consider if your brand is deploying emojis.
- Firstly check its suitability and ensure you understand the meaning of each emoji so that the user remains appropriate.
- Secondly, they reflect what followers think of your posts. Therefore, monitor as many comments as possible.
- Learn from your best-performing content on Instagram:
It is crucial to analyze and learn a content strategy for your best-performing content on Instagram to help drive up your Instagram engagement rates on every content. Various techniques are being used in order to increase Instagram engagement rate. Monitoring which method provides the best result can help develop multiple best practices for your brand.
Closure:
Quantitative measure, Instagram engagement rate is best to know how well your targeted audiences connect with your content through engagement rate. Engagement rate can be certainly calculated through various methods: Engagement by Followers, Engagement by Impressions, and Factored Instagram Engagement Rate. However, to grow in a competitive world, it is essential to get acquainted with the tips that would help to increase the Instagram engagement rate.
