Take a moment right now to ask yourself, “How’s my Instagram engagement? Do I get a lot of likes? Do I get a lot of comments?” Whether you think your company’s engagement is too low, just right, or in need of improvement, there’s always room for more engagement with your brand.

Instagram is swelling in popularity with young adults, especially among millennials and Gen X-ers. In fact, Instagram’s 15.1% growth is much faster than social media’s overall 3.1% growth. (The American Genius).

Clearly, businesses need to adapt to increasing use of this platform to stay relevant with young adults. Instagram provides a way to connect with your audience on a personal level, further strengthening your brand and customer experience. You can achieve greater connection to your brand through strong images that are often more powerful than words.

Are you ready to get started?

Our top 3 tips to increase Instagram engagement

Tip 1: Showcase the experience

Elevate your brand by showing off the experiences one can have with a product, instead of just the product. Highlighting experiences can have a strong emotional impact and may help influence consumers much than basic product details. Use striking images to tell stories about what they can experience by making an investment in your brand –whether it’s showing off a new outfit out on the town or snapping amazing vacation pictures with a new phone. Leverage this purely visual platform to tell compelling stories about experiences.

This Red Bull post received over 101k likes by promoting the experience you can have by consuming their product.

 Tip 2: Optimize #Hashtags and Locations

Use hashtags, as this can have a dramatic effect on how many people you reach with your carefully curated images. To make one, use your company name or a defining catchphrase. Hashtags are on every social media platform, and it’s important that your business uses them to expand content reach and improve SEO. However, it’s also important that you don’t use too many at once. You should also tag the location of the post, as it’s proven to drive engagement by 79% (Ipsy Open Studios).

Whole Foods received over 10k likes by tagging the location of the post, using product hashtags, and using other popular hashtags.

Tip 3: Use Multimedia

Have you incorporated videos into your campaigns? Instagram videos actually receive twice the amount of engagement as photos (Video Checkout). Videos are even more effective than images in telling engaging stories about products and services. The immersive experience of a video can quickly capture viewers on an emotional level, creating stronger relationships with them.

Buzz Feed Tasty uses a video to illustrate a cookie recipe, receiving over 490k views and 52k likes, while stimulating their audience’s taste buds.

So, what are the key takeaways for creating a strong strategy?

  • Showcase the Experience
  • Optimize #Hashtags and Locations
  • Use Multimedia

As Instagram usage continuously increases, your business will benefit from maximizing its Instagram presence. With the right engagement strategy, you can take your business and brand to the next level, ultimately increasing the quantity and quality of your customer relationships. These three tips can help your business make the most of Instagram.

Ready to increase your social media engagement?

Contact us and let’s connect about your challenges and how we can help.