Ahhhh…. Instagram engagement. It’s the one metric people don’t talk about very much – however it means EVERYTHING. It literally means how much your audience values what you have to say, and it’s the only way to tell if they’re really listening.
Whether you have a huge audience or a tiny one… Instagram Engagement is a far better predictor of the number of people you’re actually influencing versus how many people have clicked on the “follow” button. So let’s chat about what it is – why you need it – and how to get more Instagram engagement.
Before we get started, I’m going to be 100% honest with you and tell you that you need to have a BUSINESS account on Instagram to see any of the information you’ll need to accurately figure out and improve your Instagram engagement. It’s free, only takes a couple of seconds in the settings of your account and then you’re good to go. Now… let’s get to the good stuff…
What is “Instagram Engagement” – and how does Instagram engagement work?
Instagram engagement is the combination of how many people take action on a post you share on the platform. So likes, comments, saves and views all count as Instagram engagement. Some actions carry more weight than others. Since there are multiple ways you can post on your feed (not stories, IGTV or lives – we’ll get there in a second), let’s take a peek into the Instagram engagement actions:
- On single photographs: saves are the strongest, followed by comments and and lastly likes.
- When uploading multiple photos (to activate the “swipe across feature”): saves are strongest, followed by comments, swipes, and lastly likes.
- For video content: saves are strongest, then comments, and finally views.
All of these actions add up to create your Instagram engagement. Any of them count, just as long as your followers are ENGAGING with your content.
Instagram engagement vs. likes
We all love it when we get that double tapped feeling, right? When someone gives you a like, it’s like your account gets a little hug. But beyond giving your photo a quick heart – if your people are highly engaged, then they’re leaving comments, interacting with you in the stories feature, even watching you when you go Live. There’s a lot of layers on how engaged they are.
But if you see the same people popping onto every photo with a quick comment or replying to your IG stories, those are the people who are truly the most invested in you and your feed. Those are your loyal “Super Fans” that will stick with you through any algorithm changes that might come your way. These are the people you want to cultivate and love on – and they’ll become fans for life.
What is good Instagram Engagement?
This is such a commonly asked question – and with good reason. We all want to know what metrics we can use to see what’s “successful” on Instagram. And if you’re going to freak out over some number on the platform, please for the love of all things pretty, focus on your engagement ratio.
Simply put, it’s the amount of engagement you get on your account versus the amount of followers you have. So if you take the average follower amount for any given week, then divide it by the amount of engagement you received, then you can get a quick glance at how your performance was.
At the bare basic, you can look at the amount of followers you have, then the amount of interaction a post in your feed got, then do the quick math. If you have 1,000 followers and you got 100 likes on a photo, then that’s roughly 10% of your audience. If you got 65 likes, then you have 6.5% engagement on that photo.
Now… a lot of factors can go into that engagement ratio (and more on diving into analytics in a second), but it’s a super easy way to kind of do the math in your head to see if the photo performed well.
Most experts agree that 10% is the bench mark for a highly engaged account. Have higher than that? Then SWEET – you’re right on target! Have less than that? Don’t worry… I’ve got a few tips to help you out later in this post.
Instagram Engagement vs. followers
If you get nothing else out of this post, please take this away: The number of followers you have is just for vanity’s sake. The number of ENGAGERS you have is everything. If you’ve ever hosted a giveaway, I can guarantee you that you have followers who aren’t true fans. And even if you haven’t, then you have a crap ton of people who followed you in hopes that they would follow you back (please don’t play that game…. it doesn’t build a legit fanbase at ALL!)
A lower number of followers is actually a GOOD thing. It means you’re slowly building a steady stream of people who get you and love what you do. No crazy tactics involved. Just authentic growing at the right pace to keep your Instagram Engagement up and keeping the ratio high is soooooo much more important than trying to get numbers just to have a fancy “K” after your number.
Instagram Engagement vs. Facebook
So… now’s the time where we play the comparison game against it’s sister app, Facebook. Instagram is community driven, far more than Facebook ever has been. Where as Facebook makes it easy to leave the app with linking to other sites, Instagram wasn’t built that way. There’s a rumor that it’s coming, but honestly it’s always been about engagement from the get-go.
The main way to interact with people in the beginning was the ability to like or comment on another person’s posts. Then they added private messages, then stories, then IGTV, and I’m sure they’ll add more features as time goes on… but every one of them are built to keep you directly on IG. And the engagement rate has ALWAYS been better on IG.
Take for instance my Gina Luker Facebook page. It currently has 825 fans. It took me 3 years to get it to that point. Whenever I share a post, the most interaction it ever gets is 8-10 likes (unless I share it elsewhere.)
Then take a look at my Gina Luker Instagram. The account is less than a month old (at the time of writing this post), it has 650 fans – and averages 80+ likes on any given post. Some posts have well over 100 likes. Without even looking at the comments and saves, you can see that even with about 75% of the amount of FB followers I have, the Instagram engagement vs Facebook engagement ratios are MASSIVELY different. about 1% versus 10%. Even on my larger accounts (The Shabby Creek Cottage) the ratios are still about the same.
How to find Instagram Engagement rate on individual posts
Now that we’ve discussed what it is and why it’s important, let’s look at how to find Instagram Engagement rate for your account. First, let’s take a peek at posts. Remember you HAVE TO HAVE A BUSINESS ACCOUNT to be able to see insights. So at the bottom of each post you’ll see “VIEW INSIGHTS” – if you click on that you’ll get a popup with basic insights, then if you click on that you’ll see more in depth insights on that individual post.
For instance, with my 650 follower account, you’ll see that 419 people saw that post. It didn’t get me any new followers, but it did get 126 likes, 13 comments and 4 saves. So overall, if you add that up, it got 143 engagements, which basically works out to about 30% engagement rate. That’s HUGE! If my goal is 10% on each post, then I’ve tripled my goal.
How to find Instagram Engagement Rate on account as a whole
Now, to see it on the full account, go into your account, up at the top you’ll see “### profile visits in the last 7 days,” and if you click on it, then it will take you to your account’s insights. Inside there, you’ll have info on in three separate tabs:
- ACTIVITY: Which shows you profile visits, website clicks, emails, how many people saw your account (discovery), your reach and your impressions.
- CONTENT: Your best posts from the last 7 days will be on the first page of it, then you can click to see all your posts in order of highest engagement from the last year. It also tells you the same on your stories that have been shown in the last 7 days.
- AUDIENCE: On this tab, you can learn where people follow you in cities and countries, what their age range is, the gender, as well as what hours are the best for you on which days of the week (pretty cool, huh?) In another post we’ll cover what to do with all that info – but it’s good to keep track of.
So now let’s tackle the big question “Why is my Instagram engagement so low?”
Ok, my friend. This is the part where we get to have a little heart to heart. Instagram is possibly the most social platform of any social media. And there’s three big reasons why your Instagram Engagement is suffering.
- You’re posting too much. I know… Experts say post 2-3 times a day. I call baloney. To me, once every 2-3 days works so much better. Because of the way the algorithm works, no one sees all your stuff. And if you’re posting too much, they’re definitely not seeing it all. You’ve gotta give your stuff room to breathe and grow and thrive. Time to get seen. Now stories… that’s a whole other discussion. And we’ll cover that in a separate post soon – but for this we’re focusing on your main home feed. So please don’t post too much.
- You need to work on your quality. And it’s more than just the perfect photo. You need to bring value to your reader’s lives – and the best way to do this is with captions. Instagram is primarily a STORY TELLING PLATFORM. So tell your stories. Give depth. It’s not just all about memes and quick, witty captions. Go in depth. Not every time, but at least half the time. Have meaningful conversations with them. And they’ll engage with them so much more, because they’re getting to know you <3.
- You aren’t engaging. Throughout this whole post we’ve been talking about INSTAGRAM ENGAGEMENT…. however are you engaging with your Insta-peeps? You need to like and reply to their comments, follow them and comment on their posts. Send them sweet little love notes in the direct messages. Give them a little story love when they leave sweet comments on your page. Engage with them. Show them you’re a real human with real interaction.
What are the best Instagram posts for engagement?
There’s a few of them, actually. But honestly, you’re going to have to test and tweak and see what works best for your audience.
- Relatable memes (aka quote graphics)
- Breathtaking photos – and yes, photos are important… but not as important as the caption.
- Ask for their help. Maybe you need help choosing flooring… or need advice on where to eat in a new city… or maybe you need help figuring out which book to read next. Whatever it is, people love to give opinions and they love helping others. So it’s a win/win.
Remember: Engaged followers will share your stuff around the web if they love you – really love you. So you’ll grow organically with fans who love you as much as you love them. And at the end of the day, that’s the magic of Instagram engagement.
