Who would have thought Instagram could be more than just a place to post pictures of your food? The social media platform is an incredible tool for engaging with customers, and this blog post shows you how.

Instagram has over 800 million monthly active users, and 500+ million are on the social network daily.

#1 Create content to reach the right audience.

When you post to Instagram, you're not just posting for yourself - you are posting to attract and engage with followers.

By looking at the post insights, you must understand what content your audience is responding to. This way, you can produce more content that resonates with your audience to build engagement and increase followers.

Reminder: Create content for your audience, not for yourself. You need to differentiate between content made for your audience and content you made for yourself.

#2 Utilize hashtags to reach your audience.

Utilize hashtags relevant to your business and industry. Using hashtags on Instagram has changed in the past few years. Traffic from hashtags has decreased, and hashtags should be used more as a search tool than to drive traffic to your posts.

Side note: I still use between 10 to 20 hashtags, and my Instagram post receives traction from them.

Hashtags should be seen more as a search tool to categorize your content. The key is knowing what hashtags your audience uses when they search for business-related things.

For example: if I were an accountant looking for clients who needed help with their taxes this year, I would use the hashtag #taxseason instead of #accountant or #taxes because it would get me noticed by people who were specifically searching for help with their taxes.

To summarize, use hashtags:

To help people find your content.
To encourage engagement.
To increase your brand's or products' visibility, which can lead to more sales.

#3 Run a contest

Contests and giveaways are a great way to increase engagement while giving back to the community. The length of the giveaway depends on the dollar amount of the prize. As a general rule of thumb, the more expensive the prize, the longer the giveaway. Don't run the giveaway for months because your contestants will lose interest. Anywhere from 1 to 3 weeks is a good length.

If you are not selling tangible products, you can give away a 30-min coaching session via Zoom or an exclusive 20 min workout.

Reminder: While giveaways and contests seem like a great tool to increase followers, the followers gained from giveaways usually do not stick around after the contest has closed.

To summarize, run a contest:

Give away something free.
Make it fun and easy for people to enter.
Share the timeline of the giveaway and the required steps to enter
Share how the winner will be notified
Encourage users to share the giveaway to feel more connected with your brand (and you can spread the word).

#4 Ask for feedback

Asking for feedback is another fantastic way to get your customers talking about you. It's a win-win situation because not only will your audience tell you what they like and dislike, but on social media networks like Facebook, their friends and followers will also see the post and be encouraged to comment. This can lead to additional free exposure for your business.

Here are some ways you can ask for feedback on Instagram:

Ask people how your product or service is doing by sharing an in-feed post about it. If someone gives you positive feedback, remember to thank them publicly so that everyone else sees that you appreciate them taking time out of their day to give you honest feedback.
Use the Q&A sticker in your Instagram stories to encourage followers to provide feedback. Once a client slides into your DM, take the opportunity to further nurture your relationship.

#5 Run a poll

Use the Instagram story "poll" when introducing a new product or service, like a new item to your clothing line or an upgraded version of an old product. The poll feature allows you to ask a question or make a statement and add your pool of responses to the sticker.

For instance, you can ask your audience what they think about the new clothing or menu item. You can also use polls to find out which colors are popular among different groups within your audience so that you can create new color options for specific demographics.

For example, if more men than women responded with "yellow" as their favorite color choice for a shirt during your last poll, it might make sense for you to stock more yellow shirts than other colors and vice versa if more women selected that option.

To summarize, use the poll feature:

To understand what your audience gravitates towards or prefers.
To give your followers the impression that they are part of your company by "choosing" the color options.
To increase engagement.

#6 Post relevant content during peak hours

Your audience is busy, and if you want them to use their valuable time to engage with your content, post at the right time of day. You should post Instagram photos and reels at times when your audience is most likely to see them.

For example, if you sell study guides and your customers are college students, post lunch and dinner time to "catch" them online. If you don't know when your audience is online, experiment with posting times and see which posts perform better.

#7 Respond to comments

If a user takes the time to write a comment under your post, and I am not talking about those spammy comments, respond as soon as possible. Respond to comments that are relevant to your business. If people say they love your service, thank them! If they have a question, answer it!

Don't reply to comments that are irrelevant to your business. If someone is talking about their cat's birthday party, don't join in with a joke about how you like cats too! I know it's tempting, but it looks a bit out of order unless you are in the pet business!

The same goes for private information such as phone numbers or addresses (which should never be publicly shared anyway). If a user shared that information, you can walk the extra mile and hide/delete the comment. Privately message the user to let them know you hid or deleted the comment and offer your help.

Never respond negatively or rudely when someone says something bad about you or your company - even if it's true! Your best bet is to answer with a generic "please reach out to our customer service department at ... so we can further discuss the matter" message.

Don't start an argument because it could lead to an argument nobody wants in their Instagram feeds (especially since everyone knows arguing on social media isn't productive).

#8 User-generated content

User-generated content is a great way to increase engagement and buzz around your product and brand. User-generated content or short UGC is any content that is created by people other than the brand or business itself. It can be anything from a review of your product or service to photos and videos of people using your products. Encourage your following to post photos or videos featuring your product for a chance to get featured on your page.

Remember: Ask your followers to tag you in their posts and use your brand hashtags so you can find the content easily.

Conclusion:

Instagram offers businesses many opportunities to connect with their customers in a fun and engaging way. The platform is constantly evolving, but human-to-human interaction will be a key part of Instagram and your success online.

Start by trying out one or two suggested ways to increase user engagement.