Are you noticing a decrease in your Instagram engagement levels? If so, you’re not alone.
There are numerous reasons why your posts aren’t getting as many comments and likes as usual. The main one at this time of year being that it’s summertime! Many people are on holiday, out enjoying the weather or spending time with their children instead of scrolling through social media (and quite rightly so!).
The good news is that the summer dip in engagement is easy to fix with the right content plan. As we go into autumn and normal routines recommence, we want to help you jump-start your engagement levels, build your brand awareness and ultimately, boost your sales! Read on for our eight Instagram post ideas to give your engagement a boost.
- Go behind the scenes
Who doesn’t love getting to see behind the scenes – the part that’s normally hidden from view? People are nosy. Getting to peek behind the ‘curtain’ of your business operations is a fun way to engage your audience and keep them intrigued.
They’ll also get to see all the effort you go to in the background to make your product or service the best it can be, so there’s an added benefit aside from the increase in social media engagement!
Try showing your office or workshop set-up or, to really leverage Instagram’s appetite for video content, create a ‘day in the life’ Reel by compiling several clips showing bits and pieces of your typical day. A timelapse video of the creation of a product or of orders being packed for dispatch can also work well.
- Share tips & tricks
Everyone loves getting something for free, and that includes advice from a professional! Remember, you’re the expert, so this is your opportunity to shine. Demonstrate your expertise and help your followers out by offering solutions to common issues or challenges they might encounter.
You may feel like you’re giving away your expert knowledge for free, but bear in mind that you’re only sharing bite sized pieces of your experience & knowledge. You’re still the processional, but sharing tips and tricks shows your audience exactly why they should hire you or purchase from you, and it is a fantastic way to boost engagement.
Don’t forget to include a ‘save this post for later’ call to action! When your followers add your post to their saved items, it gives Instagram’s algorithm a nudge to say that you create high-quality content that is valuable to your audience, which means your content will be shown to more users.
- Show your product or service in action
This takes the theoretical element out of your marketing and really demonstrates the results people should expect from what you offer.
If you sell a product, images or videos of the product in use (whether it’s by you or your team, or by a customer) show the useability, accessibility and benefits of the product in way that you won’t get from product descriptions.
Service providers can use this strategy as well, you just have to be more creative and think outside the box – showing your service in action can take the form of testimonials from clients, describing how your service has helped them, or ‘before and after’ statistics demonstrating the positive impact your service has had.
This really brings your marketing to life by showing, rather than explaining, what the ultimate benefits are to the end user.
- Share your environment & surroundings
Social media can transport us virtually to anywhere in the world – to different cities, countries, and cultures. Your environment and surroundings may be mundane and routine to you, but might be fascinating and exotic to your audience. Don’t be afraid to give some insight into where you live; it’s a bit like showing them behind the scenes in that it satisfies people’s curiosity. Stories are great for this – post a picture of what the weather is like where you live, or show the coffee you grabbed on your morning walk.
- Post something personal
One of the beauties of Instagram is the connections we make with people we may never have met in person. People want to feel that they know and like you before they can trust you enough to purchase from you, so ensure that you use social media to show your personality. Don’t be afraid to post some things that are unrelated to business; this serves the purpose of helping your audience get to know you better and builds deeper connections. It can also make your audience relate to you which encourages them to engage more with your content. Remember, people like doing business with people, so don’t be afraid to be authentically you.
- Share user-generated content
User-generated content (UGC) is content posted by other social media users that relates or refers to your product or service. It’s the digital version of word-of-mouth marketing, and it’s incredibly effective in showing your audience that your existing customers or clients value what you provide.
If someone posts about your brand, make sure you engage with them & share this with the rest of your audience so they can see it! Share to your Stories and acknowledge the creator with a comment such as ‘so glad you’re enjoying my [insert product or service here]!’ This is instantly engaging with the person who posted it, but is also great for getting the attention of the rest of your followers.
- Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable
As we mentioned earlier, people like to do business with people, not faceless, emotionless corporations. Vulnerability is part of being human, and your audience will appreciate you sharing a story about something which hasn’t gone quite to plan, or that you’re having a bad day from time to time.
Being vulnerable also includes admitting sometimes that you don’t know it all, and asking for feedback or advice. The poll and question stickers on Instagram Stories are both great ways of asking for help and getting your followers’ input and engagement.
- Recommend an industry peer
Social media is all about community. This means building relationships with not only your audience & potential customers but also others in your industry. We are all about community over competition! Making friends with industry peers not only helps boost your engagement rate (you’ll find that they will like, comment & share your content if you do the same to theirs) but can also get more eyes on your page. For example, if you recommend an account who works in the same industry as you, you will likely share the same target market so if they re-share, you will attract some of their audience to your page!
We hope these ideas have inspired you to create some content to give your engagement a boost as we near the end of summer. If you found this helpful and would like access to more Instagram advice and ideas, why not try our FREE trial? Discover how rapide.ly helps you create a killer social media strategy and find engaging content ideas tailored to your industry. Caption templates, ideas and a supportive community are at your fingertips when you subscribe - click here to find out more!
