It’s not easy to get consistent engagement from your audience. That’s what makes it so frustrating when your progress takes a dip.
Timing is key
It might be the case that when you’re posting, your audience is not using social media. We have found that the best time to post on Instagram is around 11:00 but this may differ for your audience. It’s worth carrying out your own research and figuring out what works best for you.
Taking a week to post in the morning and comparing it to the results of an afternoon week should give you a decent idea of what time works best for you. However, you should always aim for around the midday mark, give or take a few hours.
Take a look at the insights for your account as well – this will give you a good guide.
Consistency
Posting consistently is one of the most important things you can do. It not only refreshes your audience’s memory of your existence but the Instagram algorithm also rewards you as you are seen as an active user of the site.
Posting regularly helps you get into the routine of looking for things that could make a good Instagram post. If you decide to take a nice walk in the evening and see a nice sunset take a quick snap and post it to your story. Give your page some personality and make it look alive.
However, it’s important to make sure you’re not posting too often. Two posts a day is the absolute maximum you should be sharing. Due to Instagram working on an algorithm and not chronologically, it shows you the post they believe you want to see, not what is posted most recently. It could be that some of your posts are not receiving the full potential engagement as your next post comes along before people can see your last!
High Quality Posts Only!
If there has been a sudden drop in the quality of your posts then it is likely that fewer people are going to engage in the content. Whether this is because you’re too caught up in other aspects of your business to run your page, you don’t have the image editing skills or simply the lighting is poor, ensuring that your posts are always of high quality can be difficult.
There are many tools out there that you can use to give your posts that little bit of a touch-up. For example, Adobe Lightroom can be used to slightly alter the colours and add filters that are much better than what Instagram have to offer. This just gives off a much more professional feel and could be what gives you the edge over the competition.
Variation
Being consistent with your high-quality posts is important, yes. However, it’s important to keep your posts varied. Continuing to only post about your products or what you sell can get old very quickly. Keep things fresh by posting other aspects of your life. Think about your hobbies, what you do on your break or maybe include some behind the scenes shots.
Switching up how you choose to share your posts can also make a difference. Posting on your story or videos can switch things up and give your audience something new!
Engage With Your Audience
So many times we’ve seen companies who have social media pages but don’t use them as a way of engaging with their audience. Making sure that you’re replying to any and all comments within 60mins or less of them being sent shows the algorithm that your post is engaging the user.
Take full advantage of stories by posting polls or questions that actively encourage your audience to engage. Think of fun quizzes you could make or put up a poll between two of your products. Not only does this boost your engagement and connect you to your audience but it also gives you an idea of how your audience thinks and feels.
Algorithm Changes
Sometimes what did once work now doesn’t, that’s the worst thing with constantly changing algorithms. Unfortunately, there’s very little that can be done on your part as it’s completely out of your control. If your engagement drops it’s time to try something new.
Shadowbanned
Occasionally a drop in engagement could be due to your account being shadowbanned. This is when Instagram has purposely restricted the reach of all of your posts. This can happen for several reasons. For example using automation tools to generate likes and comments, being too active, using spammy hashtags or using hashtags that are associated with inappropriate content.
If you think you might be experiencing this then be more selective with your hashtags and ensure you’re not breaking any of Instagram’s terms of service. Using automation tools that like and comment on any post on Instagram is against Instagram’s terms of service. So, if you are, stop using these tools.
If there are no changes then potentially look at reducing the frequency of your posts. It’s important to show the algorithm that you are an active user without posting too often or being too over intrusive. This might sound slightly counterintuitive but it can be a fix to the issue.
Reels!
With the extreme popularity of Tiktok Instagram is trying to compete with the introduction of Reels. It would be wise to believe that Instagram is boosting reels with the aim of getting people to post more content. For example, if an account was to post a reel and it gets thousands of views then that account is going to be much more likely to use the feature in the future. This will increase the amount of content for people to view, helping Instagram compete with Tiktok. Both the creator and Instagram win.
By posting high quality reels to do with your products or what they do are an excellent way of boosting your engagement again.
Hashtags
According to various notifications, the importance of hashtags has also now taken a dip. Instagram is now saying that it is all about imaginative and original content. A tricky one we know – and sometimes this can be so hard to do. It is, however worth putting in some time to try and come up with some innovative ideas as to how to promote, you, your brand as well as your products.
Looking to help Build your Presence with Online Marketing?
Here at Sokada, we provide plenty of Online Marketing including Social Media Marketing for businesses throughout Sussex, Kent, and Surrey. We can help manage your social media profiles to help you gain a following and reach out to new potential customers.
If you’d like to find out more about how we can help with Online Marketing for your business, give us a call on 01435 817226 or email enquiries@sokada.co.uk.