Tackling low engagement on Instagram - our top tips
Instagram has been tinkering with the algorithm for years, much to big and small accounts' frustration. You follow the “guidance", yet the dial still doesn’t seem to shift.
It can be a challenge in the design industry when projects take time to complete. While you see creators growing their reach and engagement because they post many times a week, that’s not always possible for certain businesses.
It’s again important to re-emphasise that engagement is more important than follower numbers and Adam Mosseri, Instagram CEO, confirmed this recently.
So if that’s their focus, where do you begin with trying to tackle it and what might be happening to keep your Instagram engagement down?
Platform changes
So the ‘good’ news is that it’s not just you, it’s them too…Instagram has changed the platform significantly in the last couple of years. They have removed the Shop tab (things are still shoppable but it’s not as obvious) and taken away the Guides altogether. They have also removed the ability to search by recent hashtags/recent tab in the Explore feed, making it harder for smaller accounts to be discovered.
In addition to all the above, they have spent the last few years adapting the algorithm to no longer be chronological.
Instagram now describes the way it ranks its content as follows:
“Feed is your personalized home base within Instagram to help you catch up with friends, family, and interests. This means your feed will have a mix of content from the accounts you’ve chosen to follow, recommended content from accounts we think you’ll enjoy and ads. You’ll also see a mixture of videos, photos and carousels. With any ranking algorithm, how it works can be broken down into steps.”
Each element too, feed posts, Stories, Reels, Explore and Search…they all have their own algorithms as well. According to Instagram, people tend to look for their closest friends in Stories, use Explore to discover new content and creators and be entertained in Reels.
Source: Instagram
But if you’re reading this and thinking 🤯 then hold fire, as they have just announced some new changes to the algorithm that may start to help smaller accounts as they roll this out!
More platform changes - non-followers
Instagram has recently confirmed that they recognise more reach and therefore engagement is going to larger accounts, making it harder for smaller accounts to get noticed. So they are changing things (again) to start showing more content from smaller accounts to non-followers.
This is an illustration of how it used to work versus the changes coming:
This means three key things for your accounts:
Follower numbers are becoming less important
Creating engaging content is becoming more fundamental to attracting new people
SEO will matter more - signposting the algorithm to tell it WHAT your content is about and enabling it to identify who might be interested in your post. Selecting hyper-relevant hashtags will be included in that
Reel lengths matter
When they were first available, people were posting 5 - 7-second Reels and seeing great engagement. This was because people were encouraging users to read the copy with a Call to Action, people spent a lot of time reading the content whilst the Reel played again and again so the algorithm thought these Reels must be entertaining!
They are now changing this and the sweet spot for Reel length is now between 30 - 90 seconds. Take a look at a creator explaining this here.
Instagram is also testing longer Reels (up to 10 minutes), which seems at odds with the above. Whilst first indications aren't promising, with the Instagram team overall recommending you don’t use this format, we’ll continue to watch this space and its development.
Your original content matters
To ensure your content is getting that all-important engagement, it might seem obvious to say it but how interesting your content is really matters.
This is where understanding your audience or potential audiences becomes crucial. We do a lot of work on this in our upfront strategy work with clients, gaining important insights into the type of content people want to see, when they are online and what they are doing there. This is invaluable when trying to understand what content works.
You want to create content that makes people:
Understand
Discuss
Explore
Laugh
Think
Feel
Do
Source: Instagram Creators account
Take a look through your statistics too. What content has performed well? Which posts reached lots of non-followers? Start to review your content plans and weave more of this type of content into your feed. Conversely, which posts receive low engagement on Instagram? Perhaps it’s worth spending less time crafting posts like this?
Instagram is also de-prioritising accounts that download and repost original content as their own (aggregators) or copy original content. This is good news for people who work hard on creating assets!
Engaging with others to tackle your low engagement
Before we dive into this, let’s be clear - don’t spam people! This is about finding, following and AUTHENTICALLY engaging with other like-minded accounts and people. The algorithm learns that you are interested in specific people and topics and it helps to build a profile about your own account.
Spend a little time each day seeking out interesting content that appeals to you and could even inspire your own content. Participate in a genuine conversation on the post and share your own thoughts in positive ways to encourage dialogue. This will expose your profile to others and potentially drive engagement on your own account.
And importantly, interact with people on your own feed! If people comment, respond accordingly to inspire a discussion.
Don’t buy followers or engagement!
Instagram is cracking down hard on accounts that do this and we’d strongly discourage this anyway. They are not only purging accounts that do this, they are sometimes deleting them altogether.
Consistency is key
Regular posting is important. It keeps you front of mind with your followers and audiences. This will still apply despite the changes above. However, this doesn’t mean you have to post every day. If you are in a rhythm of 2 - 3 times a week, keep up with that pace. Consider Stories as an alternative in between to fill posting gaps too.
Mix up your content
As you’ll have seen from earlier in the article, different algorithms apply to different types of content. Reels continue to dominate the Instagram priority list but that’s not to say it should be your only type of post. Test out what works best for you, check your data to see the response and add more to your content plans.
Consider boosting your posts
We know, we know…adding another thing to your outgoings can be tricky but ultimately, Instagram is trying to encourage ‘pay to play’ models still. With the introduction of the Verified Accounts status and priority moving across to accounts like this, we need to work harder for those eyeballs.
Make sure you are niching with your audience, location and interests and test boosting in small amounts to see what gets the most traction.
Even if you set aside a budget for your most valuable posts - about your new project, your services, your offer for example, it’s worth giving your post a boost to generate more interest and engagement. You have spent a lot of time crafting that post so you want people to see it either organically (ideal) or through paid ad spend.
Conclusions
It’s a minefield in the world of Meta and with the constant shifting sands, finding time to dedicate can be tricky when you have a business to run. Planning ahead and making sure you are consistent will help. However, if you need tailored support, then get in touch! Our social media management team would be happy to develop the right strategies for success for you.
