Have you seen a dramatic drop with your engagement on your Instagram posts and Stories? You’re not alone! And there is a reason! In today’s episode I’m going to share some great tips to help you boost your engagement and keep those connections and conversations flowing!
I think it’s safe to say that in the past few months, a lot has changed and shifted on Instagram, all due to the birth of Reels. Either you love reels or hate reels, they do affect your engagement and your algorithm.
Full transcription available at the bottom of this blog post
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Full Transcription:
Have you seen a dramatic drop with your engagement on your Instagram posts and Stories? You’re not alone! And there is a reason! In today’s episode I’m going to share some great tips to help you boost your engagement and keep those connections and conversations flowing!
Grab your coffee, wine or whiskey and let’s dive in!
I think it’s safe to say that in the past few months, a lot has changed and shifted on Instagram, all due to the birth of Reels. Either you love reels or hate reels, they do affect your engagement and your algorithm.
Right now, Instagram favors more reels than posts, so my advice…try creating a Reel! If you’ve already jumped on the Reel train, then keep going. If not, I highly recommend trying out reels.
Here’s my best advice…STOP watching what others are doing!
If you want to stand out on reels, don’t obsess over finding the perfect song and how to stand and point to text boxes. Everyone is doing that, so don’t do it!
Start out on Reels by using your voice…yes, your voice and teach your audience something in 15 seconds. Give your audience a quick win…something they can implement immediately!
If you’re a fitness coach….show a quick HIIT workout with 2-3 different moves. Boom done!
If you’re in the health/wellness industry…show us how to make a nutritious smoothie for the winter.
If you’re a branding photographer, show us your favorite poses and how to look at the camera. What do we do with our hands?
Whatever niche you’re in, just think of something you can teach us in 1-3 steps and say it in 15 seconds.
People love quick wins – so give them that!
When creating Reels, don’t overthink it….all you need is your face and voice, face a window for good lighting and hit record! Boom, done!
…here’s another great little tip for Reels. After you’ve published your Reel, make sure you share it to your post feed (and not your Stories!) Here’s why, when you share your Reel in your stories, people are only seeing your reel in your story….so the original reel doesn’t get seen, which doesn’t help your algorithm.
Promote your Reel in your Stories. I do this all the time…I share my cover art of my Reel in my Stories…I add a text caption stating why they’ll learn, I add fun music and use an arrow gif pointing to my profile pic in the upper left corner…this encourages my audience to go and check out my Reel in my Reels feed…the algorithm recognizes that this user is searching my account and watching the reel….this user is engaging with my account and reels, which is what the algorithm wants. So next time I post and/or create a reel….the algorithm pushes my stuff to this user.
If you’re not using cover art…take a screenshot of your reel and share the screenshot in your Stories to encourage your audience to go check out your Reel if they haven’t seen it in their newsfeed yet! This will help boost your engagement.
Now, what else can you do if you’re not ready to jump on the Reel train.
I encourage you to jump into your small size hashtag hubs. These are the hashtag hubs with a size less than 100,000. Start engaging with posts inside the hubs. Find post that relate you, inspire you or have taught you something and leave a valuable comment. Go one step further and share that post in your Stories and make sure you use the @mention sticker and tag them!
This will boost your engagement.
Another tip…get better at engaging with Stories. It’s one thing to view stories, but take it to the next level and leave comments! Now you’re creating 1 on 1 conversations with these users when you comment on a Story!
Another great way to boost your engagement is to warm your audience BEFORE you post! When you open the app, spend about 10 minutes engaging in your feed and Stories, then post, make sure you hang around a bit and respond to comments and engage with more posts and Stories.
Posting and ghosting will kill your algorithm…Instagram wants you on the platform…so stick around and engage with people.
At the end of the day, if you want more engagement, then you have to GIVE more engagement!
Now this might seem like a lot of work, but you can fit it in by following my 10-10-10 rule. I know I’ve mentioned it before on my show, but I’ll quickly mention it again.
Spend 10 minutes a day engaging in posts.
Spend 10 minutes a day engaging in Stories and
Spend 10 minutes a day engaging in hashtags!
Now that’s a strategy that’s totally attainable.
Just remember, be yourself on Instagram, be genuine with your comments and growth happens over time with consistency and confidence…and don’t forget to show your face my friend!
As always,
Stay sassy, sparkle and wear sweatpants!!
