Instagram is one of the most valuable social media channels for business, when used correctly. Its merger with Facebook and the ability to use business pages means this platform is allowing users to buy, sell and engage just by posting images. However, there’s easy ways to up your engagement level on Instagram which will in turn help that all important follower count.

Utilise hashtags

This doesn’t mean making up your own but using your maximum allowance of 30 per hashtags per Instagram post. At onefoursix, we suggest placing a handful in your caption, then as soon as your caption is finished, publish the post and then put the hashtags in the COMMENTS section.

This allows you to have a clean caption without a barage of ‘messy’ looking captions but also encourages the post to appear in the search for the selected hashtags. The more aesthetically pleasing your Instagram post will be, the better the engagement level.

With thirty spaces available, utilise a 60:40 rule. use 60% of your local, niche hashtags which will help spread the word to your key demographic and then the other 40% can be vague, larger international hashtags that will help with reach.

For example: #northampton #northamptonbusiness #northantsfood – are your 60% local niche. #business #networking #marketing – are broad and will have millions of users across the world. This is great for reach but less so for specialised target markets.

Make your Instagram captions engaging and provoke a conversation

In a similar point to above, your caption is the easiest way to up your Instagram engagement levels. Don’t limit yourself to one sentence, talk about the product, service, day-to-day, thoughts and ideas. Use your voice to talk about what’s going on, describe the image properly and talk to your followers. It allows you to input trust and transparency into your business rather than just a quote or one liner that won’t mean much to the follower. Make them want to comment or like the image because you’ve given them a reason to engage back!

Use real photos and limit the use of stock imagery

One of the biggest downfalls to Instagram for business is stock imagery. At onefoursix we encourage users to get creative and use real photography. With the ease and quality of iPhones, android and smart phones, a high quality image is not hard to achieve even if budgets don’t allow for corporate photography at first!

Users will engage ten fold if you use a real image. Why would a stock image deserve a like compared to a photograph of your business, products, services or even YOU!

You’ll find photos of humans and your team work incredibly well in terms of engagement vs stock imagery. Stock imagery is often the first port of call for professional services where there may not be a tangible product to share, however why not go behind the scenes of the business, get out about and use images of the local community to showcase your location.

The same applies to Word Art. This is where you have a photo, probably produced in Canva, with some words on top… Avoid those. Instagram was never set up for words or word art, it’s primary feature is photography and video and that’s where you’ll find the engagement – keep words off your images and let your captions do the talking!

Use the platform as a user and not just a silent poster

The final point to encourage engagement through Instagram is to use the platform. Which sounds obvious but many businesses will set up their profile to post and expect a great return. You have to present, post regularly (we suggest once a day max unless you have a 10k+ following) and interact not only with your followers but people you follow.

Follow local businesses, people in the same industry or connections who you can like and engage with back. You’ll see a return in engagement from those you support too.

You can find a whole host of businesses and people to connect with by following and searching relevant hashtags to your key demographic.

So what have you got to lose? Get working on your platform and shining the best you can with Instagram!

At onefoursix we’re proud to offer social media management to Northamptonshire businesses, let’s chat if Instagram is a key focus for your business!