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Instagram Best Practices to Boost User Engagement [2024]
With over a billion monthly active users, Instagram is a hub for sharing content, connecting with audiences and building brand reputation. But if your Instagram efforts are going unnoticed then you might be overlooking essential Instagram best practices.
So, how can you transform those underwhelming results into something truly extraordinary? After all, a good Instagram post is worthless if no one likes, comments or shares that piece of content.
In this blog, we will cover the 10 Instagram best practices you need to prioritize in 2024 to help boost your engagement.
10 Instagram best practices to boost user engagement
Now that you understand how imperative engagement on Instagram is for your brand, let’s explore the 10 best practices for improving engagement on the platform:
1. Use the right hashtags
Did you know posts with 3-4 hashtags achieve an average engagement rate of 3.41%?
Using hashtags is one of the best Instagram practices for making your content discoverable. For example, hashtags like #SustainableFashion and #EcoConscious for a sustainable clothing brand can attract an eco-friendly audience and boost engagement.
Using branded hashtags specific to your business, such as #YourBrandName or #YourBrandSustainability, can also help build brand identity and encourage your followers to engage with and share your content, fostering a sense of community around your products.
Coca-Cola’s #ShareaCoke campaign garnered 3.79 million impressions with an average “like rate” of 8.7%, significantly higher than the industry benchmark of 2-4%. The campaign effectively utilized its brand hashtag to drive engagement and boost visibility.
💡Pro Tip: Leverage high-performing hashtags that truly resonate with your audience. But before adding a hashtag to your post, check its recent activity. A quick Instagram search reveals hashtag usage and audience engagement. Avoid hashtags that are either too quiet or too flooded.
Need help streamlining this?
Sprinklr's social listening tool enables hashtag monitoring by setting up queries with relevant hashtags you want to track. It also does the following:
📈 Analyzes social media conversations to uncover trending hashtags
🔍 Provides insights on which hashtags are driving engagement
📊 Allows you to track performance and adjust your strategy in real time
Ready to create winning social media campaigns with Sprinklr?
Suggested Read: How to Find the Hashtags That Actually Work
2. Leverage user-generated content (UGC)
Sharing user-generated content enhances trust and authenticity. Encourage tags and branded hashtags. With 34% of U.S. adults relying on reviews, UGC drives stronger connections and conversions.
Airbnb leverages user-generated content with the hashtag #AirbnbExperiences to build trust, showcasing real guest photos and stories. This highlights unique stays and authentic experiences, boosting credibility and brand appeal to potential customers.
Related Read: How to leverage user-generated content to drive engagement & conversions on social media
3. Engage with comments and replies
Responding to comments and engaging in conversations boosts brand interaction and post performance. Comments foster deeper engagement than likes and enhance overall engagement.
Chipotle boosts engagement with witty replies, memes and playful interactions about burrito cravings. This tongue-in-cheek approach drives likes, comments and shares, and has, no doubt, contributed to its 1.3 million Instagram followers.
💡Pro Tip: Engage with comments and replies promptly. Quick and witty responses can enhance user experience and increase positive interactions. Tailor the tone of your response according to the nature of the comment — funny for casual comments, professional for inquiries or complaints.
But how do you manage these conversations? With Sprinklr Social's unified inbox, of course. It can help you do the following:
📊 Consolidate all Instagram interactions into a single dashboard
🗨️ Manage customer inquiries, comments and DMs in real time
⏱️ Save time by allowing you to manage everything from a centralized location
Boost your efficiency and become better at social media management with Sprinklr Social's unified inbox.
4. Partner with influencers
Collaborate with influencers to reach their (engaged) audiences. In case you didn’t know, influencer posts on Instagram have an average engagement rate of 1.85%, so, choose influencers aligned with your target demographic and brand values.
Daniel Wellington recently partnered with micro-influencers, who despite their modest followings, had highly engaged audiences. These influencers shared personal stories about the brand’s watches, creating authentic content that significantly increased brand awareness and engagement.
Also Read: Influencer Marketing Strategies to Improve Engagement
5. Host giveaways and contests
Host a giveaway to boost engagement and attract followers. Keep entry rules simple, offer a prize and use clear calls to action like "Tag us" or "Use our hashtag" to encourage user sharing.
For example, GoPro’s “Photo of the Day” giveaway prompts users to share their best shots, featuring a standout photo daily. This drives high user participation and engagement, that not only boosts GoPro’s visibility but also creates an active, vibrant community.
6. Use social listening to build relevant content
Social listening is a helpful way of creating content your audience cares about. By monitoring conversations and trends, you can tap into what people are talking about and tailor your posts to stay relevant.
Australia-based finserv organization Hostplus leveraged Sprinklr Insights for social listening and automation, resulting in a phenomenal 300% increase in social media posts with the same resources. This shift enhanced the brand’s social engagement and improved its connection with all its followers.
💡Pro Tip: Track how your content performs by monitoring the social conversations that arise after publishing it. Are people engaging with it? Is it sparking new discussions?
Define what success looks like for each piece of content. This could be engagement metrics (likes, shares, comments), sentiment (positive or negative reactions) or content-driven actions (clicks, sign-ups).
Sprinklr's social listening tool allows you to tweak your social media strategy based on audience reactions. Plus, it can help you do the following:
🌐 Monitor user-generated content and visual brand mentions across images, videos and other media formats
📈 Detect logo usage across various visual formats, including GIFs, images and videos
🔍Track essential brand KPIs, such as brand awareness, share of voice and customer satisfaction (CSAT), across all major social media platforms
Harness these insights to not just refine your strategy but also respond swiftly to market fluctuations with Sprinklr.
7. Incorporate storytelling elements
Incorporate social media storytelling to connect deeply with your audience. Share individual experiences, invite story sharing and foster community through authentic connections.
Lululemon, the popular athleisure brand, celebrated swimmer Summer McIntosh’s record-breaking accomplishment by sharing a post highlighting her incredible feat of becoming the first Canadian to win three gold medals in one Olympics.
8. Post consistently
Maintaining a steady cadence of posts keeps your brand top-of-mind. Audience engagement varies by time of day and week. Adjust your calendar to match these patterns. Post at least 2-3 times every week, with no more than 1-2 posts daily, to build trust and maintain steady interaction.
National Geographic serves as a prime example of this practice. It maintains a regular posting schedule and consistently shares breathtaking, high-quality visuals of nature, wildlife and global cultures. Since joining Instagram in 2006, it has shared over 29,000 posts on the account.
💡Pro Tip: Maintain a social media content calendar to plan posts. Start by incorporating important dates, holidays, industry events and trending topics. And don’t forget to plan content around seasonal events, such as holidays, back-to-school season or major global moments (e.g., the Olympics).
Having a hard time getting your posts up on time?
Use a social media scheduling tool like Sprinklr's Social Media Scheduler and Publisher to plan and publish your posts. It comes with these added benefits:
📅 Ensures regular posting without the need for manual updates
⏰ Optimizes post timing to align with your audience's activity
🗓️ Offers a visual calendar to help you stay on top of things
Ready to streamline your social media management and give your Instagram presence a boost with Sprinklr Social?
9. Experiment with different content formats
Experimenting with varying content formats keeps your feed exciting and engaging.
Try different formats to see which ones fetch the most engagement — whether it's the storytelling power of Reels, the quick updates in Stories or the detailed visuals of carousels. Tailor your content strategy based on what sparks your audience's interest and interaction.
Red Bull famously leverages diverse content formats, including high-energy videos, immersive stories and striking visuals, to entertain and engage its audience, all while reinforcing its brand image that synonymous with all things adventure.
10. Analyze your data and adapt
Analyzing your data is crucial for fine-tuning your social media strategy. This data-driven approach helps you identify trends and refine content to better resonate with your audience.
Take Burnley Football Club, for instance. It switched to Sprinklr in the summer of 2023, impressed by its publishing, captioning, benchmarking and reporting features. The outcome? Its social media activity witnessed a surge of 264% within 30 days.
💡Pro Tip: Not able to figure out if your Instagram strategies are working? Leverage analytics to track performance. Monitor changes in follower count over time. Correlate growth with specific techniques, such as new content themes or influencer partnerships, to see what drives follower increases.
Sprinklr Social's advanced analytics and reporting dashboards let you gather actionable insights that help you optimize your content for maximum engagement.
📉 Empowers you to make data-driven decisions with detailed insights
📈 Surfaces trends and audience behavior patterns for optimizing post timing and content format
Curious to experience the power of Sprinklr Social’s analytical tools?
Final thoughts
Instagram engagement is a key measure of your brand's performance. To maximize impact, focus on understanding your audience, creating engaging content and using the right tools.
However, social media success requires adapting to evolving platform algorithms and user behaviors. So how do you simplify the process?
Enter Sprinklr Social, which can help you do the following:
🚀 Analyze post performance and optimize content using AI
💡 Refine your social media approach with actionable insights
🎯 Craft content strategies that resonate with your audience
Ready to discover how AI-powered Sprinklr Social can enhance your Instagram engagement?
Frequently Asked Questions
Instagram Reels can dramatically enhance your engagement metrics by increasing discoverability and interaction. The short, engaging format often drives higher viewer retention, leading to more likes, comments and shares.
Instagram's algorithm changes can affect your content's visibility and engagement. Stay informed and adapt your strategies to keep your content effective and engaging.
Paid promotion extends your content’s reach and introduces it to new audiences, often resulting in higher organic engagement. By targeting ads effectively, you can drive more interactions and amplify the visibility of your organic posts.
To sustain high engagement rates during algorithm changes, businesses should create compelling, audience-centric content and leverage interactive features like polls, questions-and-answer sessions, etc. Additionally, analyzing performance data and experimenting with different content formats can make adapting to evolving algorithms easier.
