Having a huge following is no longer sufficient; what counts now is whether or not your audience enjoys your content. We measure engagement by keeping track of whether readers engaged with your content or just glanced through it.

1. A post's engagement is calculated as the total of its likes and comments.
2. Simply divide a user's total number of followers by their total number of interactions to determine their engagement rate.

It involves more than just vanity strategies like growing your following. In 2018, there were 460.06 interactions per post globally, or an average engagement rate of 5.86%. That is a startling growth that is more than twice as high as the previous year's figure of 2.26%.

Source: Hubspot Instagram Engagement Report

Actually, the main deciding element in achieving an average level of engagement is how many followers you have. An average of 50–51 people engaged with each new post on an account with 1,000 followers would be regarded as good.

This figure is massive compared to the average from the prior year, which was 20 engagements per 1,000 followers, and it should reassure advertisers everywhere.

If engagement isn't rising along with the number of followers you have, you can have a lot of inactive users or even fraudulent people who don't genuinely care about your business.

1. Regionally, North America and the United Kingdom had somewhat fewer engagements on average per woman.
2. In North America, the average engagement rate was 5.21% or 403.79% of all interactions with each post.
3. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the average engagement rate was 5.43% or 370.76 interactions per post.

In the Hubspot report, we are observing a decrease in contact between Instagram's two main English-speaking user communities as a result of the rise of international mega-accounts. Why is this taking place? The most popular accounts on social media platforms throughout the world are becoming more and more diverse, with Korea, India, and Brazil having disproportionately high representation. The bulk of the accounts with the most followers are still mostly located in North America, which is significant (for now).

This is another factor demonstrating why the quantity of followers is no longer the defining indicator of an account's success. Accounts headquartered in North America and the UK/Ireland can still grow a sizable and active following but doing so will need them to operate at the very best level.

Getting interested followers Everyone who uses Instagram wants to increase their following, regardless of whether their objective is to have 10,000 or 500,000 followers.

However, it's the outcomes, not the numbers, that really count. So, what to get loyal and engaged followers?

Brand Voice:

Users won't stick around if your brand is ambiguous or confusing to them since they will only interact with brands that they are acquainted with and appreciate. Before using it as a compass for whatever you share on Instagram, you must establish your voice and brand identity.

Improve your bio:

Remember that your bio is often your first and only chance to introduce yourself and make a good first impression. Consumers will quickly determine whether or not to follow you after viewing your profile based on the information they discover there. You need to make an impact on them right away by letting them know who you are and what you are best at.

Consistent Publishing:

Because growing a following is all about making incremental progress over time, just like with a successful training routine, maintaining a consistent publishing schedule is crucial. Be careful not to create goals that are too ambitious that you start creating low-quality material.

No more spending time responding to several emails to publish a single post. The social media posting process may be made much simpler with the assistance of the Postly social media scheduler. You need just make a strategy for your postings in advance, enter that plan into the tool, and then you can sit back and let the program do its job! You may choose to use our Facebook publishing tools to maintain a regular presence on the network, or you can use the Instagram scheduler to achieve success with your Instagram marketing efforts.

It provides a lot of features even on the free plan, and it could be enough to suit your requirements for posting up to 20 posts. However, the monthly cost of even its Solo plan begins at only 9 USD.

Make regular use of collaboration:

establishing powerful partnerships with other users is a great way to broaden your influence and draw in new audiences. The micro- and nano-influencers we highlighted shouldn't be disregarded, especially if they already care about your brand. Even your workers' personal accounts may be used as effective communication channels.

Should I include more tagging in this post?

The tags on Instagram enable us to reach a wider audience with our content. But utilizing hashtags is only one part of the strategy; another great way to broaden one's audience and engage with others who share related interests is by tagging other accounts and users.

Including the handles of other accounts in posts may increase engagement. By referencing another account in the post's description or by adding tags directly to the post, you can boost the number of people who see your content.

You should tag at least one other account in every post if you want the most interaction.

The more accounts you tag, though, the better; this is also the best method for raising your engagement rate when evaluated by median (which, once again, allows us to control for outliers).

Which is more fruitful: tagging or referencing a post?

You may connect your content to the accounts of other users by referencing or tagging their content. A mention appears in your caption, whereas tags are added to your visual.

Use a @ sign followed by the user's username to draw attention to someone in your caption (or in a comment). They will be informed, and it's conceivable that they will go read your article if they happen to notice it.

When you tag anyone in a post, their name will show up above the image or video you've shared. You can choose to do this at the time of the original post or later on through an edit. A notification about it will also be sent to the person you mentioned in the photo. However, it's significant to note that, albeit in a different tab, the picture in which they are tagged will also appear on their profile. So long as they don't take it down, you could also be able to reach their whole audience.

You could get more visibility for your profile by both mentioning and tagging other accounts.

But if you want to get their attention, a good rule of thumb is to mention other accounts in the captions or comments of the pictures you publish. Make sure to tag them in your posts whenever you want their followers to notice you.

Promote your content outside of Instagram:

You may find followers for your Instagram account in some surprising places. Through your brand's other communications, like your website and email marketing efforts, you could be able to reach a broader audience.

Make headlines that Catch People's Attention:

Developing catchy headlines for your content is one of the most important things you can do to increase user engagement.

The title of your blog post will be the first thing a visitor sees when they come, therefore it is crucial to make sure it is captivating and grabs their interest.

A good headline should be descriptive and catch the reader's attention, but it shouldn't be overly complicated or lengthy.

Pose questions:

Posing questions for users to consider and respond to is a great way to increase user engagement. This is so that readers may interact with other readers by leaving comments on the post. Another approach to make your blogs more interactive and engaging for readers is to include questions in them. When you do ask a question, make sure it is relevant to the topic at hand. Avoid asking any questions that can annoy or alienate your audience in any way.

Create a Sense of Humor:

Using humor as one of your methods will make it simple to increase user engagement. People are more likely to interact with messages that make them feel good or laugh, thus this is the case.

Your posts may also be made simpler to read and more likely to be shared by others if you employ humor in them. Just be careful not to overdo it and stay away from anything that can offend your readers.

Giveaways:

Organizing a contest or giveaway on your page is a great approach to increase the connection you have with your audience because everyone loves to participate in them. This is one of the reasons why people are more likely to connect with postings that offer them the possibility to win something.

Make sure the contest or giveaway relates to your profile or website, and select a prize that site visitors will find appealing.

Follow the 30-Minute Rule:

It is essential to reply to comments and direct messages (DMs) within the first 30 minutes of a post becoming live to successfully promote community involvement. The fact that you are not only paying attention to them but also showing that you care will encourage your audience to interact with you and the other users of your account. These connections will get stronger the more frequently you actively converse with your followers in the comments section.

Make sure the material you produce is shareable and archivable.

Do not focus on likes and comments so much that you overlook saves and shares. The save function on Instagram is known as the platform's "super-like" for a reason. The more saves and shares your posts receive, the higher up the algorithm will place them on the Explore page. What steps should you take to produce content that can be shared and saved? You must be aware of the interests and advantages that your audience finds appealing. Try out several types of content, including tutorials, instructional videos, and an Instagram post series.