Before you begin: We steer clear of bots, paid likes, bought followers, and the sundry to inflate metrics. Instead, we dab a highlighter on creating kicka$$ content. We contour around organic ways to increase engagement on three social media platforms.
They said don’t worry about your follower numbers.
They said it’s a vanity metric.
They said it’s immaterial.
But it is as obvious as a certain lip-kit-selling celeb’s augmented lips that they do matter. At least to a small degree.
The number of shares your content gets and the amount of engagement it extracts are basics for a creator. And if you want more of them, you need to raise the follower bar.
From Instagram to Twitter, a creator exists in a symbiotic relationship with these numbers. That’s a given. What’s wobbly like the cat-eye wing of an amateur beauty blogger is how to go about it.
How does an Instagram influencer get more hearts? How does a content creator get more shares on Facebook? How does a good Twitizen get more RTs?
Those are the questions explored here. In detail. So, pin it, save it, screenshot it, memorise it, whatever. Just save it for the future.
How to increase Instagram engagement, likes, comments, shares, yadda, yadda, yadda?
- Pictures with faces get more likes. Post stuff that has people in it. Your face, your mom’s face, your boss’s face; it doesn’t matter.
- If it can be said in a video, choose it over a photo. Video posts receive 2.1x more comments and likes.
- Never ?post ?without ?captions. The more time people spend on your post, the more importance Instagram attaches to it. What’s the quickest way to up that number? Pen down an engaging caption. Make it long, or make it a call-to-action. Ask your followers a question. Ask them to tag people who may be interested in the content.
- Tag, tag, and tag some more. Not just people but location too. It’s the easiest way to boost the exposure of your posts on Instagram.
- Hashtags are a great way to hike up engagement. We’ve spoken about them here. Don’t skip it. 9 to 15 is where you should keep the # number at. Still, need to add a few more? Put them in a comment instead of the caption.
- Don’t, for-the-love-of-Manolo-Blahnik’s, don’t use the same hashtags on all your Instagram posts. Just like your online content varies, switch up your hashtags, too.
- Stories and Reels are your best friends. People prefer them, so get cracking. How do you involve your followers in stories? Use stickers. Start a poll. Ask for a vote. People love to give their opinions. Do an Ask Me Anything, that always leads to a good chinwag. Keep the stories fun. Pop culture references (can this post *be* more informative?), memes, and humour get more engagement.
Collaboration unlocks a lot of doors. Find the right brands or Instagram influencers connected to what you love, and then work with them. We kid you not, your reach will grow exponentially!
Finally, engage with other accounts and posts.
Do it before and after you publish a post.
For how long? 60 mins.
More engagement on your part sends Instagram’s algorithm a message.
What message? That your post has value to your followers, which makes it appear higher on the feed.
If good content gets you to 100, great content gets you to 500. But it is engaging with other accounts (within your niche) that will get you to 1000. Instagram has one fundamental rule – ‘engagement feeds engagement.’ Every time you comment, share, or like another user’s post, you increase the visibility of your profile.
So, peeps, get double tapping and typing on Instagram handles your love and adore.
How to get more Twitter likes and retweets?
Creators, Twitter is a whole different ballgame. How so?
Spamming your followers on Instagram and Facebook with one post after another is not the done #thng. Not so on Twitter. You’ve got to be aggressive on the platform to get those follower numbers ticking. Tweet more, not less.
- Anywhere between 7 and 15 tweets (your own content or retweets) a day will hit the sweet spot.
- Oh, I can tweet 15 times in a day? Let me post them all in half an hour. Tweeting in bursts doesn’t flood your follower number, rather it dwindles it. Inundating a feed is annoying. Pace out your tweets over the day.
Twitter is also seriously underappreciated. For new and budding influencers, that is fantastic news because you can increase engagement on the social media far more easily.
- Bios on Twitter are powerful. Search engines (think: Google) index them. The right bio can help land new followers on your page.
- Add a location to your bio. It will do wonders for your reach, especially if you are an influencer confined to a specific geographical area.
- Got a tweet with a high number of RTs or hearts? Pin it. (Oh, this applies to Facebook too.)
- Keep the tweets short. Yes, Jack (FYI, we’ll miss him) increased it to 280 characters, but still. Shorter messages get more engagement.
- There is an exception. Threads. Informative threads will blow away your reach! Try them.
- We spoke about opinions and how people love to dole them out. Use that instinct to get more traffic on Twitter by starting a Poll. Netizens just adore them.
- Twitter is the master of hashtags. Include at least one in your tweets. It will double the likelihood of engagement.
- Tweet with images. Why? They increase retweets by 150%. A text with a photo is always more eye-catching. For serial scrollers, the picture acts as a break. They are encouraged to read the tweet, than skim it. After all, aren’t images why Instagram exploded?
- Not a lover of images? Add a GIF or a meme to the tweet. They bring the ‘element of fun’ millennials are always craving.
- Images, GIFs and memes not affecting your likes and RTs? Then add videos to your Twitter handle. A whopping 82% of Twitter users watch them.
The golden rule to getting more reach on Twitter
There are tons of ways a creator can use Twitter, from Spaces to Newsletters. But for new creators, we suggest hopping on a trending topic or #. Search for a hashtag relevant to your niche and then tweet about it to increase engagement.
How to get more shares, reactions, and engagement on Facebook?
It shouldn’t even need mentioning, but still. To increase engagement on Facebook, a creator needs a cracking page. Peeps, Facebook Pages are like a million little puzzle pieces that, put together, make an incredible impact.
So, to each section of the page, pay careful attention. Like? The cover image and the profile picture have to be compelling. It’s not just the profile image that’s got to be attractive. Your post should have them too. Did you know that Facebook posts with photos show 2.3 times the engagement?
- Don’t stick to just images. The format of your posts on Facebook should vary. Mixing formats (images, GIFs, videos, texts) extends your organic reach.
- The more comments you have on a post, the more people will see it. That’s how Facebook’s algorithm works. How do you inspire the audience to interact? You get them talking by:
- Evoking strong emotions. Opinions work too.
- Asking them a question.
- Creating content on trending topics, topics that link to your expertise or passion.
- No one likes an attention hog, and everyone adores appreciation. If you want more followers on Facebook, then show love to them. When you give a shout-out to another creator or loyal fan (something as simple as a mention), chances of engagement rise up.
- Sometimes it takes a second chance on Facebook to get more shares. If you’ve got great, evergreen content that didn’t get many eyeballs, share it again. Repurposed, quality content tends to be more successful.
- When compared to uploaded videos, live videos get 6x the interaction. What do we mean? If you want more people browsing through your page and engaging with your content, go live on Facebook. They are tremendous at building a community and getting users involved.
- Don’t be uptight like Hermione Granger. The I-know-it-all or we-should-follow-rules attitude doesn’t cut it on Facebook. Be humorous, influencers, and your followers will be hooked.
The gist on how to increase engagement on social media
At the end of the infinite scroll, it is about creating content that has value for your followers.
You can shout it from the rooftops, and you can sing it from the mountains, but you still won’t get likes, shares, saves, or followers if the content is not on-point (and authentic).
What’s the lesson? Utilise the entire bag of tricks we shared above, but also:
- Create imaginatively, relevantly, and consistently.
- Post timely. Find out here when that is.
And that’s how you definitely increase engagement on the three biggest social media platforms.
