Instagram can no longer be ignored by businesses looking to connect with customers via social media. In just five years, Instagram has clocked up an active monthly user base of over 500 million, with over95 million photos and videos uploaded daily.

According to a Forrester study of the 50 top global brands, Instagram’s 2.3% follower interaction rate towers above Facebook that languishes with a tenth of that figure.

It’s clear that Instagram users are investing more of their time and effort in following accounts than those on other social platforms, so it really is worth their while for businesses to target them.

Here are some useful tips to help you boost your Instagram engagement:

1. Ensure the Presence of a CTA

Instagram engagement can be largely influenced by having a call to action so that your followers immediately know what it is that you want them to do.

You have a limited choice of CTA placement with Instagram – either you can insert it in the image caption or you can create an image that has the CTA text built into it.

Posting product pictures and instructing your followers to like the ones they fancy with a double tap is a good way of improving engagement. You can also ask your followers to tag people they think would like the products to help spread the word.

2. Use Hashtags to Increase Reach

Hashtags are of significant importance in the world of Instagram. Not only can you use hashtags to find users who are posting content that you’re interested in, but users will likewise conduct searches with hashtags to find your content.

This makes it essential that you use hashtags that are specific and descriptive of your products and services, otherwise your content might never be discovered.

You should, however, steer clear of the more popular tags as your posts will invariably get snowed under lots of other search results. The trick is to use hashtags that are relevant to both you and your audience, while at the same time remain somewhat unique.

3. Use Captions to Tell Stories

Because Instagram is mainly focused on visual content, many users fail to appreciate that you can also leverage text by using it in conjunction with the images.

You can increase the impact of your posts with punchy storytelling – Instagram’s caption length limit is 2200 characters, so you’ve got plenty of room to work with. That said, it’s not necessary to use the full character limit all the time – sometimes being brief and concise can be more effective.

You should try and experiment to find out what really works best with your Instagram followers.

4. Get Busy On Instagram

Instagram, or for that matter any other social media platform, works exactly like a roomful of people – you can either wait for someone to initiate a conversation with you or you can be the person who’ll take the first step.

The basic rule of follower engagement is not to wait for people to show interest in you but instead actively chase people whom you think have the sort of shared interests that you can benefit by.

Use relevant hashtags to search for users who’ve been posting content that you’re interested in and like them. Invariably, when those users receive a notification of your likes, they’ll probably check you out, and if they like what they see, they’ll follow you back. Usually, the followers of the person whose post you liked and commented upon will also see your profile and begin to follow you.

Conclusion

There’s a lot happening on Instagram and  a lot of opportunity to market your business on the visual-focused platform. Adopting these simple tactics can help elevate your profile and get you more followers.

Article Written by Chris London of Social Media Today