Things you can do when engagement is low on Instagram

We’ve all been there where we post on Instagram consistently, however engagement continues to be low and your posts don’t seem to be reaching enough people and you’re struggling to really see the value in even posting on Instagram to begin with.

What I want to do is go through all the different things you can do to boost engagement on your Instagram posts. If you’re struggling with engagement, we’re going to talk about all the things that you can do to help.

You can skip the read and watch the video here:

If your engagement has been low on Instagram, one of our go-to responses is probably to wipe the slate clean. Dump all of our content. Start a new strategy.

Wait a couple of weeks

What I want to encourage you to do first is wait a couple of weeks before you decide to completely scrap your entire content strategy.

The reason for that is because it can take time for content to grow an audience for Instagram to figure out what your content is about and what audience is best to show it to. It can also take some time to grow that following or grow that engagement.

You don’t want to necessarily scrap your entire content plan before you’ve given it enough time to gain traction. Unless it’s been a few weeks of the same consistent content plan, don’t give up and start over just yet.

Maintain Some Consistency

However, you want to make sure that you’re posting consistently and that the Instagram algorithm has a chance to show your content consistently to your followers.

If you’ve created content consistently for your audience on the same or similar topics and you’ve tried your best, then what you should probably do is schedule a couple of pieces of content for a week or a couple of days and plan to take that time completely off.

Related: How to use Canva’s Content Planner to Schedule Your Content

Take the time away from Instagram so that you can collect your thoughts around the type of content that you’re creating and whether or not it’s a good fit for your audience.

This may require additional research on your part. It may require just taking a complete break.

Take planned breaks

What is really good for Instagram is to occasionally take breaks, especially if you feel like you’ve been posting a lot and not getting a lot in return.

Short breaks can actually reinvigorate your creativity but can also restart the Instagram algorithm. Sometimes your audience needs a break from content as well.

If you’re seeing a dip in engagement during the holidays or during summer vacation or during the weekends, then maybe those are not the best times of the year or week for your business to post content.

If you see occasional dips in your engagement on certain days or certain days of the week or certain months of the year, don’t post as much content during those time and take planned breaks.

It’s important to take those planned breaks so that you don’t burn out and that you’re also utilizing your time in the best way possible.

Short form video content

What we should start to think about and consider is what does the Instagram algorithm prefer? Right now Instagram has come out and said that they are focusing on short form video content.

That means that it would be a good idea for you to consider utilizing that algorithm and start creating shorter form video content. That doesn’t mean only reels, it means just short videos. It means hopping on your stories.

If you’re seeing a dip in engagement, it’s time to probably try new content forms and new types of content. One of the best things that you can do right now is try Instagram reels.

To get started with Instagram reels what you want to do is look for audio that is trending in your niche and with your audience.

The best way to do that is to go to similar accounts within your niche or other accounts that have a similar audience as you and seeing what music and what audio is being used most frequently.

You can find out when a reel audio is trending by going through your reels and looking for the arrow at the bottom corner.

Related: How to create Instagram REEL content in Canva

As you’re scrolling through Instagram reels, if an audio consistently comes up, if you keep hearing the same song, then you probably know that it’s trending.

When you see the arrow, you can click on it and save that audio so that you can use it in one of your future reels.

It’s easier to get more engagement on your reels if you’re using trending audio, because Instagram favors content that’s using existing trends.

If you’re looking to boost engagement, start creating content using trending audio and reels.

Engaging 20-30 minutes before you post

Another way to boost engagement on your posts is to schedule about 20 minutes before you go to post engaging with anyone who previously commented on or liked your previous posts.

This means going to their page and commenting on one of their posts or engaging with their comment on your post.

That engagement is going to trigger the algorithm to show those people your content. It’s not going to work every time, but it will help show your content more often to these people if you are engaging with them more frequently.

Definitely go through your past couple of posts, engage with the people who have commented or liked on those posts, and then go ahead and post your new content.

Engage with others in your niche

Another thing you can do is go to an account that you follow that your followers or ideal followers may also follow and comment on their posts.

In my case, I’m going to go to Amy Porterfield who is a content creator and online business owner that is within my niche and my space. We’re not competitors, but I know that some of my followers also follow Amy.

If I wanted to boost engagement on my account, I might come to Amy’s posts and leave a thoughtful comment and show up on her account so that potential ideal followers might notice my account or the algorithm might show my account to the people who also follow Amy, who may not also follow me.

I recommend doing that anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes before you post your next content.

Try Carousels for Your Audience

Another type of content you can create to help boost engagement is carousels.

Carousel posts on Instagram are the ones that you can slide through or swipe through on your Instagram feed. You can have up to 10 images in a carousel post, and a carousel post can even include videos.

There are up to 10 opportunities for your audience or potential audience to see that content. Not only that, there are 10 different slides within a carousel where you can provide value and create engagement through that value.

If you’re looking to create more engagement on your Instagram content, one of the best things that you can try is posting more value filled carousels on your feed.

Collaborate with others

Another way that you can boost engagement on your account and get more views and reach is by collaborating with others.

You can collaborate with other content creators within your niche, or maybe even outside of your niche, with content creators who may have a similar audience that share a lot of the same qualities of your audience.

You can collaborate together by going live together on Instagram, swapping stories – they give you a couple of story videos and you give them a couple of story videos – or you can create guest posts on each other’s accounts. That’s where you give them the graphics and they post it on their account. In exchange, you let them do that on your account.

It’s really helpful for people who have similar audiences, who may have similar interests, but maybe you don’t do the same thing.

A great example of this is we have a stock photo and Canva template membership and a lot of people who use our membership are people who create websites or have a website. Maybe I might want to collaborate with a Web designer and so they might have a similar audience.

People who are creating websites need stock photos so I would collaborate with that person and then they would collaborate with me, and we could swap content.

By swapping that content, we are reaching not only our own audience, but their audience as well. This is a way to boost engagement, grow awareness and grow your reach.

Reposting previously successful content

Another way you can boost engagement and grow your reach on your account is by not trying to reinvent the wheel and instead reposting content that you know for a fact performs really well.

You can go through your Instagram insights and look at your past content and see what content has performed really well for you.

What content got the most reach? What content got the most shares? The most likes? The most comments?

Go through your top nine posts and see if you can either repost that content or repurpose that content.

Can you turn the captions into a graphic? Can you turn the graphic into a caption and create a different graphic for it? Or maybe just simply reposting it?

If there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that your entire audience has not seen that content before. Instagram really only shows maybe five to 10 percent of your followers your content.

There’s a very high likelihood that your followers haven’t seen that content before. Especially if you posted that content a month or two ago. New followers have probably never seen that content.

Why reinvent the wheel? Let’s not try to fix what’s not broken and let’s repost things that are already working for you or that have worked for you in the past.

Now that you know more about Instagram reels, I have 30 story and Instagram reel ideas for you all laid out.

If you like this blog post, let me know what your favorite part was and share it with your fellow content creators. If you do share it to Instagram stories be sure to tag me so that I see it, because I may just feature you in my Instagram stories as well.

What Next?

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