How to engage on Instagram

Don’t forget that Instagram is a social network, with an emphasis on social.

You can’t just be a posting robot that does nothing to add to your Instagram community.

This is chapter five of a seven-part series on how to dominate your Instagram marketing.

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Instagram engagement strategies

Liking & commenting on engaged users’ profiles
Liking & commenting in hashtags
Engaging image description

Liking & commenting on engaged users’ profiles

Whenever you post a new post make sure to keep up with the notification of people liking and commenting on your post. Visit their profiles, go through some of their recent posts liking a few (up to 5) and try to leave one comment on a post that you like.

Don’t post a comment that is just “Sweet”, “Great post!”, or something equally as generic. Leave only comments that are unique to the image and add value to it. And definitely don’t be salesy trying to get people to buy whatever you are selling.

No one wants that and will lead to you getting reported as spam.

Liking & commenting in hashtags

Go through several of the hashtags that you used with your post and engage with the posts in the tags. Like and comment on images that you like making sure you follow all the guidelines I stated above.

Engaging image description

The last way to engage users on Instagram is one of the most important methods.

Here are a few ideas to make your description engaging.

It could be a story about the image, how it was made, or the reason why you posted it.
Ask a question to get a conversation started in the comments.
If there is a blog post that goes along with the post, make sure you say “link in the bio,” as well as post the link in the description. It is best to use a bit.ly short link so if someone was to type it in it would be easier for them.

Slow & consistent growth is always better than hacking the system. There are many different bots and paid services that can automate these engagement strategies. Avoid them at all costs. Using any of those services goes against Instagram’s Community Guidelines, and can lead to your account getting permanently shut down. They also don’t build real loyal followers. That only happens when you build genuine relationships manually.

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