When you review your Instagram engagement rate do you like what you see? Are you impressed by your growth, or do you have concerns that you’re not on the right track?

Even if things are going relatively well and you’re happy with your current growth trajectory, there’s always room for improvement. There are always things you can do to better engage with your audience, which will benefit you in a number of ways.

In the early days of your Instagram account, you were worried about nothing more than the basics. Things such as creating the perfect bio and publishing your first post consumed your mind. But then something happened. You realized you were on the right track and you started to want more out of this social media platform.

That’s why you’re more focused today than ever before on improving your engagement rate. Not only does this help you see that you marketing strategy is working, but it can also bring other benefits to your business, such as the opportunity to turn followers into customers.

So, with all that in mind, if improving Instagram engagement is something you want to do – and it should be – here are five tips for getting started.

1. Engage With Others in Your Niche

Don’t spend all your time working on your Instagram account. Get out there into the digital world and meet people. This means two things on Instagram: commenting on photos and liking photos. And of course, if you’re interested in what someone has to say, don’t forget to follow them.

When you do these things, the person or brand will eventually take notice. This is particularly true in the event that you’re consistent and the account isn’t too big.

Block out a few hours per week to do nothing more than engage with other accounts. Yes, it takes time away from building your own account, but it’s all part of a winning strategy.

2. Use the Right Hashtags

This is easier said than done, as it’s hard to know exactly which hashtags will provide you with the most value. However, since you can experiment with these, while also stealing ideas from others in your niche, there is no excuse for coming up short.

As you better understand which hashtags generate the most engagement, continue to use these on most of your posts. And of course, you should never stop experimenting. It always makes sense to look for new hashtags, as you never know when you’ll find something that resonates with your audience.

3. Write Better Captions

You know how easy it is to take a great photo and assume it will speak for itself. But if you take this approach too often, you’re missing out on an opportunity to connect with your audience.

Sometimes a photo says it all. But other times, you need to include a caption that tells the story. According to ViralRace, just the same a hashtags, experiment with captions to get a better feel for what your audience wants.

Do they engage best when you ask a question? When you tell them how to do something? When you provide more content instead of less?

There is no right or wrong way to write Instagram captions, as what works for one person may not work for the rest. You should always be experimenting, hoping to find the perfect combination of content and length.

4. Don’t Wait to Reply to Comments

Yes, you have a lot on your plate. However, if you’re going to use Instagram, you might as well get serious about replying to comments. You should do this as quickly as you can, as it gives you the best chance of striking up a conversation with the other party.

And when you’re successful in doing that, it can result in other benefits, such as additional engagement off the platform.

Tip: as your Instagram account grows, it becomes more difficult to respond to every comment. While you’ll have to stop somewhere, you should never completely ignore the comments you receive. Dive in there as often as you can and connect with people who thought enough to leave you a comment.

5. Post More Often

This alone will not increase your Instagram engagement rate, but it definitely puts you in a position to do just that. The key to success is maintaining a high level of quality, all while adding more posts. If you let your quality suffer in exchange for more posts, you’re likely to be disappointed with the results. But when you combine the two, the sky’s the limit.

As you post more, it becomes a bigger challenge to manage your content, as you can expect more comments. Make sure you have a system in place for tracking comments, responding accordingly, and engaging with your audience in other ways. Don’t bite off more than you can chew!

Are You Tracking Your Engagement Rate?

You can visually track your engagement rate without doing anything special. For example, it’s not difficult to determine if you’re getting more comments now than you were a few months ago. The same holds true with the number of likes on your posts and followers.

But as your account really takes off, tracking engagement becomes more difficult. That’s why you need a system in place, such as a business dashboard software program, to do this for you. That way, the only thing you have to do is check your statistics when you’re interested in learning more.

Final Thoughts on Instagram Engagement

You may not reach all your engagement related goals early on, but as your Instagram account grows you’ll find yourself picking up steam and feeling better about what’s to come.

As long as you always have a beat on your Instagram account, including the most important engagement metrics, you’re in a position to make changes that have a positive impact on your strategy.

How do you feel about your Instagram engagement rate? Is it time to make some changes? Where will you start?