Do you ever post content and it didn’t get as much engagement as you were hoping? This may not be because your content is bad! There are many factors that go into how much engagement a particular post is going to get. These factors include what time you post, what mood your audience is in at that time, where you are posting, and yes, what you are posting matters as well. The key to posting engaging content is putting yourself in your audience’s position at the time you are posting.

Putting your post into the context of your audience’s life will help you know what content to create in the first place. For example, It’s 9 am on a Monday morning and you make a post about your new blog prompting the audience to click on the link in your bio. Put yourself in the shoes of most of your audience. Most people just got to work and are either not online or are scrolling for low maintenance type posts. These types of posts don’t ask anything from the user. Most people don’t want to take any action in the morning. This should then help in your content creation process. You now know your audience wants something that doesn’t ask too much of them. This would be a good time to post something funny, relatable, or visually appealing with a short caption.

Another factor to make sure you are paying attention to is the time you are posting. Use your Insights on Instagram to help with this. Go to the right-hand side of your Instagram and press the 3 horizontal lines. Then go to insights, audience, and scroll to the bottom. Here you will be given a graph of the times your followers are active during that particular day. The best time to post is right before the highest bars. The best time to post is not what you would assume. Most would assume you need to post during the most popular hours of the day but posting right before is actually more beneficial for engagement. This gives the post more exposure and is the first thing on the timeline of those that are about to be active for a long time. Essentially, you are catching people during their longest visits.

Where you post and promote your content is really important. Cross promoting your content is the best way to make sure people are driven to your post. If you post about a really cool event on your timeline, be sure to add it to your story as well. You can also link to a relevant blog, Ted Talk, or news article. Give yourself multiple opportunities to get your face in front of your audience. Remember when you are promoting your content it doesn’t necessarily have to be self-serving. Use a funny gif or a relatable meme to promote your content and posts. Don’t be afraid to chime in on the latest news, drama, or viral challenge. Your audience needs to see you as a person or a team of people in order to engage with you.

If you follow all of these tips you are guaranteed to see a spike in your engagement in the form of likes, comments, visits, followers, and relationships. Comment below how this has helped your Instagram strategy and if you have any additional tips for engagement! If you would like more help with your communications efforts, please don’t hesitate to reach out. You can reach out to us by sending an email to info@theburnetteagency.com or click here to fill out the information on our contact us form.