engagement rate Archives – Chow You Later

So you have the follower count but your engagement doesn’t seem to correlate with any of the audience growth you’ve been seeing. You can count your engagement rate with your fingers in one hand. My article walks you through the latest tips to become a more engaged Instagram account.

Last updated: January 23, 2020

7 Tips for Engaged Instagram Account Featured Image

Here’s what popular opinion never tells you: You have to engage!! It’s easy to post multiple images a day and leave it alone. Unless you’re a celebrity, you’ll soon realize this method will get you nowhere. If you want a following you’re going to have to give people a reason to give their attention to you. Attention is a commodity nowadays so why should anyone give you 3 seconds of their time? Well, to start, a good reason is that you’re giving them yours. So with that said, let’s move on to the very first tip.

1.) You Scratch my back and I’ll Scratch Yours

The idea of reciprocity is an age-old one from the early days of human civilization and trade to the present days of social media. It’s very simple, when you like a post there’s a good chance that account will like yours right back. It’s an even exchange. Always keep that in mind.

But, “Rich, I’ve haven’t seen any reciprocity. When I try to comment and like another account, they never respond back to me. You’re completely wrong!”

Then my next advice is to check the accounts you’ve been interacting with. If these accounts are 3 times or more your audience size, chances are they’re not going to reciprocate. It’s nothing personal, it’s science. Aim for the accounts that are similar in size to you (or smaller) and you’ll notice more interactions.

Found Tip #1 useful? Check out my Unwritten Rules of Instagram article that goes into the mindset to have for a successful Instagram Foodie Account.

2. The Art of Following Up

This tip ties in with Tip #1 about reciprocity. Whenever someone interacts with you, interact with them back. It only takes a few interactions for that person to begin to remember you. For example:

Ghosts in different colors and sizes — Hey! No ghosting!
Photo Credit: OpenClipart-Vectors

If someone likes your photo, go back to theirs and like them.
When someone makes a comment on your photo, reply back.
If someone tags you, like and leave a comment.

After a few likes/comments they are going to remember you and as a reminder, no ghosting allowed if you want an engaged instagram account! If you’ve ever been ghosted, you’ll know it’s just not a cool thing to do.

3. Peacock Theory in Action: Use Bulk Likes

Peacock wooing peahen — “Look at me Dammit, I’m beautiful!”
Photo Credit: Kenneth Lu

Like a male peacock, the most colorful and flashiest get their mate. It’s not different for humans. After all, we are social animals and will reciprocate good deeds (are you seeing a pattern here? Human reciprocity is alive and well!). So as mentioned earlier, when someone shows you love, you gotta show it right back. As you’ll find out sooner or later, time is very limited. You have to make every effort count and in order to do that, you will follow my commandment: thou shall like in bulk. What I mean is you want to take up their whole notification screen. I actually took the time to count and it comes out to about 10-11 rows like this:

Instagram Notification Screenshot of peacocking — What Peacocking Looks like

This is how you keep your ancestry, I mean, your account fresh and memorable with others. Usually, accounts will be thankful and give you a shoutout on their story. This is great because it gives you more exposure and it’s likely other accounts will want to follow you because you share these important values of being a decent human being.

4. Leave Thoughtful Comments

My valentine dog to world — Photo Credit: Joe Haupt

A word on commenting. The most useless comments I’ve seen are generic ones that can be copied and pasted over and over again. If you really want to leave an impression, you have to stray away from those type of comments like “Amazing!” “Yummy” or inserting a bunch of emoji’s. You gotta ask yourself what’s the difference between yourself and a bot at that point? Show them your value by giving them a few extra seconds of thought and over time it will pay off. Respond to their caption. If its a question, it‘s even better because it just makes commenting easier!

5. Use Engagement Pods

For those who are not familiar, a common technique most accounts use is what’s called an Engagement Pod or sometimes referred to as Instagram Pods. Essentially these are chat groups often found in the Direct Message who all are dedicated to liking and maybe commenting on every member’s post. We, humans, tend to have a herd mentality, where we are influenced by our peers. For example, when you drive by a restaurant with a huge crowd outside. Chances are you’d want to stop by to check out the commotion. For the case of Instagram, when we see many liking and commenting on a post, we want to join in. Engagement Pods can help boost your engaged Instagram account and I would not pass it up.

Overtime, as both your account and engagement grows others will want to be a part of it. In other words, you will start seeing others outside your engagement pod leaving comments on your post. The reason why this is the case, is because these accounts are also trying to grow. They know that if they leave a comment, they will be seen thus increasing their chances of getting followed.

6. Take advantage of Insta Stories for Engaged Instagram

I call it the Best Friends Forever (BFF) maker. It really is. Many are not taking advantage of this awesome feature. It gives you a way to connect with others and show your human side. Sometimes, especially with themed accounts like food ones, you don’t get to show another side of yourself. With polls, quizzes, questions, etc. it would be difficult not to create any rapport with other users. Instagram makes it easy so take advantage. Regular posts at times, do not give you the chance to show your personality and Stories does allow the possibility.

Do: Check out other users’ stories. Respond to them. This is a great way to stick out because, as I said, many are not taking advantage of Insta Stories. Think about it, when you use Instagram do you remember those who DM you or the account activity in your Notifications? When you react or respond to an Insta Story, a DM is sent.

7. Tag your posts

"Tag You're it" with indexing finger pointing at reader — Photo Credit: Prose0606

Haven’t interacted with someone in a while? Well, here’s your chance to tag them. After a while, just as others have noticed you, you will begin noticing certain accounts yourself. You’ll notice what this account likes and dislikes solely based on the subject they post. For example, some may be dominant in posts about icescream. If your next post is about icescream, guess who you can tag?? 🙂

BONUS: Leave Great Captions

This one here shouldn’t be a secret. If you leave great captions, it will make it easier for others to comment. This goes with Tip #4. It’s good courtesy to have for both sides as engager and engagee. If you caption with a boring description of your post, it’s not going to translate well. Energy is contagious and it can transfer to the captions. Be exciting, ask a question, tell a short story, and answer the question why we should care.

There you have it! My 7 tips for an engaged Instagram account. Use these tips and you should see your Instagram game multiply twofold. If you found my article helpful, you should definitely check out How I Got 2000 followers fast because there are more components involved. And if you want to support my page, do subscribe and follow me on my social media handles: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook.

If your Instagram account is in a rut, chances are you’re not following great Instagram Etiquette. Since the beginning of time, as long there’s human interaction there have been unwritten rules society abides by. This article covers great etiquette that will transform you into a star bringing you more followers in the long run.

Last updated: February 2, 2021

How to have great Instagram Etiquette

Let’s face it, Instagram is like a game of BlackJack. There is a matter of skills, luck, and play your cards right there’s a good chance of winning it big. In this world, instead of winning cash you get likes and follows. To enter, you buy with time. The more time you spend on Instagram, the higher the reward. If you’ve ever played BlackJack at a table, you will find there’s a right way to play. The players at the table are much like a community rooting for everyone to win as long as you don’t mess up the flow. Don’t believe? Ask the dealer to hit you at 19 and there’s a good chance you’ll find what was once a full table is now just yourself and the dealer. With all that said, keeping those things in mind, what are the rules and how can we win?

Let’s get a quick overview before we begin:

Keep your account niche.
Display your Personality.
Follow the 90/10 Rule for Theme to Personal Photos
Use Engagement Pods.
Divide up your time.
Content, content, engagement?
Be Genuine.
Time is a resource. Be grateful to visitors.
Just do it.

1.) Keep your account niche.

You can stray away later when you have hundreds of thousands of followers but you need to make it very clear to people in the beginning what your account is about. I’ll use my example since I have a foodie account. It’s simple, Foodies will want to follow other foodies. If you post stuff about cosmetics, fashion, or cars how do you know if your followers have an interest in these fields?

There will be times when you just want to go off the deep end and share some off-themed posts but remember that your audience is following you because of your theme. They see value there. I’m not against it completely but try to keep it 90-10 which I’ll go into more details in Rule #3. You want your audience to relate with you, not isolate them.

2.) Display your Personality.

Your personality is your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). There are millions of travel, food, cars, fashion accounts. What makes your account different is you. I hate to break the news but you have to reveal who you are and what you’re about. If people see your value they will feel obliged to follow you. The only other possibility is making theme accounts where you post other people’s images/videos but I don’t think you’re here to do that. You’re here because you want to build something, perhaps, to quit your day job one day to live freely!

Be true to yourself. Be helpful. Follow the Golden Rule: Treat others the way you want to be treated or better yet, the Platinum Rule if you’re really good with social skills, treat others the way they want to be treated.

Platinum Rule Treat others the way they want to be treated.

Don’t caption your pictures with just boring descriptions or worst, with nothing. You’re losing out on your followers. Are you funny, serious, relatable? They would never know and you’d never get the chance to make that human connection.

So how to caption? Share a personal story. Tell your followers the why’s of the picture. Tell your followers a joke. If it’s a restaurant: tell them what occasion you’re there. For more details check out how to optimize your feed and profile.

3.) 90/10: Theme Posts to Personal Images

This rule doesn’t apply if you’re in the entrepreneurial, fitness, or travel niches but it’s ever so true for niches like food. Remember what I was saying about personality and not hiding behind a logo? Well, Rule #3 goes along with #2 BUT post too many and you’re in danger of losing followers. As a general rule, I like to keep it 90% about your theme and 10% about you. Show people who you are. Make it interesting.

Don’t simply just post just to post. Have a reason behind it.

Don’t make it 100% about yourself. Remember, you need to provide value whether that’s in the form of information and/or entertainment, you can decide what works best for you. If you take too many pictures of yourself, you run the danger of confusing others what your account is about. The only exceptions are in fashion or fitness. Even then you still don’t want to have too many pictures of yourself.

The worst accounts, imo, are the ones that scream for attention displaying high levels of narcissism. An account with more selfies will surely get drop your follower rate. For me, I like to do 10% images of myself and 90% on my theme.

And this is not me saying you can’t do selfies at all. After you get your first 2000 followers and you’ve built a good rapport with your audience, then you should reveal more about yourself slowly by thin layers.

4.) Participate in Engagement Pods (aka Instagram Pods)

If you don’t know what an engagement pod is, well you’ve come to the right place. It’s what a lot of Instagram accounts are using to up their engagement rate (the percentage of your followers that like/comment on your posts). Shocking!?!? I know right! You should have seen my innocent social media ears when I first heard about this strategy as I always thought everything was organic before. The engagement rate is another Key Performance Indicator (KPI) sponsors look for. Usually the more followers the account, the less engagement there is. 10% is considered good for large accounts and anything greater than 20% for small accounts are golden.

Anyways, I digress. You’re probably wondering how you can find these engagement pods. The best way honestly is to start your own. When you start your own, you can hand pick the people you want to engage with. Theres this advice that’s always stuck with me from a realtive of mine. He told me that on my first day of college I want to make friends with as many people as possible. The ones that stay around are going to be your friends for life. With the engagement pod, look at it that way. You’re going to find like minded individuals who are aspiring to do the same things you are. As weeks and months pass you will see how much everyone grown together. It’s fun and you can develop some meaningful relatioships.

These are your support group. Through thick and thin, through bad pictures, through awesome ones they will like your posts. Treat them well.

5.) Divvy up your time.

Image quote "Never a failure, always a lesson." — Photo by **Dana Tentis** from **Pexels**

Don’t try to get it done all at once. With all this engagement, you may find yourself addicted and spending longer hours than anticipated. Afterall, we all have a life to attend. A good rule of thumb I like to follow is 30-35 follows a day. After a month, you’re going to be near 1000 and when you get close to the finish line, you’ll naturally want to push a little harder. Once you reach your quota of 30-35 followers/day, shut it off. Run far away from your phone. Leave it with your dog. It will be tempting to check your notifications.

Check out my schedule to gain followers fast with minimum effort and efficiency.

NOTE: Another reason you want to follow accounts in small chunks is that you run the risk of getting banned or blocked. The last I checked was 1000 per day (these are are just speculative numbers based on other user’s experience because Instagram does not disclose this info) but it constantly changes and you may want to stay clear under that number.

6.) “Content is King, but Engagement is Queen and she rules the house.”

It’s a popular belief that if you keep posting, an image is bound to go viral. That’s semi-true. The problem is getting seen and heard via Instagram. If no one can find you or your posts, how can it go viral? By posting more? Let me tell you something, there’s a common saying that can be applied here: the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over again expecting different results.

So as mentioned earlier, it’s semi-true. What you want to do is post as much as you can and engage. I wouldn’t worry too much about how often. I post on average 3 times a week and still made 2000 followers in 4 months and that was when I was just starting out.

7.) Don’t force it. Be genuine.

This one seems like a no brainer but you’ll be amazed how easy it is to fall off the cliff. Know who you are. Be congruent. Follow those who you resonate with. Don’t just follow just anybody. Most likely those accounts won’t stay around long. Don’t force things that aren’t there. Don’t go around asking people to shout you out because you followed them. I also think it’s spammy if you have to ask others to like your post via Direct Message. I don’t know about you but the more I’m told to do something the more I disengaged I become.

8.) Time is a resource. Always be grateful.

Remember, you’re the new kid on the block. You have to pay your respects and dues to those before you and just anyone, in general. It’s always a good mindset to have. It will pay off in the long run. With that said, whoever interacts with you, always make it a habit to return the favor. In the beginning, it will definitely feel like your efforts aren’t being noticed and there will be those scumbags who don’t carry the same values but that’s the beauty of the world and Instagram, diversity. If someone likes your posts, like their’s back. Think about it, someone took the time to give you their 1-2 seconds, and maybe more. There are over 1 billion people on Instagram and these are the users giving you their time. Time is a resource and attention is currency.

9.) The most important thing: Do IT! Action cures fear.

Shia LeBeouf wants you to just do it!
still from Shia LaBeouf “Just Do It” Motivational Speech → ktxc.to/yt-shia-labeouf-just-do-it

You can spend the whole day analyzing what you should and should not do but you know what, you won’t really know it until you try it out yourself. At the end of the day, these are all the things that’s worked for me. You will use my guide as a stepping stone and I’m sure along the way you’ll tweak things around to make it truly yours. There will be embarrassing, cringe-worthy times and even sad moments but that’s what it all about. Learning, sticking with it, and accomplishing. Good luck and keep it fun.

Enjoyed this article and want more details? Find out how I gained 2000 Followers Fast and don’t forget to share! This tells me what I’m doing is worthwhile and to write more posts like this that brings you value. In addition, please follow me on Instagram @chowyoulater and facebook.

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