Did you know that Instagram is far and away the social network with the highest ratio of engagement?
According to an analysis by Forrester Research, Instagram’s engagement ratio beats Facebook 60 times over and Twitter 140 times over. This is news you can use!
Here comes the next question: How to boost your own Instagram engagement ratio? The Forrester researchers offer a few suggestions.
1. Show me the human! According to research done by the Georgia Institute of Technology and Yahoo Labs, Instagram photos featuring human faces are 38 percent more likely to get likes as well as 32 percent more likely to garner comments than their faceless counterparts.
Show actual people… People want to see people.
2. Actual product use… Additionally, shots of real customers using products were the recipients of 30 percent more engagement. The ante was upped by brand that posted pictures featuring faces and product engagement.
Display your product in action
3. Bleed bright and blue. Then there’s the research conducted by the visual analytics platform Curalate, which found that pictures with blue as the dominant color received 24 percent more engagement than those with orange or red dominating. In addition, bright pictures got nearly a quarter more engagement than their darker counterparts.
All that blue caught my eye
4. Know when to post. When you’re posting videos on Instagram, keep the clock in mind. While the time of day was found by TrackMaven’s Instagram Report to be negligible when it came to image postings, videos were shown to be more effective after business hours. Try not to post these on weekends or during business hours as their effectiveness is reduced.
Be aware of when you are posting
5. Hashtags are your friends. Additionally, TrackMaven found that engagement was particularly boosted by the presence of hashtags – to the tune of positive correlations up through four or five hashtags. These were found to increase not only the reach of an Instagram post, but also how long-lasting it proved itself to be.
Hashtags are your friends… Just don’t get too crazy.
In conclusion, a few things to remember:
- Instagram is boss when it comes to audience engagement
- Products and faces in photos make a substantial difference
- Bright and blue as the dominant color also see larger amounts of engagement
- Hashtags are key.
Additional Resources: I had the pleasure of being interviewed by WCR on this topic.
Got other thoughts? Let me know in the comments below and connect with me on Instagram!
