Many marketers are worried about low engagement fatigue on Instagram because they think their posts are being ignored by algorithms, which is somewhat true because Instagram posts only reach 32% of the followers. Some people believe that early engagement can help with the organic post reach so Hootsuite conducted an experiment to know if Instagram posts' reach can get boosted if it gets high engagement in the first hour. They ran a two-week experiment with a single Instagram account, using carousel posts for consistency. They used the same captions, hashtags, and timings for the posts in the first week and asked friends to share, comments, and like the posts during the second week.
The results showed that the post reached three times more people than week one and the engagement rate after one hour was 4.5x higher in week two. The posts in week two also reached more non-followers which suggests that the algorithm pushed them to the Explore page. This proves that reach becomes higher because of early engagement on a post. If posts are getting more interactions in the first hour, it means that it's going to perform better. A post getting likes and comments quickly also pushes it toward more feeds and it reaches new audiences. So, only a small effort can bring big results and increase the visibility of the posts on Instagram.
If you want to boost your Instagram engagements, make sure to create content that is unique and worth engaging with. Experiment with ideas and do not compromise on quality no matter what. Make sure to post when the audience is online and the time varies during each day of the week. But the best timing is to post between 3 pm and 9 pm as it's the time when most users are active on Instagram, however, you can try posting on other times as well. Encourage people to engage with your content by asking them to like, comment, and share immediately after posting, and make sure to reply to comments as well. To make sure that your post reaches as many users as possible, post on stories, reach loyal followers through DMs, and try not to overdo anything.
H/T: HS
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The results showed that the post reached three times more people than week one and the engagement rate after one hour was 4.5x higher in week two. The posts in week two also reached more non-followers which suggests that the algorithm pushed them to the Explore page. This proves that reach becomes higher because of early engagement on a post. If posts are getting more interactions in the first hour, it means that it's going to perform better. A post getting likes and comments quickly also pushes it toward more feeds and it reaches new audiences. So, only a small effort can bring big results and increase the visibility of the posts on Instagram.
If you want to boost your Instagram engagements, make sure to create content that is unique and worth engaging with. Experiment with ideas and do not compromise on quality no matter what. Make sure to post when the audience is online and the time varies during each day of the week. But the best timing is to post between 3 pm and 9 pm as it's the time when most users are active on Instagram, however, you can try posting on other times as well. Encourage people to engage with your content by asking them to like, comment, and share immediately after posting, and make sure to reply to comments as well. To make sure that your post reaches as many users as possible, post on stories, reach loyal followers through DMs, and try not to overdo anything.
Read next: Lost in Search: Google Drops Pages That Underperform, Even If They’re Indexed
