We’ve all been there: you’re sitting on the train on the way to work or waiting for your order in a café while scrolling through your Instagram feed. You probably haven’t opened Instagram to be really active. You were probably just bored and had nothing better to do.
Your followers feel the same way. That’s why it’s all the more important to create incentives to get your posts liked, commented on, saved and shared.
We’ll tell you below how you can achieve this and increase your interactions with your community in the long term.
What are interactions?
The first thing that probably comes to mind when you think of interactions is likes and comments. For a long time, likes and followers were the measure of all things on Instagram. Buying likes is not an elaborate skill, but it is also not a promising strategy these days.
Today, interactions are more than likes and comments. Social networks are all about getting in touch, and there are many ways to do this.
Indirect and invisible interactions, such as views, saved posts and personal messages, are all more important in social networks.
The many different content formats are accompanied by many different interactions.
We will give you an overview below:
| Feed | Story | IGTV / Reels |
| Likes | Quick Reaction | Likes |
| Comments | Messages / DMs | Comments |
| Share posts | Share story | Share video |
| Save posts | Reaction to stickers | Save video |
| Swipes (Caroussel) | Views | Views |
| Clicks on “more” | Clicks on tags (mentions) | Follows |
| Follows | Dwell time | Dwell time |
As you can see, you can also trigger different interactions with different types of content.
How to boost your interactions
Social networks are all about interaction. But how can you get your followers to interact more with you and your content? Below you will find our tips.
1. ask questions
A proven strategy to encourage interaction is to ask questions. To ensure that your community is interested in answering them, focus on current, relevant topics as well as wishes and problems.
The story stickers are popular on Instagram, and the poll sticker, quiz sticker and question sticker give you the opportunity to ask your community questions. The survey and quiz stickers allow you to get to know your community better. The question sticker, on the other hand, allows your community to turn the tables and ask you interesting things.
2. start hands-on activities
We know two things about our followers without knowing them. Firstly, the desire to play is in our genes. Secondly, we love challenges. To take advantage of these two opportunities, create hands-on activities. This can include a bingo or a photo competition with a challenging sentence such as: “None of you can do…”. There are many ways to create a kind of competition and encourage your followers to outdo each other. Another incentive would be a small prize for the best.
There are also other types of participatory actions that help you to get in touch with your followers. For example, “describe your business in three emojis and we’ll try to guess what it is” or “get to know each other: Who are you? Where are you from? What is your hobby?”.
This goes down very well with Instagram users and is a lot of fun for both sides.
3. content that is popular for sharing
Some formats are better shared on social media than others.
These include:
- fun content
- Quotes
- Inspirational content
- Tips and tricks
Videos and infographics are also among the most shared content. For these formats to be shared, you need to link them to informative and relevant content.
In order for social problems, humor or current topics to be effective, it is important that the user is addressed on an emotional level.
4. invite people to tell stories
Ask your followers to tell special stories. The best way to do this is to share something that your followers can identify with. Taking the time to listen to your followers’ stories shows appreciation and respect. With a bit of luck, a conversation will develop within your community. Storytelling promotes a sense of community.
To get even the shy ones to tell their stories, you can link the stories to a competition and thus create an extra incentive.
5. use hashtags to generate user-generated content
The relationship between you and your followers is a two-way street consisting of give and take. To appreciate the loyalty of your followers, you can post their content in your story.
This is called user-generated content. User-generated content creates further benefits, such as increased reach, brand trust / loyalty and relevant purchasing decisions can be influenced.
And this is how it works: Invite users to send you pictures. Sometimes the reward is that you post them, sometimes it needs extra incentives, like a competition.
6. design your posts so that people can interact with them
To give your followers the opportunity to interact with you, you should design your posts accordingly. To get your followers to read your caption, a snappy first line and an exciting topic on which everyone can have an opinion are ideal. Your followers should not only read your caption, but also understand it, which means: pay attention to a simple writing style, short sentences, few foreign words.
Your photo or graphic should also encourage interaction. Design them to stand out in the news feed so that followers stick to them when scrolling. Share tips, checklists, address relevant topics. These are all ways of encouraging interaction.
Summary
Interactions today are more than just likes and comments. To achieve interactions with your followers on many different levels, you need to create incentives.
The many different formats that Instagram now has to offer allow you to promote interactions in different ways. It is important for all formats that your content provides added value. How you achieve this added value is up to you. Would you like to share infographics or would you prefer humorous videos? The choice is yours. Your goal should always be to produce content that works and that people can interact with.
