Why Your IG Engagement Is Low And What to Do About It

What happens when you post content to your Instagram account? Does your page flood with likes and comments from other Instagram users…or are you serenaded by crickets?

If it’s the latter, you may be reconsidering the type of content you post. Luckily, we have answers for you in this article. Read on so you can take action and grow your Instagram account!

Why Should I Care About My Instagram Engagement Rate?

A low engagement rate can give the allure that your followers are fake. If you have a business account, this will affect who wants to do business with you, including:

  • Brands
  • Potential customers
  • Potential partners
  • Social media influencers and content creators

A higher engagement rate shows your target audience has an interest in what you’re posting, which boosts your credibility. Plus, if you increase engagement, it’s more likely your content will appear on other people’s feeds or the Explore page, reaching a bigger audience.

Also, tracking metrics on your Instagram posts will allow you to see if your Instagram marketing strategy is working. There’s no point in spending time and money on Instagram marketing if you do not see any returns.

So step into gear and learn about what you can do to stop losing business!

How to Find Your Engagement Rate

To calculate your engagement rate, look at your ten most recent posts. Count the total number of the following on these posts:

  • Comments
  • Likes
  • Saves

Next, divide that number by ten. Then divide the answer you get by your total number of followers. Lastly, multiply the number by 100, and you have your percentage or engagement rate.

Social media marketing experts agree a good engagement rate is between one and five percent. It doesn’t sound like much. However, keeping engagement high gets more difficult as your follower count grows.

Why Is Your Instagram Engagement Dropping?

Here are three possible reasons why you may get fewer likes on Instagram.

Algorithm Changes

The Instagram algorithm is constantly changing. The algorithm considers different metrics within half an hour of your new content going live. These include:

  • Comments on the post
  • DMs you receive from the post
  • Number of likes on the post
  • Number of post shares

The algorithm will compare the content to similar accounts performing comparable actions to determine which post is superior. The one that wins will experience a greater boost.

Further, the algorithm loves Reels. In fact, Instagram video posts have much higher engagement than photos.

What to do? Focus your Instagram content on short-form videos. While you can (and should) still post Instagram stories and photo carousels, don’t neglect Reels. If you’re unsure how to use Reels, our Instagram Reels tutorial will help.

Low-Quality Content

Instagram is particular about promoting high-quality content. While it’s okay to repost others’ content occasionally or use content templates, you want to focus on creating unique content that will capture users’ attention.

You should also ensure you use relevant hashtags in your captions. This will further help you gain Instagram followers instead of losing them.

Now, if you already have content on other platforms, you can cross-post it on Instagram. This is an excellent idea if the content has previously performed well on another platform.

So, for example, if you already have a lot of Youtube content, learn how to put Youtube videos on Instagram so you can share them with your Instagram followers.

Pro tip: Instagram will demote video content if it contains a TikTok watermark. Thus, if you want to cross-post TikTok content, film and edit it within a third-party application to avoid this issue.

Accessibility Issues

Many people who use Instagram are hearing or visually impaired. Thankfully, you can take a few quick steps to ensure your content is accessible.

When posting a video, select the blue “Captions” sticker at the top of the screen. You’ll see the sticker once your video is ready to post.

You can also add “alt text” to describe photos to those using screen readers. Just head to your advanced settings to find this feature. Alternatively, you can add visual descriptions to the captions; they will work to improve your SEO, too!

Making your feed posts accessible is a crucial step to inclusivity. Not to mention, an overwhelming majority of people watch social media videos with the sound off. So failing to partake in creating accessible content could cause some to unfollow you.

How to Recover When Your Instagram Engagement Declines

Follow these suggestions to help boost engagement:

  • Add a geotag
  • Be consistent with posting
  • Create shareable content
  • Have SEO in your Instagram strategy
  • Include call-to-actions (CTAs)
  • Incorporate new features
  • Interact with other accounts
  • Make Instagram captions part of your strategy
  • Pay attention to what time you post
  • Remove bots
  • Send a welcome message to new followers
  • Share user-generated content (UGC)
  • Try influencer marketing
  • Use hashtags to find new users (but don’t overdo it!)

You can also run an Instagram audit. This is where you check for spam followers, banned or irrelevant hashtags, and underperforming content.

Whatever you do, don’t buy new followers. These are likely bots and will jeopardize your Instagram profile.

Contact Us Today

We know it can feel impossible to raise your Instagram engagement rate. And Instagram is just one of the social media channels where you can drive reach!

If you need help reworking your online video content strategy, we can help. At SLICE, we’re pros at creating awesome video content for your social media platforms. So contact us today, and let’s discuss the Instagram content you need to take your profile to the next level!