As we learned in previous lessons, engagement ratios are really important to go viral.
Why? The algorithm looks to the engagement ratios to help it decide what a 'good' post is. It then uses this information to decide who to feature on the 'Explore' page.
Because of this, we wanted to give you a few quick tips and tricks on improving your engagement ratios and statistics.
TIP 1: Ask low commitment caption questions
The short version: Ask questions that are quick and easy to answer in your post captions. This will increase both your post reach and your long-term reach too.
The aim is to continuously drive as much engagement and traffic as possible to your post to increase its engagement ratios. You can do this by asking questions in either your post caption or in an Instagram Story asking people to comment on your post.
You want to make it easy for your followers to comment. Most will want to comment and engage with you, but don’t have an easy opening other than to simply compliment you -- which they will become tired of at some point. In addition, if you’re a model, a lot of your followers may feel weird simply commenting to compliment you. Instead, you can ask questions in your captions to open up an easy line of communication.
Here are some examples of some quick and easy questions:
😇 Need some music! Anyone have some good 🎶 recommendations? Comment below!
🙃 So hungry!! Need some inspo for 🍽. What shall I eat/what did u guys eat today?
😫 Just finished all my podcasts! Any that you guys recommend? Need to fill this void in my life 🙏🏼
In addition to comments improving your engagement ratio's, there's also another benefit... The next time you post, the followers who comment will see your posts before other people they follow. This is because Instagram's algorithm will see that they recently engaged with you. This is 'relationship' between you accounts will mean that your post will likely be shown before other accounts those same followers follow -- simply because the algorithm believes they're more interested in your profile, as it's an account they already engaged with, vs. potentially 50 other accounts who posted at the same time but that the
TIP 2: 'Like' and reply to ALL comments
The short version: Doing this incentivizes and rewards follower engagement, helping to create a long-term engaged relationship with your followers. Replies also increase your 'post reach' as the algorithm favors posts that have conversations, as this indicates it's a high-quality post.
Reply to every single comment. This rewards your followers' engagement and makes it more likely they'll comment in the future. Additionally, when doing this you should try to ask a question. As a result, they'll likely reply back to your comment and start a conversation thread. This is gold dust for the algorithm, as the algorithm recognizes only high-quality posts usually have conversation threads. Therefore you should seize and look to create as many opportunities as possible to create conversation threads in your posts.
By 'liking' and replying to your followers engagement you also thus encourage other ghost followers to comment. This is because they'll see that you're not just ignoring their comments but recognizing them and giving them your attention.
TIP 3: Post At YOUR Best Time Per Day
The short version: Turn on business profile to find when your best times to post are on a day-to-day basis. You do this by looking at your 'Insights' tab. After you've done this turn off business profile to avoid getting less reach (explained in Tip 5).
Business profiles have one benefit, they can show you when your followers are most active. You want to post during these times. To find these times turn on business profile and go to your profile.
From here tap the graph icon on the top right and scroll down to your 'Followers' section. Here you will see a graph of when your followers are most active - broken out day by day as this changes for every day of the week.
Carefully look at when most of your followers are most active. Post 15 minutes before this time. This means that when most of your follower come online they are more likely to see your post in their feeeds. This because your post will have time to get high engagement ratios to outrank other posts fighting for your place in your followers feeds. Once you've found these optimal times turn off business profile to avoid getting less reach (explained in Tip 3).
TIP 4: Turn OFF business profile
The short version: Instagram want's businesses to pay to 'reach' more of their followers. So, as a business account, you automatically get less reach. Turn business profile off so that your posts don't get less reach.
If you're a business on Instagram, Instagram will want you to pay to have your content seen by people. It's a free platform, so this is one of the major ways they make their money - in the form of 'boosted posts'.
By giving you business profiles less reach automatically, businesses then pay to 'Promote' or 'Boost' their posts. It's because of this business profiles get less reach by default - so be sure to have this off!
TIP 5: 'Co-Livestream' With Other Models
The short version: Schedule back-to-back 'co-lives' with other models or influencers to reach 'Top Lives' for viral viewership.
Collaborate with other models by going 'live' with each other on Instagram (co-livestreams). When you do this your audiences will be shared and you'll both grow as a result. If you coordinate these co-livestreams back-to-back with other models, each time another model joins your live stream she will bring her audience. Once she leaves, this audience will still stay with your in you live stream.
If you keep repeating this with other models back-to-back you will gain enough lives stream viewers from their combined following joining to reach the 'Top Livestreams' on Instagram to be featured on the 'Explore' page. This will then drive a viral amount of new potential followers to your live stream, as people will be finding you via the 'Explore' page 'Top Lives' section. You can find other models who are interested in this livestream collaboration with our Model Connect app, download it for free here.
When going live be sure to pin a comment that asks your followers to follow both yourself and the model who's in the co-live with you. They can also tap your profile icon on the top left. Be sure to ask all viewers to follow you for future lives once you reach a viral viewing number.
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