As an artist, your goal when releasing music is to be heard by as many listeners as possible. But hundreds of thousands of songs are published every day on streaming platforms and competition is tough. So to help you gain visibility and new fans, what better than social networks? Today we’re going to focus on ways to increase engagement on your Instagram account – the main social network for working on your image, positioning, promoting your music and growing your community as an artist.
In the realm of digital marketing, increasing engagement on Instagram is one of the most crucial tactics for enhancing brand visibility and interaction. Studies have shown that social media marketing significantly enhances brand awareness – and you are a brand! Knowing this, it would be pointless to attempt to make your promote your music without using the powerful tool that is social networks. If used properly, social media platforms are a real meeting point between artists/bands and their audiences.
Using social media strategically, especially Instagram, for promotional purposes is not that difficult. Whatever your reason for visiting this article – fear of messing up the social media game, lack of inspiration, desire to increase your following, etc. – the Groover team is here to guide you.
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Here are some tips and tricks to help you improve your engagement rate on Instagram!
1. Consistency: the key to increasing engagement on Instagram
For algorithmic purposes, it is extremely important that you are active on social media and post regularly. Developing a backlog of posts is a great way to keep your Instagram active, and therefore engaged. By doing this, you allow your followers to witness the evolution of your music, as well as your persona as an artist. Showing them behind the scenes, rehearsals, recordings, releases, concerts and more will build a strong and fanbase that feels close to you. On the algorithm side, Instagram favors accounts that come back to the app often, spend time on it, and are the reason others spend time on the app as well. This translates to: 1) post often, 2) scroll/engage with those you follow, and 3) make your posts worth talking about, saving, and visiting again and again. The algorithm will reward you for it!
Start posting more on your Instagram account and sharing more with your followers right away, even if you don’t have a back log yet. For example, you can:
- Show behind-the-scenes footage of studio sessions and video shoots
- Publish videos of rehearsals
- Teaser your upcoming releases
- Do lives with other artists or partners
- Ask questions to your followers in stories
- Show your everyday life, have fun, share things that inspire you, etc.
- Share user-created content from your followers to build a sense of community and encourage more engagement
2. Give priority to video posts
With the arrival and popularity of other video-focused social networks, notably TikTok, Instagram has had to adapt to keep up. In fact, a study conducted by HubSpot found that Instagram videos can drive up to twice as much engagement as photos. If you want to improve your engagement on Instagram, one of the best ways is to focus on Reels.
Instagram Reels are a powerful tool for increasing engagement and visibility on the platform. It’s very common for Reels to fall into Instagram’s “explore” tab, allowing more users to find your video and, as a result, discover your music. This is because Instagram wants to keep the platform dynamic, so the more video content you give them to push to current and new followers, the better. You can also post longer videos, but beware, the longer the duration, the lower the engagement.
Carousel posts (aka slide posts) consist of multiple images or videos and are highly effective in boosting engagement as they provide more opportunities for likes, comments, and shares within a single post. Recently, Instagram rolled out a new feature allowing users to post 20 photos in a carousel as opposed to the previous 10. The more the merrier!
Use Your Own Music in Your Reels
Reels allow you to add music to your video, which is a great way to promote your music as an artist. Whether your video is about your music career or not, throw in a catchy snippet of one of your songs in the background – you never know what might do well and bring more eyes and ears to your work!
Instagram just announced a new feature regarding Reels’ music as well. Instead of only being able to use one sound per video (and thus getting stuck with a certain clip length, or not being able to edit the audio at will), you can now use up to 20 tracks in a Reel. Get creative with this feature! If you’ve just released a project, you can do a big edit of BTS, rehearsals, music video footage and more, and create a mix of your songs in the background so users can hear a bit of everything. It’s certainly worth a try!
3. Post Instagram stories regularly
One of the main ways to increase engagement on Instagram is to post stories. An inactive Instagram doesn’t get any interaction, and therefore has a low engagement rate.
Utilizing Instagram Stories with interactive elements like links, polls, questions, relevant hashtags you can hide off-screen, and stickers can significantly enhance audience interaction, get feedback, and showcase your personality in a casual format, helping to strengthen community connection. It is extremely important to create links to your music and establish a strong relationship with your fans. Include a “call to action” in your posts to direct followers to a streaming page or post. The closer you stay to your audience, the more likely they are to engage and interact with your work.
There are several ways to interact with stories: quick reactions with emojis, written replies, likes, and recently, comments. Of course, the more interaction your followers have with your content, the more Instagram understands the relevance of your take, and the greater the reach and spread of your posts.
It’s much easier and faster for someone to react to one of your stories than to comment on a static post in their feed. So if you don’t use stories, there’s a good chance your Instagram account’s reach may not be as good.
4. Create relevant content
A good Instagram thrives on good content! Therefore, a great tip for maintaining good engagement on Instagram is to focus on creating content that is relevant and useful to your audience: what we call content creation marketing. If you want your audience to interact, you need to work on the topic of reciprocity. Be relevant to your followers and they will reciprocate by increasing engagement on your Instagram account! You can be niche with certain things, but remember that you want to keep as many people interested in your posts as possible.
Keep in mind that you need to give people a reason to follow you and your work. So avoid making your Instagram account a place just for promoting your music project. Really connect with your followers by showing your real life, giving advice, showing your mistakes and successes, sharing your thoughts with your fans! Try to understand what your demographic is following you for and give them more of it.
5. Always reply to your followers
Artists, answer your followers!
Comments are one of the main engagement metrics Instagram takes into account. The more comments you have on your posts the more Instagram understands that it is generating traffic, and the more it pushes it to other users. Comments are also a great way for you to interact with your followers, and a way to measure the impact of your content.
Initially, right after publishing your content, Instagram will broadcast the post to only 20% of your follower base. As your followers interact, Instagram will understand the relevance of your post and spread your post more widely.
So: reply to your followers as soon as you can! Instagram’s algorithm can’t differentiate whether it’s another account commenting or you. Interacting with your followers helps drive engagement as you’ll double the number of comments. Replying to followers can also lead to more Instagram engagement by encouraging further interaction – people will want to be a part of the conversation.
When you pay attention to your audience and show that you are responsive to feedback and comments, you help build a loyal following. And a fan who is a fan always engages!
6. Explore all the tools on Instagram
If Instagram launches a new tool, use it! This goes for all the tools available on this social network. Always explore what Instagram has to offer, as any new feature is à priori there to add and contribute to the spread and reach of your posts.
Regularly checking Instagram analytics is crucial for tracking engagement metrics and optimizing your posting strategies. By understanding the best times to post and audience preferences, you can refine your content strategies and adapt to changes in Instagram’s algorithm.
Some classic features worth exploring:
- Hashtags
As the name suggests, the hashtag is used to tag your Instagram content. Try to use strategic hashtags for each of your posts. When you use hashtags, you increase the chances that people who don’t yet follow you will discover your post through Instagram’s search engine.
- Location
The same goes for the use of location. Where are you from? Where did the content in your post take place? The use of location is also an important search engine. In the same way, people who don’t follow you yet can find you through proximity and search for that same location.
- Mentions
This tip almost no one puts it into practice… Mentioning other Instagram accounts allows your posts to stay in their “mentions tabs.” Therefore, it increases your chances of being found when someone views the mentions of the person you tagged. If you tag the official Instagram account of a festival you’re playing at in your photo/video, for example, it’s likely that some people will see your post and discover your Instagram account, and therefore your music project.
7. Beware of behavior that could be considered “spam” by Instagram
Be careful about this so as not to compromise your engagement on Instagram in any way.
Some actions are considered spam by Instagram because they are similar to bots – or robots. Some Instagram accounts end up being blocked and, as a result, have their engagement damaged. Avoid repetitive actions on Instagram, such as the well-known follow/unfollow technique. Also, avoid commenting too many times in a row on the same post.
Instagram does not allow automation on its platform, that is, people who use hacks (Instagram Bots) to automate actions to gain followers, loss of followers and fake interactions. Very quickly, when you perform some of these actions repeatedly, the algorithm can end up getting confused and believe that these actions can be due to the use of bots, which is considered a violation of the Instagram rules.
8. Don’t buy Instagram followers and avoid engagement groups
Unfortunately, many independent artists in the early stages of their careers make the mistake of buying followers and end up permanently and irreversibly compromising their Instagram account. If this happens, the only solution is to create a new Instagram account.
Conclusion: NEVER buy followers on Instagram!
You will manage to build your fanbase over time, don’t try to stall foolishly. And from a personal point of view, this will not help you grow. On the contrary, buying followers is a violation of Instagram’s rules and, if discovered by the algorithm, the consequence is the infamous shadow ban.
In practical terms, this means that your posts will no longer be shown to your followers. The algorithm will slow down – even cancel – the distribution of your posts, thus reducing the reach of your Instagram posts and stories, which will lead to a sharp drop in engagement. Also, if you have a lot of followers and the engagement doesn’t match that number, people may realize that you’ve resorted to buying fake followers, and the same goes for buying likes and comments – which will significantly damage the image of your music project.
Another action that can hurt your Instagram account’s engagement is to create or join engagement groups – that is, groups created on WhatsApp or Facebook to exchange likes, comments, etc. This technique only hinders Instagram’s algorithm since it no longer understands who you’re targeting with your content. It can no longer trace the profile and interests of your followers and target audience because they are too different. People who would have naturally consumed your content will no longer be reached.
Growing your Instagram followers with people who aren’t interested in your content is pointless – and may even penalize you – because engagement will decrease over time.
9. Focus on important Instagram metrics
We’ve prepared a digest of the metrics that particularly matter to improve the engagement of your posts on Instagram.
Tracking these metrics is crucial for boosting engagement on Instagram. In order of relevance, the most important measures on the platform are:
- saves
- shares
- comments
- likes
These are the types of engagement and clicks you should look for, and that will allow you to analyze the performance of your content.
Note that there is no point in getting stuck on the number of likes or followers! These are known as vanity metrics – they do not influence engagement. Some profiles with 4000 followers have more engaged and loyal fans than many profiles with 10K+ followers.
How to Calculate Your Instagram Engagement Rate
Calculating your Instagram engagement rate is straightforward. Use the formula: (Total interactions/ Impressions) x 100. Total interactions include likes, comments, saves, shares, and story replies. Impressions refer to the number of times your content is viewed. You can use Instagram’s built-in analytics tool or third-party apps to track these engagement metrics. By regularly monitoring your engagement rate, you can gain insights into what type of content resonates most with your audience and adjust your marketing strategy accordingly.
10. Be part of your fans’ Instagram “Favorites”!
Instagram users are able to choose between 3 different feeds: home feed, favorites, and followers. This means that if your profile is chosen as a favorite by your followers, your posts will be prioritized.
Instagram will then understand that your followers are following you closely and are interested in the content you post. Naturally the engagement rate on your Instagram account will increase since your posts will be seen first.
So work on your relationship with your fans! Interact, create relevant content, take care of your followers. You can only win! Remember: focus on the quality of your posts to create engagement on your Instagram account.
In addition, while building a strong fanbase through social networks, don’t forget to use Groover to promote your singles: Groover allows you to connect with music industry professionals, labels, playlists, bloggers, and much more! On the platform, you can send your music to over 1500 music industry professionals, and all over the world. You are guaranteed to have your music heard, and to receive written feedback on your track within 7 days.
– This article was written with the help of Nathalia Maneiro and translated by Betty Gonzalez Gray –
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Looking to gain visibility with your music project? Send your music to Groover ✨