As an artist, your goal when releasing music is to be heard by as many listeners as possible. But tens of thousands of songs are published every day on streaming platforms and the competition is tough. So to help you gain visibility, what better than social networks? And 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.
According to a study conducted by Social Media Trends, social networks are responsible for 77.4% of brand awareness – and you are a brand! – 63.2% of audience engagement, 50.3% of increased blog/website traffic, and 48.5% of increased sales and customers – reaching more fans, for example. Knowing this, it would be pointless to want to make your music project known without going out to find your audience on social networks. If used properly, social networks are a real meeting point between music bands/artists and their audience. And who says public says more chances to circulate your music, and thus, to gain visibility.
Using social media, especially Instagram, strategically to attract potential fans is not that difficult. Whatever your reason for being on this post – fear of exposing yourself on social media, lack of inspiration, desire to gain subject matter expertise, etc. – the Groover team is here to guide you. Here are 10 tips and tricks to help you improve your engagement rate on Instagram!
Consistency: the key to increasing engagement on your Instagram account
It is extremely important that you are active.ve on social media. Developing a backlog of posts is a great way to keep your Instagram active and, therefore, engaged. You certainly have a lot to show and listen to, so do it. By doing this, you allow your followers to witness the evolution of your music project. By showing them behind the scenes, rehearsals, recordings, music releases, concerts and more, you’ll build a strong fanbase.
Don’t wait! Start posting more on your Instagram account and sharing more with your followers today. You can, for example:
- 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.
Give priority to video posts
Check out this post on Instagram
With the advent of other video-focused social networks (notably TikTok), Instagram has had to adapt and keep up. So if you want to improve your engagement on Instagram, focus on video content!
In fact, a study conducted by HubSpot found that Instagram videos can drive up to twice as much engagement as photos.
Instagram is a vast social network with many formats to explore and test. Be curious! For example, you can test Reels: a content format focused on short videos and Instagram’s main tool for broadcasting.
As a newer tool, the reach of Reels format posts is usually greater than other posts. It’s common for a Reels to fall into Instagram’s “explore” tab, allowing more users to find your video and, as a result, discover your music.
You can also publish longer videos, but beware, the longer the duration, the lower the engagement.
Another very common option is to do lives, give free rein to spontaneity, throw out exclusives, or answer questions from your followers.
Make 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.
It is especially through stories that you can create links with your audience, that you allow a more spontaneous exchange with your followers, bringing them closer to you and your music. It is extremely important to create links and establish a strong relationship with your fans. 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, and, recently, “likes.” 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 post in their news feed. So if you don’t use stories, there’s a good chance your Instagram account’s reach will be less.
Create relevant content if you want more engagement
A good Instagram lives 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!
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 real life, giving advice, showing your mistakes and successes, sharing your thoughts with your fans!
Always reply to your followers – you’re also contributing to your engagement on your Instagram account
Artists, answer your followers!
Comments are one of the main engagement metrics Instagram takes into account. So, the more comments you have on your posts, the more Instagram understands that this post is important, and the more it spreads it. Comments are also, for you, a great way 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 its follower base. As your followers interact, Instagram will understand the relevance of your post and spread your publication 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. So, by replying to your followers – in addition to connecting with them and showing your gratitude for their support of your music project – you’re helping to drive engagement, as you’ll double the number of comments!
In addition to increasing engagement, don’t forget about reciprocity. 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!
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 a priori there to add and contribute to the spread and reach of your posts.
Some features worth exploring:
- Hashtags :
As the name suggests, hashtags are used to tag your Instagram content. So try to use strategic hashtags for each of your posts. This is because when you use hashtags, you increase the chances that people who don’t yet follow you will discover your post, and therefore your Instagram profile, through Instagram’s search engine.
- Location :
The same goes for the use of location. Where are you from? 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.
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 the famous bots, which is considered a violation of the Instagram rules.
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 famous Shadowban.
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 would 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, for example, with people who produce completely different content from yours. The purpose of this is to exchange likes, comments, etc. But in fact, this technique only hinders Instagram’s algorithm since it no longer understands the target of your content, it can no longer trace the profile of followers because their usual interests are too different. And people who would have naturally consumed your content will no longer be reached.
So, 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.
Focus on important Instagram metrics
The best for last as they say! We’ve prepared a digest of the metrics that particularly matter to improve the engagement of your posts on Instagram.
In order of relevance, the most important measures on the platform are:
- recordings, or saves ;
- shares ;
- comments.
These are the manifestations of engagement that you should look for, and that will allow you to analyze the performance of your content.
Therefore, the more people who save, share and comment on your Instagram posts, the greater the reach and spread of your post on Instagram.
So 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 more than 10,000 followers.
Be part of your fans’ Instagram “Favorites”!
Instagram’s new update – which hasn’t arrived in all countries yet – will have a huge impact on your Instagram account if you manage to become one of your followers’ favorite profiles!
Indeed, this new update allows Instagram users to take control of their experience on the social network. Rather than having a single feed option, Instagram users will be able to choose to navigate 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 in this new feed of posts.
Instagram will then understand that your followers are following you closely and are interested in the content you post. And 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!
Finally, 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, media, playlists, 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.
Don’t waste any more time, spread your musical project!
– This article was written with the help of Nathalia Maneiro and translated by Betty Gonzalez Gray –
Next Articles:
> How to gain new Instagram followers ?
> Why you should avoid sending a promo DM?
> Facebook and Instagram Ads
> How to optimize your music promotion on Instagram
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