Instagram Engagement: Calculator & 12 Data-Driven Strategies for a Better Instagram

Since its release more than a decade ago, Instagram has been slowly growing on us and nowadays it is, without a doubt, one of the most engaging social media platforms.

Talk about a glow-up.

However, keeping your users engaged day after day is challenging. Brands and creators have to stay on top of all trends to make sure theirs is the highest engagement on Instagram.

Keep on reading to find out how to increase Instagram engagement in 2024. You’re about to get a top-notch guide that will help you rethink your Instagram marketing strategy.

What is Instagram engagement

Before learning how to grow your Instagram engagement, we need to first define this metric and understand what counts as engagement on Instagram.

Instagram engagement is a metric that measures how many Instagram users actively interact with your content.

To tie the knot between your Instagram strategy’s efforts and your brand’s goals, you need engagement. In other words, you need your audience to actively participate in your brand's story.

Only well-written, tailored content has the potential to resonate with your followers. When someone stops scrolling to interact with your Instagram post, it means they got valuable information.

A higher Instagram engagement also proves that you’ve passed the test of the Instagram algorithm. This means that your posts comply with the rules implied by the algorithm and your content has greater chances of becoming viral.

FREE engagement rate calculator for Instagram

You can use the calculator below to calculate average engagement rate per post by followers or reach.

When calculating engagement on Instagram, you only need to take these metrics into account: likes, comments and saves.

Adding these together will give you the total engagement value for your content in a specific time range.

If you want to dig deeper into Instagram insights, you might also want to calculate the Instagram engagement rate using the following formulas:

Instragram Engagement Rate Per Post Formula by Followers

Instragram Engagement Rate Per Post Formula by Reach

Or, better yet, let this Instagram engagement rate calculator do the math.

Note: If you want to calculate the engagement rate for a specific time range, make sure to consider all your posts, including the total number of posts published, total number of likes, and other engagement metrics. On the other hand, if you want to calculate the engagement rate of a specific campaign, only take into account the posts that were part of that campaign.

Instagram Engagement Rate Per Post Calculator by Followers

Instagram Engagement Rate Per Post Calculator by Reach

But if you want to really automate your Instagram engagement measuring process, then there's only one powerful solution: using a professional analytics tool like Socialinsider.

Analyze your engagement metrics with Socialinsider!

Analyze your content, reach, impressions, and view industry benchmarks and see how you compare to competitors.

Start a 14-day FREE trial

What is a good engagement rate on Instagram?

Without context, numbers mean very little, and nowhere is that more true than in the world of social media analytics. To learn how to improve your engagement on Instagram, you should have a clear idea of what good results look like.

In other words, you should know what is a good engagement rate on Instagram, so you can adjust your strategy to produce spectacular results.

Luckily, our latest Instagram Benchmarks report revealed just the data you need: the Instagram engagement rate across all industries is 0.70% in 2024.

Your goal should be to get a higher engagement than Instagram’s average.

The question of how to get more likes on Instagram is on every marketer’s mind nowadays. Everybody wants to know how to engage with followers on Instagram and how to get them to respond.

12 strategies to maximize Instagram engagement

Thankfully, we’ve collected a set of 12 Instagram engagement tips to help conquer new highs when it comes to engagement on this platform. Use these strategies to understand how to increase engagement on Instagram for your brand.

#1. Post consistently

One method to ensure you’re top of mind for your audience is to post on a constant basis. The best way to achieve this is by having the schedule.

When you regularly post on Instagram, you start having your own pace. Posting more helps your audience get greater chances to interact with your content.

Keep in mind, what matters most of all is to post top-quality content. There’s no need to post regularly just for the sake of posting if you are not focused on your final goals.

Choose a strategic time based on demographics and your engagement evolution. By using an Instagram analytics tool like Socialinsider, you can find out the right time to post.

#2. Be responsive

It’s a fact of life that people love attention.

So if you take the time to be highly responsive to all the comments and DMs you’re getting, you can be sure that your customers will appreciate that and be more tempted to engage with your content again in the future.

This will not only empower your strong connection with your community, but every such Instagram interaction will count towards an increased Instagram engagement.

#3. Post relatable memes

Memes are the fun part of social media. Everybody loves to see them everywhere.

Memes are relatable, they make people relax and chuckle and users immediately like you more if they find a sense of familiarity in your Instagram content.

If you integrate memes to talk about your brand, your team, relatable situations or new products, your audience will be more likely to interact, comment and even share your content.

#4. Add links to Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories are another type of Instagram content that helps you boost Instagram engagement.

Stories are a great opportunity for you to connect with your audience, when using all the interactive features, like polls, “ask a question” text box, and countdowns.

You can also share your recent post in Stories and add a link for your audience if they wanna know more about the topic you’ve posted about.

Stories make followers feel safe to share their thoughts, opinions and feedback with you. This is how genuine connections are created, showing them that you can humanize your brand.

#5. Go live

The next best thing after Stories? Instagram Live. When going Live on Instagram, you show your audience that you’re open to questions, answering their queries and providing them with all the insights they need.

Moreover, you show your followers the face behind your brand, using a human-to-human approach. This is what makes the bond with your community even stronger.

With Instagram live, you welcome your audience into your brand’s life, connecting with everyone.

#6. Prioritize Instagram Reels

It may not come as a surprise to anyone anymore that Reels continue to be the most engaging type of post on Instagram. Our latest study on Instagram benchmarks shows that Reels have an engagement rate of 1.23%.

This is a good enough reason to create and share more Reels. You could use this type of content to promote your latest products and services.

This type of Instagram post makes it easier for you to get your content in front of your audience and therefore increase the engagement per post on Instagram. When your Reel appears in the “Discover” section, your audience is likely to transform into your followers.

By using an Instagram analytics tool like Socialinsider, you’ll be able to uncover a lot of Reels insights, such as the top post types ranked by engagement, top 3 best performing posts of this type, the number of impressions generated by the Reels you’ve shared and more.

So, if you’re trying to figure out how to get more interaction on Instagram, focus on crafting more Reels to increase your chances of virality, increase brand awareness and visibility.

#7. Leverage user-generated content

This is definitely something you want for your brand. You want to market your products on Instagram so well that people end up buying them and then posting pictures when using them.

User-generated content is the greatest type of feedback you want, as well as a massive generator of global engagement.

When people start posting content with your products or services, they become your community, trusting you that you will come up with more revolutionary products that live up to their expectations and satisfy their needs.

User-generated content also has a chance to lead to new collaborations.

#8. Find influencers to spread your message

Connecting with influential voices in your industry can go a long way when it comes to increasing Instagram engagement.

A lot of brands use the help of nano-influencers to boost their brand awareness and engagement on Instagram.Finding the right influencers might take a lot of effort and research, but influencer marketing is pure gold.

#9. Keep your captions short

We know it’s sometimes difficult to fit all that you want to say into a brief Instagram caption, but our data on Instagram caption length says that the highest engagement Instagram captions measure under 30 words.

#10. Use relevant Instagram hashtags

Hashtags help you categorize your content and make it fall into clusters, all split by topic. It also counts towards your SEO ranking.

With the help of these helper-words that classify Instagram content, users are able to search in the “Discover” section and get posts on a specific topic.

When launching a new product or service, you can add branded hashtags and then check via social listening whether the audience has used it yet.

Those who buy your products may tag you and this is your chance to ask them if you can use their user-generated content. This type of content will help you towards improving your Instagram engagement.

#11. Organize giveaways

Giveaways are meant to attract your audience even more, since you offer them a little something to repay their loyalty.

From time to time, you should consider hosting Instagram giveaways, especially after launching a new product or service.

Make sure you offer your audience the opportunity to win some of the products from your previous collection, or maybe the chance to use your app or service for an extended period of time.

And if they are satisfied with the experience, they will surely be returning customers.

Moreover, giveaways also increase impressions, interactions and will boost your overall Instagram engagement, since users will comment and then share your contest in Stories.

#12. Measure results

Last but definitely not least, measure your Instagram engagement performance. There’s no better way to improve your engagement on this channel than by constantly monitoring your progress.

To get started, you can take a look at the Instagram engagement analytics in the native app:

However, if you want to track your performance beyond surface-level data, you can rely on an Instagram analytics tool like Socialinsider to give you the full picture.

With Socialinsider, you can see all the engagement metrics you care about in one dashboard. Easily track your engagement evolution, identify growth spikes, see how much engagement your content generates daily on average and much more.

But wait, it gets better. You can also see what type of content generates the highest amount of engagement for your brand.

Is it Reels, images or carousels? Whatever it is for you, you can adjust your strategy based on this insight.

Final thoughts

If you want to learn how to grow engagement on Instagram, you have to take your Instagram account to the next level, deliver high quality, top-performing content, be responsive and leverage different Instagram analytics tools and techniques (such as user generated content) to help you achieve your goals.

It's time to put your creativity to work using all these Instagram engagement ideas on how to get engagement on Instagram.