The keyword in social media is “social.” The platforms we use for marketing are intentionally designed to be two-way conversations, also known as engagement. Engagement goes both ways: We can measure how people engage with you, and we can intentionally engage with others.
When it comes to engaging with others to grow your audience, the wide world of Instagram suddenly feels overwhelming. How do you find the right people? How much time should you really be spending engaging? When is enough, enough?
Engagement is a routine and it doesn’t have to feel like a burden or hard work. Here’s one of my favorite ways to make engaging on social media easier: Have a daily plan for social media engagement.
That’s the ultimate hack—having a simple plan for social media engagement that you can do each day. Showing up on Instagram without a goal leads you down a rabbit hole that wastes your time and doesn’t accomplish your goals.
“But how do I go about making a plan?” you ask…. If you do just one engagement activity in each of these categories every day, you’ll be on your way to a bigger, more engaged audience on social media:
Your Followers
The people who are already engaging with your content? They are your most valuable fans! You should treat them that way! They follow you, they purchase your sponsored products, and they share about you on their own platforms. So return the favor and interact with their engagement on your posts daily. Make sure to always like and reply to their comments. If you want to go a step further, follow those fans that are the most involved and comment on their content, too.
Hashtags
Hashtags are a part of Instagram SEO and are still valuable in terms of reach and engagement. Spend a few minutes every week or month researching new hashtags that are most relevant to you and your fans. Then, make sure your posts are appropriately tagged with the right hashtags and engage in content under 1-2 of those hashtags daily.
New Followers
Posting great, relatable content is a great tool for inviting people to follow you, but it’s also worthwhile to go engage with new potential followers and make that first move. You can find related followers under the same hashtags you post under, and if you engage in your Reels and Explore correctly, the algorithm will start feeding you accounts that you would connect with. Make a point to comment on 2-3 new followers (or sponsorship connections) daily.
Invite Engagement on Stories
Post stories that invite engagement by using the question sticker or the poll or quizes, so that your current followers or people who find you on Explore have an immediate place to engage with you. Use stickers on your Stories everyday!
Direct Engagement
Those people you follow that are key to the growth of your brand? You should engage with their stories, too. Send a direct DM, reply to a question sticker, or send them a favorite post that made you think of them. Start a conversation, or continue the one you’re already having.
Social media engagement is a crucial metric to track to measure the success of your content and the connection between your people and your brand. And with just 30 minutes a day in these categories, you can see your engagement skyrocket in no time.
Want a detailed checklist of how to engage and when? My 5×5 Engagement Plan is the perfect tool for you! It outlines your exact step-by-step daily engagement plan on Instagram to grow and get seen by hundreds of new followers.
Check out these results from racers who used the 5×5 Instagram Engagement Plan!
Alex went from getting an average of 200 views on garage videos to now over 4,000 views!
Laura started posting carousels with purpose and her engagement has skyrocketed!
And Morgan created social media pages for her family’s race team and grew by 700 followers instantly!
By the end of 4 weeks, you can expect a major transformation in your engagement rate! >>> Get it HERE
