Likes are disappearing, influencers are losing popularity and TikTok is stealing fans. Yes, it’s been a turbulent year for Instagram with marketers wondering how to excite fans and measure traction. Here at Moondust we are optimistic about the future of the popular photo-sharing site. In this article, we are looking at how brands can get organic engagement on Instagram in 2020.

Before we begin, let’s look at the latest stats for Instagram:

· Instagram has 1 billion monthly active users. That means 1 in 7 people in the world has an active Insta account.

· Out of these one billion active monthly users, more than 80% follow at least one business account. That means there are 800 million people on Instagram who are viewing and engaging with branded content each month.

· There are over 25 million businesses on Instagram

· There are 500,000 active influencers on Instagram.

· 1/3 of the most viewed stories are from businesses.

· User-generated content has a 4.5% higher conversion rate.

· The IGTV app has 4.2 million installs worldwide.

What Does Engagement Look Like on Instagram?

Engagement on Instagram is higher than the other social media networks. In fact, significantly so. Check out the Mercedes Benz case study. However, achieving organic engagement and growth can be difficult for smaller brands. The average engagement rate on Instagram is 4.7%. Most marketers will agree that this compares favourably to Facebook which, since it’s algorithm change, can often leave pages with a measly 0.09%.

But Instagram is also getting tough. The platform has cracked down on spammy marketing tactics, dishonest adverts and buying likes and fans, something that is still common practice. Of course, when you buy fans, you don’t have a community or engagement; you have fake followers from a “click farm”. It might look good, but it won’t equal sales or future engagement. Users are also getting more savvy and can spot bot likes and comments on brand posts. Here’s an example of bot placed engagement:

So, how can you improve your Instagram engagement without spending money or breaking the rules? Here are our top tips.

#1 Start Researching Hashtags

A common mistake brands make is not understanding the power of hashtags on Instagram. Many brands just add a few hashtags for show and wonder why they don’t get much engagement. The truth is, for every product and service on Instagram, there’s a set of hashtags. By using these, you will attract the right audience for your product or service.

Example - A restaurant might just use #food #restaurant #foodie where in fact the below hashtags are gaining the most traction:

#restaurant #food #foodporn #foodie #instafood #dinner #bar #lunch #delicious #chef #yummy #instagood #cafe #foodphotography #foodlover #hotel #foodstagram #wine #pizza #foodblogger #love #restaurante #eat #drinks #travel #like #cocktails #tasty #foodies #beer #italianfood #ristorante #gourmet #paris #party #restaurants #dessert #menu #summer #seafood #breakfast #picoftheday #sushi #cuisine #healthyfood #goodfood #coffee #design #cooking #gastronomie #photooftheday #pasta #lounge #comida #gastronomia #kitchen

The most popular are detailed below:

Marketing Tips

The Moondust team has a few hashtag tips ready and waiting.

Keep a excel with hashtag groups listed. This will save you time creating them from scratch for every post. Experiment with different combinations of these hashtags to find out what works best.
Compare engagement figures using different hashtags. Which get the most? Do certain hashtags generate more organic click throughs? Keep track of these.
Instagram allows 30 hashtags, but this can look cluttered. Aim for 10-15 per post.
Include branded hashtags in each group. You can also add a branded hashtag in your bio for visibility.

The Shed BBQ uses #TheShedBBQ in its hashtags.

#2 Write Better Captions

Yes, we said it. Content matters on Instagram and putting pretty photos won’t cut it without a good caption. The issue is, many brands focus solely on photography and forget to encourage the reader to take the next step. Unless you’re an influencer with a million plus followers, a blank caption or single emoji just won’t cut it. Having a powerful caption and strong call-to-action (CTA) is crucial to drive action from your post. It’s also key to building a stronger, more interactive relationship with your audience.

Death Wish Coffee on Instagram hits the mark when it comes to captions. Funny, descriptive but also driving action, the brand knows how to sell products.

A brand nailing longer storytelling captions on Instagram is AirBNB.

The brand intersperses fun facts, local information and storytelling with a smooth upsell of their properties. AirBNB also runs mini-series like the one below featuring trending destinations. This creates intrigue and spurs repeat views.

Marketing Tips

Your grammar and spelling must be on point. It doesn’t matter how edgy your brand is. You won’t get a pass on typos.
A longer caption stops scrollers in their tracks and gets them to pay attention to your message.
Split up longer text with emojis and paragraph breaks.
Include a CTA and link if you are trying to drive web traffic or sales. Users usually won’t bother to search for your brand, they will just move on.
Use the right keywords in your captions. Well optimised social media helps you to rank organically on the search engines too.
Your Instagram caption can be up to 2,200 characters long, but we don’t suggest you use them all, unless you really have something great to say!

#3 Start Utilising Stories

As they disappear after 24 hours, stories are great for more authentic content. Specifically, backstage sneak peeks, event launches, product secrets, behind the scenes and updates. Stories are one of the newer features of Instagram and we know plenty of brands who still haven’t used them at all. But if you want to boost your Instagram engagement, it’s time to start. Story views are increasing every year, currently averaging around 500 million views per day and that’s not all.

Nearly 1.7 billion accounts use the Stories format daily.
¼ Millennials and Gen Zs look for Stories of products and services they want to buy.
15%–25% of users swipe up on a link in branded Stories
59% of brands link Instagram Stories to a shoppable page.

Example: National Geographic

Yes, their photos are beautiful, and everyone loves nature, but National Geographic goes above and beyond for organic engagement. And it does so using Stories. Using behind the scenes pics, fun facts, polls and quizzes, NatGeo stays true to its educational mission.

From interesting facts about how a bald eagle hunts its prey. To talking about free solo rock climbing. Their creative Instagram Stories are packed with interesting and engaging content.

Marketing Tips

Use the interactive features to engage with your audience, e.g. with polls and by asking questions.
Use hashtags in your Stories to expose your brand to large audiences, if you’re lucky, your story might be featured in the hashtag’s highlight reel.
Use geotags in your Stories to build your following in a specific location. This is especially useful for offline services like local hair salons or service-based businesses.
If you’re at an expo or roadshow then tag the area you’re visiting for added views.
Add Stories to your highlight reel to preserve them after they have been deleted. You can segregate your highlights section to group similar stories together. For example: Product Reviews/ Fun Facts / Q&A / Product Updates / Hot New Stock. If you want your highlights to look professional, use specifically designed icons as you would on YouTube playlist thumbnails.
Promote your Instagram Live on your Stories in advance if you want to ensure high view rates. You can try a countdown a few days prior to streaming with an incentive or offer code to build hype.

#4: Encourage Instagram Engagement With Puzzles

Nothing sparks engagement like a riddle or puzzle. Users feel compelled to solve it, share it, tag friends or comment to ask for help. In our case, exclaim loudly to the office that no we cannot see the dolphin in the magic eye picture! Research shows that participating in activities results in better recall than simply talking about them. Additionally, puzzles engage people longer and make your brand more memorable.

Example - Casper Mattresses

Mattress brand Casper’s core value proposition is relaxation and good sleep. So, the brand creates relaxing, tiring puzzles to aid rest and relaxation. This is completely organic as there are no prizes offered. Just the thrill of having solved a puzzle, ensures that users share and comment like crazy.

The below post got 3.8k+ likes and 90+ comments.

Casper also posts animated rebus puzzles to their Instagram feed and Stories and in ads. This animated rebus pulled in 20k+ views.

Marketing Tips

The puzzle posts you create for Instagram should tie in with your overall brand message. Think about the colours, fonts and themes you choose.
Be consistent with your puzzle posting. Once per week is great but keep it to the same day and time to snare engagement.
Be sure to post answers later or drive traffic to your website to view puzzle solutions. Failing to post answers or updates will annoy users.

#5 Start conversations with Stickers

Our last Instagram engagement tip is perhaps our favourite, and one that’s sure to take off even more in 2020. Instagram Stories stickers are the ultimate engagement tool for brands, regardless of their business sector. They actively encourage questions, opinions and votes and so they are useful for brands looking to learn more about their audience. There are nine main stickers that are useful in marketing:

Countdown - Promote an important event for your brand and create hype around it with Countdown stickers.
Shopping – Enter a new age of social media with Shopping Stickers. For years, shopping on Insta meant looking at a post, going to a link in the bio, finding the product again, and purchasing it. Now fans can shop directly on the platform. Your business profile must be connected to a Facebook catalog with an Instagram business account and it should comply with Instagram’s rules.
Mention – Mention stickers allow you to tag another user in your stories. When someone taps on the sticker, they'll be taken to the tagged user's profile. Great for some local business or influencer collab.
Donation - When using the donation stickers, non-profits will receive 100% of the proceeds made through them with no fees. This is a great engagement tool for brands to use too!
Questions - Improve engagement with your fans by asking questions. Users that answered your questions can be qualified as warm leads and you can later convert them with targeted ads or conversion emails.
Poll - Poll stickers are another way to ask your audience questions and gain valuable insights into their likes and dislikes.
Emoji sliders - Ask users a question that they can answer with a slider (i.e. on a scale of 1 to 10), such as “how much do you love our new red lipstick?” You can choose an emoji to represent their response, and users will be able to see the average after they give their vote.
Music - Add background music to your images or videos from Spotify. This grabs attention when users flick through their feed and click on your post.
Location - Tag a location in your story to expand your reach. When users tap on it, they’ll see a feed of other content with the same location tag.

Starbucks uses Questions Stickers in its Instagram marketing:

Marketing Tips

Stick to the relevant stickers for your brand and posts. For example, a high street store adding Halloween decorations could add some creepy music to a video.
Keep Questions short and simple. Never try to ask two things at once as you will confuse users. If you gain useful data, be sure to share it with your internal teams.
Shopping stickers are a must for online retailers. Be sure to add useful descriptions, sizes and captions with your photos.

We couldn’t possibly wrap up our 2020 guide to getting organic Instagram engagement without looking at the most liked post of 2019. This year it was the 'Friends' Reunion Insta post which was Jen’s debut on the photo-sharing app. It currently has 15.4 million likes.

Did you enjoy reading The 2020 Guide To Getting Organic Instagram Engagement? If you did then be sure to hit share. Ready to take your Instagram marketing up a level? Speak to the Moondust team for expert social media marketing.