How an Instagram Virtual Assistant can increase your Instagram Engagement Rate and Followers

A strong Instagram engagement rate is a key factor in Instagram’s algorithm, so the higher your page’s engagement the more likely you’ll be prioritised in the newsfeed of your followers. This is why we recommend hiring an Instagram Virtual Assistant to not only manage and schedule  your Instagram content, but also to carry out daily Instagram engagement activities so that your page can grow organically and reach more potential leads. Watch our latest YouTube video from our Marketing Manager, Annie, below, or keep reading for a more in-depth guide to Instagram engagement.

Before you get started with Instagram Engagement

Just in case your Instagram Profile isn’t already optimised for maximum reach and exposure, we highly recommend you download Annie’s Instagram Checklist and share this with your Instagram Virtual Assistant so they can tick off all the basics before getting started on Instagram engagement.

How to NOT grow your Instagram Engagement

Your Instagram engagement must come from likes, shares, comments and other actions from real people who actually are interested in your products or services. In fact, Sprout Social found that 76% of customers will likely buy your products and services over a competitor’s when they feel connected to your brand.

This is why you should never inflate your Instagram Followers and engagement with: 

• Engagement groups or pods 
• Automated bots 
• Buy likes and followers

These are only band aid solutions to the problem that will ultimately just skew your Instagram engagement rate numbers …or even worse.. result in Instagram banning your account for breaching their community rules. 

What is a good Instagram Engagement Rate? 

Most social media marketing experts agree that strong engagement falls around 1% to 5% (according to Hootsuite’s study in 2020). This is calculated by the following formula: 

However, Instagram engagement rates are also industry specific, so calculate your Instagram engagement rate now as a benchmark and aim to improve that number with your Instagram Virtual Assistant using Instagram engagement strategies. 

As a general guideline, here’s a summary of Instagram Engagement in 2021 by Industries in Australia by SproutSocial:

Things to keep in mind before you start Instagram engagement with a Virtual Assistant

Before we get into the Instagram engagement techniques, here are rules to keep in mind in order to avoid your page being blocked or banned by Instagram:

• Don’t like more than 10 likes per hour: Although every user is able to like 1,000 posts per day, some accounts might be banned after 800 likes so a safe rule of thumb is to stick to 10 likes per hour. 
• Don’t leave more than 12 comments per hour: Don’t overdo it with post comments and don’t copy and paste the same comments to pages. Your comments must always be over 4 words in length and be unique and genuine. 
• Don’t follow more than 10 accounts per hour: Every account is allowed a maximum of 100-150 follows per day.
  

Don’t do any of the above activities too quickly, intervals of 350 – 400 seconds, will be flagged with Instagram so it’s best to spread out your interactions so that you’re not mistaken for a bot or automation.

Instagram Engagement Techniques for your Instagram Virtual Assistant

Now that you’re on top of how Instagram prioritises content, here are the Instagram engagement techniques for your Instagram Virtual Assistant to use in order to grow your engagement, followers and reach organically. 

Connect with your leads

1. When a lead has left an enquiry, subscribed to emails or downloaded a lead magnet from the website, your Instagram Virtual Assistant should have some useful information available such as: 
   • Name 
   • Email 
   • Company Name 
2. Using these details, your Instagram Virtual Assistant can search for your leads on Instagram (personal or business page) and follow them using your Business’ Instagram Account 
3. Keep these leads warm by turning on notifications for their page so that you’re alerted every time they upload new content 
4. When there’s new content from these leads, make meaningful interactions with this content such as: 
   • Like the post: Make sure you don’t overdo it by liking every single post, spread out your likes so that they seem organic and natural
   • Leave a comment: Avoid generic or spam comments, always say something genuine and related to the post
     

     

Engage with and share user generated content

Remember that social media is a conversation, it’s not just a one-way street for you to constantly talk about yourself all the time. So here are the activities your Instagram Virtual Assistant can do to naturally engage with your audience:

• Repost or share audience content: If one of your followers or a page that you follow shares useful information that is relevant to your audience, share it to your stories or repost it to your account. Make sure you tag their page and give them the credit they deserve so that your brand builds a relationship with their page too. 
• Like and comment on posts: While your Instagram Virtual Assistant scrolls through your newsfeed, make sure to interact by liking and leaving genuine comments on posts. Where possible, create a comment thread by asking a question or starting a conversation.
• Send direct messages: If there is an opportunity to reach out to another page, your Instagram Virtual Assistant can send a DM to the page to create meaningful interactions. 
• React to stories: React to stories, respond to polls within stories, ask questions on Question stickers – be as involved as possible on other pages!

Respond to all comments and messages

Don’t let your conversations go to waste! Make sure that you are active and responding quickly to any Instagram engagement that you receive: 

• Respond to all post comments: As soon as you upload a new Instagram post, if you receive a comment on your post make sure your Instagram Virtual Assistant likes the comment and replies to it instantly 
• Respond to all Direct Messages: Your Instagram Virtual Assistant should also regularly monitor your Instagram Inbox and respond to all messages as soon as possible. The longer you take to reply, the colder your lead gets. 
• Check all inboxes: Instagram splits your messages into 3 inboxes, make sure your Instagram Virtual Assistant checks all of them: 
  • Primary
  • General
  • Requests (View all requests) 
• Respond to all mentions: If another page has shared your content in their stories or posts, make sure you like and comment on the post or send them a Direct Message to thank them for featuring you on their channel

Follow relevant Instagram Pages

Your Instagram Virtual Assistant should keep a finger on the pulse and follow Instagram Pages from the following categories: 

• Potential leads 
• Pages you want to be associated with 
• Industry news and updates 

These pages can be found through the following Instagram research methods: 

• Your competitors: Look at who’s following your competitor’s pages and follow leads that are active and engaged on Instagram
• Your hashtags: Your Instagram Virtual Assistant should have a list of industry relevant or trending hashtags. They can search through the posts using the same hashtags to find relevant accounts to follow. 
• Explore Page: While your Instagram Virtual Assistant is looking through the Explore page, there may be relevant content from accounts to follow. 
• Location Tags: Browse through the location tags where your leads are likely to be located and find relevant accounts to follow. Your Instagram Virtual Assistant may want to consider using locations from your client list too. 

Your Social Media Virtual Assistant must switch it up, never overdo it! 

Something to be mindful of for Instagram engagement is to not overdo it. Don’t do consecutive similar engagements too quickly, instead, your Instagram Virtual Assistant should switch up between engaging with comments, direct messages, hashtags and location tags so show that you’re not spamming Instagram otherwise your account will be blocked.

Overall there are so many ways to improve your Instagram engagement rate organically using an Instagram Virtual Assistant. It’s important to work with your Instagram Virtual Assistant on how to best engage on behalf of your Instagram Business page.