Since the time when an Instagram algorithm has changed, posts on users’ news feed aren’t chronologically organized, in other words it doesn’t matter when a post was uploaded, now your posts’ ranking depends on their engagement rate.
It means that if your Instagram posts get bigger number of likes and comments, they will be on the top of followers’ feed and be discoverable by new Instagram users.
Actually in social media world there are two different types of engagements. The first, which includes likes, shares, it is easier to accomplish because only few clicks are needed.
However, the second type is about comments under posts, which requires a little bit longer process of interest and time investment from your followers.
When your posts get a lot of comments, it means that other Instagram users are involved in your content, interact with it and provide an opportunity to start a conversation with them while at the same time they are building value social connection.
We will discuss various methods on how to get more Instagram comments that you can implement today!
1. Make your Instagram profile public
The first important thing which you need to do is to make your Instagram account public, in other words make it open to other users who aren’t your followers. If your account’s content is discoverable by a large amount of Instagram users, it is much easier to get more comments. Having a public Instagram profile, you are showing a content to a target audience from all world who are actually your potential followers.
What is more, not all the time you will get positive comments, so be ready and for negative effects of a public account. The more users have access to your Instagram content, the more aware you need to be of what type of posts you are publishing and in what form you are showing it to a target audience.
2. To get more comments, you must publish at the right time
Although Instagram doesn’t show the posts in chronological order because of its changed algorithm, it doesn’t mean that you don’t need to keep in mind the time of a day when you are uploading your posts.
Actually, there are a lot of different opinions about the best posting time on social media and this is because it depends on your niche, your followers’ location and what type of content you are publishing.
In order to figure out what is the right time of day to upload your Instagram posts, or in other words when your followers are more willing to leave a comment under your posts, you can test by posting at different times throughout a week and then organize a posting schedule based on results.
According to social media analyses, posts that are uploaded at the most active time of your followers will get the higher engagement rate immediately and in the long term perspectives. Higher engagement will lift your posts to the top of other Instagram users’ feeds and in this way helps to increase posts’ visibility and receive bigger number of comments from potential followers.
3. Upload content which evokes conversations (call-to action)
Providing Instagram users a reason to comment under your post is a great strategy of provoking them to write their opinion, which will grow your content’s engagement. The best way how you can do it, is to publish posts with emotional, sentimental or somehow proactive caption or in order words use call-to-action in your caption.
As it is known that people are more likely to be involved when you ask them to get involved. So, for example, you may ask people to share their memories, thoughts about their dream vocations, favorite food and sports. What it more, you can share your opinion about beauty products and ask for advice.
Just find the topics that are related with your Instagram theme or a brand which you present and try to create a discussion. And probably you will be surprised how much you can get back from your followers.
4. Use relevant hashtags
To use relevant, popular Instagram hashtags in captions of your posts is significant thing in order to make your content discoverable for other Instagram users and increase an engagement level.
According to social media studies, posts which include at least one hashtag, receive 12% higher engagement.
It is recommended to make a research of hashtags in order to find out which are the most relevant and usable in your Instagram niche. Besides, you can follow the popular hashtags that probably will give you ideas how to organize your own tags.
All in all, never use more than 2-3 words in the same hashtag, add only relevant one and some popular in order to get maximum reach and increase your content’s comments.
5. Post images of people’s face
Results of social media researches show that posts which include human face have 32% higher possibility to get comments from Instagram followers and 38% bigger chance to collect likes. There is no general opinion why it happens, however researchers consider that a reason of this is that human faces are an effective, positive nonverbal communication which increases engagement level.
Even if an image contains only a part of the body, for instance a hand holding a product, the post’s engagement rate is higher than without.
However studies present that a number of faces on a photo, gender and age don’t have an influence on a reach.
Actually it should come without no surprise that posts with human faces or bodies showing brands receive more likes and comments or in others words higher engagement. This happens because this type of images looks more attractive and reliable for people as for them connection plays very important role in making a decision.
So, what does it mean for you? It means that you need to try this trick and see how your followers or even other Instagram users will be more involved in commenting and liking your posts.
6. Run a giveaway or contest
Host an Instagram contest or giving things away is an easy and smart strategy to encourage users to comment under your post.
For instance, you can run “comment to win” or “tag to win” contests. If users want to take a part, all they need to do is follow you and leave proper comment or tag a friend. Actually this type of contests will not only give you a lot of comments, but it will help to build stronger connection with existing followers, attract other Instagram users to become your followers.
What is more, don’t forget to increase visibility of your contest’s or giveaway’s post by adding popular and relevant to your niche hashtags.
Check out our another blog post “Benefits of Running Social Media Contests on Instagram” to learn how to properly run a giveaway/contest and get the best results.
7. Respond to comments
As you have already understood that in order to leave a comment under a post, for other Instagram users it takes a little bit of effort to come up with a good and suitable one. It means that they should think what and how they want to say and then spend a few minutes typing it.
In this case it is important to appreciate followers devoted time and effort by replying to their comments. If you do this, it will not only encourage them to leave more answers or just shortly comment your posts in the future, which accordingly will boost an engagement level, however it will help to make new strong relationships with potential followers.
All things considered, today we discussed useful and easy strategies which you can try to implement in order to be closer to your goal of starting to get more comments on Instagram.
If you test it out, you will notice that it works not only with comments, however due to your patience, efforts and positivity, your content’s engagement rate will boost, your account will become more discoverable by other Instagram users and you will build new connections.
