How to Get More Engagement On Instagram: 14 Tips (2025)

If you go on Reddit or any marketing forums online, you’ll see a common trend among posters: “Instagram engagement is dying.” Engagement is down for a lot of creators, but there are still plenty who receive tons of likes, comments and shares every time they post.

But they take a different approach and focus heavily on getting more engagement by doing all of the right things.

We’re going to share actionable tips on how to get more engagement on Instagram fast. But before we do, keep the following data in mind:

If you have engaging content and follow the tips below, there’s no reason that your engagement will stay low. Over two billion people use Instagram each month, and you can reach them with the right approach.

14 Tips to Increase Instagram Engagement in 2025

You can integrate all of the tips below into your social media growth strategy, but you can also pick and choose the ones most relevant to you. We’re going to start with one that will help you get a lot of engagement fast – video.

1. Focuses More on Video Creation 🎥

Video is a lot of work. You can spend days filming, editing and finding ways to repurpose video content, but you can also make fast videos like Gary Vee. Your niche will dictate how easy or hard it is to begin creating video content.

But one thing remains the same: video gets tons of engagement.

It’s estimated that 91% of active users on Instagram watch some type of video. If you can tell a story or make the viewer feel like you connect with them on a deep level, you’ll see your engagement rise.

And the good news is that you don’t have to be a master videographer. Start recording videos of things you’re doing or your day-to-day processes, and post them. Over time, you’ll hone your editing skills and will enjoy higher engagement on Instagram as a result.

2. Track Engagement for Posts and Adjust 📊

One mistake we see creators make is that they keep creating and never look at the data. At this point, you should have access to insights on your account’s Professional Dashboard. You want to view your content insights, which you can refine to:

Data is your friend. View your posts to see which are performing best and try to dissect what it is about these posts that people like. It could be that video does well for you or posts about a specific topic perform much better than others.

Take note of these variables and find what’s really working to increase your engagement. But also take a hard look at the posts that are underperforming and try to eliminate these types of posts.

You want every post you create to be an engagement magnet.

3. Buy Engagement to Get the Ball Rolling

Engagement is hard to come by for new accounts. You might have tons of followers who see and like your posts, but they never actually hit the like button, nor do they leave comments. It’s a predicament that a lot of creators find themselves in.

If we were starting new accounts, we would buy:

And we wouldn’t feel bad about it. Even a small number of likes can help you rapidly increase engagement. However, if you follow this tip, we recommend that you properly vet each service provider you use to avoid buying fake engagement.

4. Commit to Posting Consistently

Consistency is key for social media growth and engagement. We have all followed someone who used to post often and then they just stopped. Sometimes, these people have hundreds of thousands or millions of followers, but they just go silent.

And when this person posts again in six months, engagement is understandably lower.

Followers follow you because you have something to offer with the content that you create. If you post consistently, it will do a few things:

Statistics show that the best postings frequency are:

If you can’t reach this posting frequency, create a schedule that you can follow over the long term.

5. Start the Conversation by Engaging with Other Instagrammers

Engagement is a two-way street. Dedicate some time each day, even 20 minutes, to start:

Comments are one of the most powerful forms of engagement possible and help creators forge deeper relationships with others. You’ll be shocked by how a single comment can lead to new followers and higher engagement.

6. Don’t Sleep on Hashtags and Location Tags

Hashtags may not be as necessary as they once were, but they’re still very powerful tools to get your posts noticed. People follow hashtags, likely yourself included, so take the time to find hashtags to add to each of your posts.

Something as simple as 3 – 5 hashtags should do the trick. But make sure that all of the tags are relevant.

And while you’re at it, don’t be afraid to use location tags. If you are in a city with thousands or millions of people, you can add the location where you took the picture or video. When people browse through these locations and see your posts, they may even like or comment on them.

7. Start Telling Stories With Your Content

Posts about your cat or what you ate for lunch are great. You can connect with your followers with these posts, but they’re not as powerful as storytelling. People love a good story, and if you can tell it, you’ll get more engagement on Instagram.

For example, let’s assume that you’re a dog trainer and you show a good boy graduating from your training.

Reimagine this post as something like this:

If you create a story with your posts, whether it’s through a series of posts or in a single video, your chance of engagement is much higher.

8. Be Strategic on the Times When You Post 🕒

If you want to increase your engagement, you have to post regularly. But it’s equally as important to make sure that you’re posting at the right time.

Why?

Your audience is more active on Instagram at certain times of the day. If you’re consistently posting when your audience is offline, you’ll struggle to get likes, shares and comments.

When is the best time to post? That depends on your niche and where your audience is located. Instagram Insights can help you understand when your audience is most active on Instagram.

But as a general rule of thumb, users tend to be most active on Instagram between 9 AM and 3 PM on weekdays.

9. Recreate Some of Your Top Posts

Instagram Insights can provide you with a wealth of information that you can use to improve your content and engagement.

Use this data to dissect your top-performing posts and attempt to recreate some of them. Don’t just repost this content. Rather, try approaching the topic from a different angle.

But before you dive in, take the time to analyze your content to see why it got so much engagement. Was it the format? The topic? What do your top-performing posts have in common?

Once you have a better idea of why your content performed so well, you can recreate these posts with a fresh perspective and incorporate the elements that made it resonate with your audience.

10. Add Interactive Elements To Your Stories

Instagram equips you with so many awesome tools to make your content engaging, including interactive elements like:

These are fun ways to get your followers to interact with your content.

Try adding these elements to your stories and watch how quickly your engagement rate increases.

And pay attention to the answers your followers give. Take notes and create future content based on their preferences to keep them engaged and interested.

11. Cross Promote Across Your Social Networks

Do you have accounts on other social networks? If so, you can leverage your followings on these platforms to boost your Instagram engagement.

How? By promoting your Instagram content across these platforms.

For example, if you have accounts on X and Facebook, you can direct your followers on these networks to your posts on Instagram. This strategy is a simple way to boost engagement, but make sure that you’re doing this in a tactful way.

12. Collab With Influencers in Your Niche 🤝

One simple and effective way to get more engagement is to collab with other influencers in your niche. Reach out to other influencers with large followings to see if they’d be interested in creating content together.

When you collab with another Instagrammer, your posts will be displayed on both of your feeds. This means that their audience will also see your post and your Instagram handle. If your collab partner has a large following, your post may get tons of engagement. You may even get more followers and engagement on other posts.

To maximize the benefits of a collaboration, choose your partner wisely. Make sure it’s someone who will resonate with and appeal to your audience. When creating a post together, also make sure that it’s something that both of your audiences will enjoy and find valuable.

It’s easy to collab with others on Instagram.

When creating a post:

It’s that easy! Collaborating regularly with the right people can keep your engagement high while providing your audience with valuable content.

13. Double Down on Your Caption Writing

What do the top influencers and brands have in common? Their caption game is strong.

Your post captions are the perfect opportunity to encourage your followers and anyone viewing your content to take action. Action can be in the form of leaving a comment or liking your post.

Here’s a great example of how you can leverage captions to drive engagement:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Emily Henderson (@em_henderson)

This Instagrammer, who partnered with Spoonflower for this post, adds a CTA to her caption: “ if you want us to DM you a direct link comment WALLPAPER.” That one simple addition to her caption encouraged so many people to comment on her post, boosting her engagement immediately.

You can take a similar approach to your captions. Ask people to share their experiences in the comments. You can even direct people to leave a specific comment to share their opinions. For example, “Comment with a 💙 if you love this idea.”

You’ll be amazed by how effective a CTA is when added to your Instagram caption.

14. Host Giveaways or Contests

Giveaways and contests are almost guaranteed to boost your engagement. Why? Because everyone loves free things. They generate buzz, but by nature, they require people to interact with your posts.

To maximize the engagement benefits of this type of content, make sure that you require people to enter by:

You can require all four of these, or you can just require one or two of these actions. In any case, anyone wanting to enter your giveaway will need to engage with your content.

We highly recommend requiring people to share your post to enter because this will be the best way to skyrocket your engagement and reach.

Increasing your engagement on Instagram is crucial if your goal is to land brand deals and start generating income through your social presence. These 14 strategies will help you naturally increase engagement with your community and naturally attract new followers to your account.