The fashion brand's Instagram dream: More engagement with less content
Pumping out content is not the only way to keep your audience engaged and growing. Step away from that Canva template and close your content calendar. This is how responsible fashion folk like you can get more engagement without creating more content.
Your Instagram isn’t a glossy magazine and it’s not a broadcast; it’s a two-way conversation.
Hot tip: If you want more engagement, engage and be engaging.
You’ve worked hard to grow that brilliant Instagram community of yours so remember to give them a little love, get to know you a bit more and keep you in their radar.
The chances are that if they’re following you, it’s because they like the cut of your jib and therefore you’ll have something in common, meaning there are plenty of opportunities to listen and meaningfully engage with them on their content.
And here’s the good news: You’re already doing some of these without thinking about it when you’re mindlessly scrolling through your Insta late at night. But now it’s time to get intentional about it.
These tactics will help you to nurture those who are following you and find new, like-minded accounts to grow your online community.
Nurture
Engage with followers who haven’t engaged for a while.
Click on your followers, scroll down and take a look at some accounts you haven’t seen engage with you for a while.
Be genuine: You’re in fashion, right? There are plenty ‘o selfies of your ideal clients and customers wearing something fabulous that you love. Give them a big old compliment about it. It’s easy to do when it’s genuine. And let’s face it, everyone likes a compliment now and then.
Engage with accounts in the feed.
You’re already doing this, so this is easy peasy to do with some intention (or strategy) behind it. If someone in your feed is already your customer, give them some love with a genuine comment on their post.
Engage with people who have watched your stories.
After you’ve posted a story and before it disappears, check the last story to see who viewed it and hung around until the end. Take a scroll through their feed, read their last couple of posts and if you see something that you connect with, let them know. Don’t just drop an emoji in there though, that’s reserved for bots.
Engage with other people on their stories.
This one is a no brainer. Watch stories, click on the poll, send a love heart eye emoji, be a good and giving Insta citizen.
Tag your followers on content you think they’ll enjoy.
This one is such an easy way to make someone feel special. If you know that Rina loves mauve and leopard print, tag her in the photo of that mauve leopard print t-shirt. Gold star for you!
Fed up with the slow drip of new followers and lukewarm engagement? Time to go exploring…
There are people out there waiting for you to show up, because they want what you’ve got to offer. And why would they not? It’s pretty damn special, right?
So it’s time to go down an Instagram rabbit hole and find your people, start a conversation and invite them into your community.
WARNING: While you’re meandering the digital laneways, there’s a very real danger that you’ll stumble on accounts you love and end up making a purchase or three (maybe that’s just me though).
GROW
Engage with people in the comments of other content
Conversation is queen here, folks. If you click with a piece of content, chances are you’ll click with some of the people in the comments too. Remember the number one rule though: be genuine.
Explore a hashtag you use and engage with some of the great content you find in there.
That’s what hashtags are for, right? Discovering cool accounts and creating communities.
Engage with people who have watched your stories.
Do you look at the list of who has watched your stories? Time to start clicking on accounts you don’t recognise and see if they’re your kinda people.
Hit the Search & Explore function and take a wander.
This is the ultimate rabbit hole to get lost in and you never know who and what you’ll find in there.
quality over quantity
A final note about content.
These engagement tactics will undoubtedly bring people to your profile so make sure you give them a reason to stay a while and look around. The better quality your content, the longer they’ll stick around to consume it and the more they’ll invest in your story.
It’s far better to post two high quality, value-packed pieces of content each week that ten mediocre posts hashtagged #mood
Even better if your content is evergreen and holds value long after you post it.
You may also like to read about how fashion brand can use Instagram carousels for richer storytelling and better engagement.
If you’re hashtagging on the hop because sitting down to create a hashtag strategy feels like too much work, then I’ve got something for you in the Shop 👉🏼