Want to know what of the biggest reasons your followers might not be engaged with your content?
You keep ghosting them!
Let me set the scene: You're getting ready to post to IG, you've got your caption written, your photo chosen, and you've got some really engaging and inspiring things to share (plus, well-targeted hashtags, of course). You hit the post button, you exit IG on your phone (or you have the post scheduled through an app) and don't pick up your phone again until the next time you go to post or schedule something.
When you're looking to grow your IG account and build a loyal, trusting following, sticking around to respond to comments is KEY 🗝.
Waiting to respond to comments is like leaving your best friend’s texts on read. Which you would never do, right?
We don’t necessarily allow ourselves to stay available for a period of time after we post. And during that time, it’s important to stay engaged for a number of reasons:
The people who are commenting and liking your photos are real people. *Mic drop*
You know that phrase, “Treat people how you want to be treated” ? Well, I think the same can be said for followers. Treat your Instagram followers how you would like to be treated. If you opt to do the post-n-peace, answering comments days or even weeks later, over time you’re going to teach the people who are leaving comments on your feed that their comments aren’t important to you. Simply that you don’t have time for them. What kind of message does that send?
Hint: not a good one.
When you post, just be available at some point during the day and respond to your followers. Ignore them, and you are teaching them to ignore you and you don’t want that.
Instagram decides to increase your reach based on responsiveness and relationship.
When you’re staying online and responding to comments, you’re also showing that you have a dynamic relationship with your followers and that your content is valuable and this influences the algorithm.
The Instagram algorithm responds to your behavior. By staying online and responding to comments, you are showing that you have a dynamic relationship with your followers. It also shows that your content is relevant if it is being commented on. When you are responding back, your followers are showing that they find value in what it is you are posting.
Instagram chooses whom to show content to based on the responsiveness of the people it has shown your content to already. So for example, if Instagram showed your post to 20 people and 18 of those people liked it and 10 of those people commented, the algorithm would then determine that content as high value and interesting to a broader audience. That piece of content would be shown to 20 more people. It would keep repeating this process over and over, dwindling and stopping once it has maximized its reach.
Let’s circle back to how this is connected to why we don’t want to ghost our followers.
If you’re not there to continue driving the conversation, which demonstrates to the algorithm the value of that piece of content, then you’re kinda shootin’ yourself in the foot. Stay engaged and respond to comments thoughtfully.
The takeaway? Always try to respond or acknowledge comments left on your posts, especially when a user leaves a particularly heartfelt, vulnerable one. When you see a lengthy comment, don’t hit them with some emojis or hearts. Read what they had to say and respond accordingly. The way you respond in your comments teaches your followers how you want to be spoken to.
If you want to have highly engaged comments, be highly engaged!