Quick Tips For Mastering Instagram (IGTV, Story, Polls) To Keep Your Followers Engaged

There are tons of resources out there showing you how to use Instagram (how to make a post, tag relevant people and businesses, and use hashtags to maximize reach). That's not what we're going to cover in this blog post. Rather, we're going to be tackling some of Instagram's lesser-known or lesser-used features: IGTV, Instagram Story, and Instagram Polls. These three features are great ways to amp up engagement with your followers and change up your content for the better. Keep reading for some quick tips to keep your followers engaged and while you’re at it, don’t forget to check out EME’s Instagram page here!

IGTV

• As long as you have an Instagram account, you can be a creator on IGTV.

• IGTV allows you to upload videos that are up to 60 minutes long (though we suggest keeping it much shorter than that). These videos are fit for watching on your phone, so they're vertical, which also means that you can take these videos using your own phone camera.

• What makes IGTV worth putting time and energy into? One of the most important things businesses need to keep in mind with their social media strategy is to engage with their followers. Your followers will be more likely to check out your website or click on your affiliate link if you appear to them as more than just a product or service. There’s a whole team of people behind your brand—not robots! IGTV allows you to tap into and showcase that side of your brand.

• Upload short videos of behind-the-scenes footage, interviews with employees, and Q&As with fans and followers. You put in a lot of effort curating the perfect Instagram feed with impressive photos that you're proud of, but IGTV can be a great opportunity to be more relaxed. Especially if you're going to be giving a tutorial, IGTV is the best way to show not tell.

• Additionally, if you're considering making videos a staple for your brand, IGTV is a super easy (easier than starting a whole YouTube channel) and casual (filming yourself on your phone instead of hiring a videographer) way to start making videos today.

• EME Founder Emily Martin has been doing virtual wine tastings on IGTV. Check them out here!

Instagram Story

• Instagram Stories stay on your feed for 24 hours and they're a great way to engage with your followers more personally. Why not make a "Day In My Life" video and upload snapshots of your day to your Instagram Story? You can even save your Instagram Stories and archive them so people can see them in the future.

Instagram Polls

• You can create a poll on your Instagram Story by selecting the sticker icon.

• Polls are a great way to have fun with your followers and also glean valuable information.

  • A lighthearted poll could be a harmless question like "What outfit should I wear tomorrow?" along with images of your options. Or, you could ask your followers a question like “Best coffee shops in Austin, TX?” and collect their answers.

  • After that, you could repost some of their answers with your own comments! This is such a good way to signal to your followers that you want to engage with them and that they have valuable insights too.

  • You can even use Instagram Polls and Q&As to gauge what your followers want to see next. Send out a survey on your Instagram Story to your followers asking for suggestions on what kind of content they want to see. The answers you gain will be super valuable, especially since people are probably more likely to respond to a quick Instagram Story rather than a link to a Google Form at the bottom of a weekly email newsletter. This way, you can make it even easier for your followers to engage with you, in the best way possible!

These are just a few tips for how you can level up your Instagram usage and really maximize all of its features. Remember, in this day and age, we're always being bombarded with new content, so it's becoming even more important to keep your brand at the forefront of your followers' minds. This means not only creating meaningful, valuable content that your followers want to see, but also engaging with them on a regular basis, in new and fresh ways. These three quick tips are a great starting point, so don't hesitate to check them out and play around with them. In the end, these are great tools that can help you accelerate your reach to new heights.

For more tips about how to maximize your Instagram usage, check out our article about Instagram best practices here.