As you may or may not know, Instagram has a fun algorithm heavily rooted in user engagement that dictates what people see on their Instagram feed. The more people interact with your posts (i.e. like, comment or share), the more often you will appear on the Instagram feed. So, you could just bank on your great smile to drive engagement, but there are certain types of posts that drive greater engagement and will help you to show up more often on the feeds of your audience.

Audience Focused Content

Selfies don't sell, y'all! When you post, do not do it just for likes but consider what value you are adding to those who will view it and what will appeal to the people looking at your posts. Are you providing insight? Are you showing off new homes/areas that people may be unaware of? Are you updating your followers on the progress you are making? Have a purpose when posting so that your followers have a reason to hit the like button or leave a comment.

User-Generated Content

If high school psychology has taught anyone anything, it is that people love thinking about themselves. Reposting relevant content from your clients, like the closing of a house you worked on, is a great way for people to be able to consider how they too could hire you and also close on a great new home. Be sure to repost and tag the user who posted as well as the caption they posted with. Also, be sure to ask for permission to repost to your account to honor your clients and friends well.

Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories are perhaps the best way to get easy engagement. You can post polls, questions, and most recently quizzes to encourage engagement among your followers. You can even ask your followers what kind of content they like seeing on your Instagram! Engagement is also just calculated based on user-to-user interaction, so if someone responds to your stories often, your posts will also appear on their feed often.

Transparent Content

In a world full of perfectly polished social media posts, people love to see posts that are real. This plays into the fact that people like to be able to relate to content that they see and not feel so distant from what they are viewing. Posting real stories about people that you have worked with or challenges you have faced in your journey as a Realtor is a great way to drive engagement among your followers. This kind of content will likely generate a lot of comments as people relate to what you are posting and find it refreshing.

Collaborative Posts

This kind of post is especially easy and relevant if you are part of a team, but any Realtor can do it. Posting content in collaboration with vendors, Realtors, or clients is attractive to followers. It is the same concept as having all of the sides to a story, people like to gain as much perspective as possible on things that they are interested in. So, if you and another Realtor are at a great conference or workshop, team up and post a few Instagram stories or posts together on both accounts. You can also post with clients who you are close with and tell both sides of the story from beginning to the close on each of your accounts.

Engage With Your Engagements

If people are commenting and direct messaging you, respond! Engagement is not just your followers' job. You should be replying to posts and direct messages, even if it is just an emoji or a reaction. This engagement is factored into the algorithm and also encourages followers to continue engaging with you in the future.

Engagement is one of the concepts that people regularly overcomplicate. Consider the kinds of posts you often engage with and the content that you generally like to see, and then post accordingly from there. Follow these tips and become best friends with the Instagram posting algorithm!

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