Ways to Get More Comments on Instagram
1. Host a Giveaway or Contest
A fun way to get followers to comment on your page is by hosting an Instagram contest or giveaway. The mechanics are simple: just ask people to join the contest by commenting on your post. You can make the contest a week long campaign, so more and more users comment each day.
Eagles Nest Outfitters asks their followers to share their hammock adventures through a photo contest. As you can see a lot of their followers have commented on their feed even though they didn’t specifically ask them to, no doubt growing their audience in the process.
2. Ask People to Engage
The simplest way of getting more Instagram comments is just asking for them.
You can use your captions to interact with your followers, especially with questions for them to answer or themes for them to add to. You can caption your posts with simple questions like “Agree or disagree?” or “Hot or Not?” to encourage responses and earn more comments.
You can also ask them to tag their friends or someone that can relate to your post. Simply say, “Tag your best friend that you want to take here” or “tag someone who wants to go here.”
Fashion blogger Vern Enciso would often ask her followers about the outfit they prefer in her Instagram captions. This encourages her followers to answer with their own opinions in the comments section.
This strategy works great for her because her fans care deeply about the same kinds of things that she does, and they’re willing to voice their opinions. Figure out what your own followers care about and work with that.
3. Host an Instagram Takeover
If you want to keep the comments coming you have to give your followers fresh content. One great way of doing this by hosting an Instagram takeover.
This usually involves inviting an influential person to take over your feed for a day and post from their point of view. It should be mutually beneficial – you should get new exposure to the influencer’s fans, and they should gain more attention (or monetary compensation) by working with you.
Here, Buffer used Instagram takeovers as a way to showcase the personalities of some of their employees. There are a lot of different kinds of Instagram takeovers – what would work for you?
4. Post Videos
People love videos, and are watching them at an ever-increasing rate.
Instagram gives you 60 seconds to woo your audience in videos, and this is a great way to garner more comments.
Post engaging videos that will get your followers to stop scrolling through their busy feeds and actually watch your video. The key is to share compelling content. You can ask a follow-up question or include a call-to-action right in the video to encourage people to comment.
5. Post something Funny, Surprising, or Provocative
According to research from the Harvard Business Review, some of the most viral content on the internet provokes high-arousal emotions. It surprises the viewer, moves them to tears, creates anticipation, and provokes uncertainty.
The most common feeling described was joy. So if you’re looking to capture people’s emotions (and along with that, their attention) make sure that you can occasionally hit those emotional high notes. Emotions connect people of all different kinds, so you can use this to pique the interest of people who might not normally be interested in your brand.
Fuckjerry by Elliot Tebele has over 12.2 million followers because of his funny posts. The comment sections are usually highly active, as people are tagging their friends to see their posts and express themselves.
