How to Increase Social Media Engagement by Being More Human
You’re posting. You’re hashtagging. You’re dutifully following the “gurus” and churning out content.
And you’re getting crickets.
A few pity-likes from your mum and your most loyal employee. A spam comment about crypto. The silence is deafening. You’re stuck on the content treadmill, running faster and faster just to stay in the same place.
Let’s be honest. Most advice on how to increase social media engagement is utter rubbish. It’s a collection of short-term “hacks,” algorithm tricks that change next Tuesday, and bland platitudes like “be authentic.”
This isn’t that.
This is a dose of reality. Engagement isn't the goal; it's a symptom. It’s the direct result of providing undeniable value and starting actual conversations. If you want more engagement, you need to stop chasing it and start earning it.
Let's sort this out.
- Engagement is a symptom of value; focus on providing real insights and fostering conversations.
- Prioritize meaningful interactions: DMs, saves, shares, comments, and likes in that order.
- Content should educate, inspire, entertain, or connect, rather than merely promote products.
- Maintain platform-specific strategies; adapt your content to fit each channel's unique style and audience.
What is ‘Engagement’ (and What it Isn’t)
Before you can increase engagement, you have to aim at the right target. For years, businesses have been conditioned to chase vanity metrics.
Likes are the most passive form of feedback possible. A double-tap requires zero cognitive load. Follower count is even worse; it’s a number that can be bought, bloated by bots, and has almost no correlation with the health of your business.
Relying on likes and followers to measure success is like judging a restaurant's quality by the number of people who walk past the window.
The Engagement Hierarchy: Why a save is better than a share, a comment is better than a like, and a DM is pure gold.
Not all interactions are created equal. Think of engagement as a pyramid of intent:
- Direct Messages (DMs): The absolute peak. Someone has left the public square to have a private conversation with you. This is a sales lead, a customer service query, or a future collaborator. This is the goal.
- Saves: A powerful signal. Someone found your content so valuable that they want to return to it later. This tells the algorithm your content is a resource, not just a fleeting image.
- Shares: A public endorsement. Users stamp your content with their reputation and show it to their network.
- Comments: A real conversation. It takes effort to type out a thought. This is where relationships are built. A comment with substance is worth 100 likes.
- Likes: The baseline. It’s a polite nod. Nothing more.
Your new goal is simple: move people up this pyramid. Stop optimising for the double-tap and start optimising for the DM.
The Core Principle: Conversation, Not Broadcast
Here’s where 99% of businesses fail. They treat social media as a free billboard. They shout their announcements, post their sales, and talk about themselves.
Me. Me. Me.
It’s called social media. The clue is in the name. It’s a noisy pub, not a lecture hall. If you walk into a pub and start yelling about your 10% discount, people will ignore you and turn back to their friends.
The mindset shift is this: every post must be designed to do one of three things.
- Solve a specific problem.
- Provide a unique perspective.
- Start a genuine conversation.
That’s it. Don't post if your post doesn't tick one of those boxes. This simple filter will eliminate 80% of the useless content you create. It's the foundation of a digital marketing approach that works because it’s built on relationships, not reach.
Pillar 1: Stop Being Boring. Seriously.
The biggest enemy of engagement is boredom.
A bland, corporate, “professional” voice is a death sentence on social media. People don’t connect with logos; they connect with personalities. If your posts sound like they were written by a committee and approved by a lawyer, you’ve already lost.
You need a point of view. You need a personality.
How to define your brand's personality (The 3-Word Test): Sit down and choose three adjectives to describe your brand's voice. Not what you sell, but how you sound. Are you Witty, Direct, and Knowledgeable? Or are you encouraging, Warm, and Playful?
Write these three words on a sticky note and put it on your monitor. Every post, every comment, every reply must pass through the filter of those three words.
Look at the brands that cut through the noise. Wendy's on X is savage and hilarious. Ryanair's TikTok is a masterclass in self-deprecating, low-fi humour. They are unmistakable. You don't have to be snarky or silly, but you must be something.
Being bland is a choice. Choose to be interesting instead.
Pillar 2: Create Content That Actually Serves Your Audience
Stop selling. Start serving.
The fastest way to get ignored is to push your product constantly. Adopt the 80/20 rule as a non-negotiable law: 80% of your content should provide pure value to your audience, and only 20% should even mention what you sell.
Give, give, give, and then ask.
The 4 Value-Driven Content Types That Work
Instead of wondering what to post, build your content plan around these four pillars of value.
- Educate: Teach your audience something valuable. Create content such as “how-to” guides, quick tips, industry myth-busting, or checklists. A web designer could post a Reel on “3 common mistakes people make on their homepage.” A coffee shop could share a guide on how to brew the perfect French press.
- Inspire: Show your audience what's possible. Post content like customer success stories, case studies of your work, or share your business journey. Patagonia doesn't just sell jackets; it inspires a community around environmental activism and outdoor adventure.
- Entertain: Make them smile, laugh, or think. Create content using memes, relatable humour, or clever commentary on your industry. This requires knowing your audience well, but it builds a powerful emotional connection when it lands.
- Connect: Show the humans behind the logo. Post content that gives a behind-the-scenes look at your process, introduces your team, or shares your struggles and wins. People trust people far more than they trust faceless brands.
A Simple Tactic: Ask Better Questions
This is one of my biggest pet peeves. Stop asking hollow engagement-bait questions.
“Happy Friday! Coffee or Tea? ☕️ or 🍵?”
This is a waste of everyone's time. It generates meaningless comments and does nothing to position you as an expert or build a relationship.
Ask questions that require a thoughtful answer related to your expertise. Make your audience feel smart.
- A financial advisor could ask, “What's the best piece of financial advice you ever received from a parent?”
- A marketing agency could ask, “What's one ad you saw this week that made you stop scrolling, and why?”
- A graphic designer could ask, “What's one brand whose logo you think is timeless, and why?”
These questions spark honest conversations and provide invaluable insight into your audience's thoughts.
Pillar 3: Do the ‘Social’ Part of Social Media
This is the part everyone agrees is essential and almost no one actually does. The unpaid, unglamorous work separates brands that grow from those that stagnate.
You can't just post content and walk away. That's like putting up a stall at a market and then sitting in your car. You have to operate the stall.
Engage First, Post Second
The algorithm notices activity. Spend 15 minutes before you publish your post engaging with other accounts. Leave thoughtful comments on the posts of your ideal clients, peers, and leaders in your niche. Warm up the algorithm and the community before you ask for their attention.
Respond to Every Single Comment (Properly)
A comment is the start of a conversation. Your job is to keep it going.
Do not reply with “Thanks!” or a simple emoji. That's a conversational dead end. Ask a follow-up question. Add another piece of value.
- If they say: “Great tip!”
- You say: “Glad you found it helpful! Is that something you're currently working on?”
Turn every comment into a mini dialogue. This builds a relationship with that person and shows everyone else (and the algorithm) that your page is a hub of real conversation.
Champion Your Audience with User-Generated Content (UGC)
User-Generated Content is the most powerful form of social proof. It's when your customers become your marketers.
Encourage your followers to share photos with your product or results from your service. Create a unique hashtag. Run a contest. When they post, feature them on your page (with permission). It's a win-win: they get exposure, and you get authentic, powerful content that builds massive trust.
Pillar 4: Respect the Platform. Stop Cross-Posting Blindly.
Posting the same message and image across LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok is lazy. And it doesn't work.
Every platform has its own language, etiquette, and content format. What works brilliantly on one will fall completely flat on another. A formal, text-heavy post from LinkedIn looks bizarre as a TikTok video.
You don't need to be on every platform. But on your platforms, you need to speak the native language.
A Quick Guide to Platform Nuance
- LinkedIn: The “boardroom.” This is the place for professional insights, long-form text posts, company news, and career-focused discussions. Polish is expected.
- Instagram: The “art gallery.” High-quality visuals, aesthetics, and personality drive it. Use Reels for short-form video, Stories for casual behind-the-scenes, and the grid for your best work.
- TikTok: The “talent show.” It's all about low-fi, authentic, trend-driven video—entertainment and education rule. Don't be polished; be real. Just look at Duolingo—they've built a massive following by being unhinged and platform-native.
- X (Twitter): The “news ticker” or “pub.” It's for rapid-fire thoughts, real-time conversations, joining trending topics, and witty one-liners.
- Facebook: The “community hall.” It's excellent for building communities via Groups, sharing local information, and reaching a demographic often older than the TikTok or Instagram crowd.
Pick one or two platforms where your audience truly lives and go deep. Master the language before you try to become fluent in another.
Pillar 5: Be Consistent, Not Constant
Here’s the other piece of terrible advice we need to kill: “You have to post 3-5 times a day!”
No, you don't. That's how you burn out and produce a firehose of mediocrity.
Quality and resonance are infinitely more important than frequency. Posting one brilliant, value-packed piece of content twice a week is far better than posting forgettable fluff twice daily.
Choose a sustainable schedule and stick to it. Consistency builds anticipation and trust. Being constant just creates noise.
And when you measure your results, stop obsessing over total likes. Start tracking your engagement rate (total engagements divided by followers). This tells you what percentage of your audience is actually paying attention. That's a number that tells a story.
Beyond The Feed: A Social Media Success Formula
You’re lost in the social media maze, posting randomly and getting zero results for your effort. This book is the roadmap out. It gives you a proven, step-by-step formula for everything: goals, content, ads, and community. Stop guessing what works and start executing a plan that actually wins.
As an Amazon Partner, when you buy through our links, we may earn a commission.
Putting It All Together: A 30-Minute Daily Engagement Plan
This doesn't need to take all day. Be intentional. Here is a simple plan for a busy entrepreneur:
- First 10 Minutes: Warm-up. Open the app and engage with your community. Leave 5-10 thoughtful comments on posts from ideal clients, peers, or hashtags you follow. Don't post yet.
- Next 5 Minutes: Publish your pre-planned, value-driven content for the day.
- Last 15 Minutes: Follow-up. Go to yesterday's post and respond thoughtfully to every comment you received. Keep those conversations alive.
That's it—thirty minutes of focused, high-impact activity.
The Uncomfortable Truth About Engagement
There is no hack. There is no shortcut.
Increasing your social media engagement isn't about a new feature, a trending sound, or a magic hashtag strategy. It’s about consistently showing up and providing so much value that people have no choice but to pay attention.
It’s about shifting your mindset from “What can I post?” to “What can I give?”
The engagement you earn directly reflects the value you provide and the conversations you are willing to have. It's slow, unglamorous work. It's about building relationships, one comment at a time. And it's the only thing that actually works.
FAQs about How to Increase Social Media Engagement
What is a reasonable social media engagement rate?
It varies wildly by industry and platform, but a general benchmark to aim for is anything between 1% and 5%. However, focus on improving your rate month-over-month instead of chasing a specific number.
How often should I post on social media?
Focus on consistency over frequency. It is better to post three high-quality, engaging posts per week that you can sustain, rather than 10 low-quality posts that burn you out. Quality trumps quantity, always.
Is it better to have more followers or more engagement?
More engagement, without question. A small, highly engaged audience of 1,000 true fans who trust you is infinitely more valuable than 100,000 passive followers who never interact with your content or buy your products.
Should my business be on TikTok?
You should be where your customers are. If your target audience is on TikTok, you should absolutely explore it. But don't join a platform just because it's popular. Master one or two core platforms first.
How do I find the right hashtags to use?
Use a mix of broad, niche, and community-specific hashtags. Look at what your competitors and industry leaders are using. A good strategy is to use 5-10 highly relevant hashtags rather than spamming 30 generic ones.
Do I really need to respond to every comment?
In the beginning, yes. Every comment is an opportunity to build a relationship. It may become difficult as you grow, but prioritising responses shows your audience you are listening and care.
What's the fastest way to get more engagement?
The fastest sustainable way is to create content that directly answers a burning question or solves a common problem for your target audience. Video content, especially on Reels and TikTok, also tends to generate high engagement quickly.
Is buying followers a good idea?
Absolutely not. It's a complete waste of money. It destroys your engagement rate, fills your audience with bots, and kills your credibility.
What tools can I use to manage social media?
Tools like Buffer, Hootsuite, or Later can help with scheduling posts. However, no tool can replace the human element of engaging directly with your audience in the comments and DMs.
How long does it take to see results from these strategies?
Building a real, engaged community takes time. You should start to see an increase in conversational quality within a few weeks, but significant, business-driving results often take 3-6 months of consistent effort.
It might be time for a proper strategy if you're done with the guesswork and ready to build a brand that connects with people instead of just broadcasting at them. At Inkbot Design, we help businesses build brands and marketing plans that create authentic conversations.
If that sounds like a better use of your time than chasing likes, let's talk.
