How business owners plan their Instagram content will determine how much engagement they get on their page. But, it’s not just about uploading any post. It’s about finding the right means to keep the post relevant to the audience. Instagram had previously used metrics like likes and shares to promote this strategy. But, today, these tools aren’t as effective. The industry trend is now bent on ‘saves.’
Although IG saves were only released about two years ago, it has gained more traction as more and more people are using this tool to keep their favorite posts in a place where they can easily access them. A simple like would only tell you that the audience has seen and enjoyed your post. On the other hand, saves work more indicatively than a like when it comes to the post’s relevance.
A save will always indicate that the content has real value, making each user want to later return to it. So, how do people save posts? Simply click on the “bookmark” option at the lower right corner under a post. Once followers click on the bookmark, the content ends up directly in the collection of your saved post, where you can easily access them any time the need arises.
While people cannot tell when others save their posts, Instagram saves are an important part of engagement building content strategy because a save ranks high on the IG algorithm. When people save more of your posts and videos, the IG algorithm sees the post as useful and worth viewing. But, how do you get more saves on photos & video posts?
To make sure the audience saves your videos and posts, your posts need to have the value that would make users want to refer back to them. Read on to find out how to increase the number of your saves.
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Eight Ways to Upgrade Your Content Plan and Get More Saves on Your Posts
Some of the best ways business owners and users can get more saves on their IG videos and posts to include:
1. Post Content Relevant to Your Audience
The first and most important way people can increase their Instagram saves is always to post relevant content to the audience. No matter the kind of post you choose to publish, understand that it needs to align with what you sell, who you are, and what your audience’s needs. In essence, the post has to retain your brand personality because that’s the reason the audience followed you in the first place. t
For instance, if you run a gold page, ensure that every published post carries information about golf-related topics. Avoid uploading videos, texts or images that aren’t relevant to golf. The biggest side effect of posting irrelevant content audiences won’t love is that you’ll likely lose followers, which means decreased engagement on your page. It also definitely means you won’t get any saves.
2. Create Sharable Infographics
No doubt, Instagram is a graphic platform. The truth is that business owners and daily users won’t get more saves on posts and videos with low-quality graphic content. The audience needs catchy and captivating graphic content to make them want to view the post before even saving them.
Apart from this, the content will have more relevance if it is educational. People don’t always have time to read graphic texts. So, by creating an educational image that’s also appealing, you prompt the audience to save the post for future viewing. But, how do you create such infographics? Users won’t have to rely on a graphic designer to make graphics the audience will want to save.
Infographic tools like Canva, Easel.ly and PiktoChart are some of the best tools that can be used to create appealing and informational infographic content and also get users to save posts. These tools have dozens of templates people can use to design stunning and eye-catching graphics suitable for IG feeds.
3. Write Long and Catchy Captions
When people see a picture that looks vague but beautiful, they want to know what the user has to say about the picture, so they look forward to the caption.
With the caption, users have time to share more valuable information and hold the audience’s attention for longer. The platform allows users to input 2,200 characters for the caption. By taking advantage of this space, users get to add value to their content, inspiring their followers and increasing their chances of followers saving the post to access it when they wish to.
4. Post Quotes
If you didn’t know, know now that quotes are one of the greatest assets to IG content strategy. Wonder why? It’s simply because people love things that would inspire and motivate them, and quotes do just that. When people come across a post they love, they want to keep them for motivation when the need arises. Some even save them to have their collection they can refer to when they need to motivate their loved ones.
Quotes can grow engagement and increase the number of followers because they evoke positive feelings and emotions in people. The quote could be words of knowledge from famous people or even proverbial words from different cultures. But, how do users get started creating quotes for their feed? It’s pretty simple! Like how you create personalized graphics with infographic tools like Canva and Visme, users can also create quotes using the same template.
5. Make Each Content Inspirational
On IG, it’s easy to find various creative-driven and inspirational pages. In fact, many people visit the platform simply to find creative ideas that would always inspire them to do more.
Every user intending to upgrade their content strategy needs to capitalize on this plan when creating their posts. Why? A published content that inspires and motivates people will have higher chances of increasing the number of saves.
For a travel blogger, inspirational content like videos of places visited would attract more saves than text. This is because most people may want to visit that place but haven’t had the chance and means to. By sharing highlights of places visited, you give people the chance to save up videos and pictures of their dream place to keep their dream alive till they can finally go on their trip.
6. Include a Powerful Call-to-Action
Sometimes, the audience would just read up a post and forget to like or save it even when they find it useful. The best way to get the audience to save IG posts and videos is to ask using a call-to-action.
A CTA is as powerful as quotes because it encourages the audience to do the needful after watching videos or posts. A typical example of a CTA would be (if you found this post helpful, don’t forget to save). Understand that CTA’s need to be friendly for people to do what you want them to do. So, make sure that your CTA always sounds friendly.
7. Publish Evergreen Content
Another way to get more saves on published posts is to create contents that would always stay relevant all year round. Examples of evergreen content include life hacks or tips and tricks relevant to various fields. Understand that contents like Christmas texts, graphics or pictures are time-sensitive, and people would only return to them when they get to the period. These types of posts are non-evergreen content. On the other hand, tips and tricks on moving or health and fitness hacks would always have value and relevance. Even fashion and beauty posts will have people coming back to view them year-round. Why? This evergreen content will always provide practical insights people need and help them learn something they didn’t know about a subject.
8. Share Funny Posts
The last strategy to help users increase saves on IG posts is to spice up their content by publishing funny posts. In the modern era, we live stress-filled with a 24-hours, round-the-clock lifestyle that can be tiring. This makes people seek various entertainments and recreational activities that would help them destress. Users need to take this chance to give their followers the entertainment they want and need.
A funny post could be a meme or screenshot of funny comments. However, you need to know what kind of funny content to post. Most contents are overused. Hence, followers won’t see the need to save them to revisit later. In fact, overused content doesn’t generate engagement and may cause you to lose followers. In simple terms, get creative rather than depend on popularly used content.
But, how do people know the relevance of their published posts? It all boils down to tracking Instagram saves.
How to Track IG Saves
For tools such as likes, shares and comments, Instagram will always openly show the numbers, so people won’t have to go through a rigorous process to know the However, tracking Instagram saves would demand that users have a business profile. This makes it easy to tap the “View Insights” option below every post. Instagram insights show you the number of times users save published content.
When you go through each post and see a higher number of saves, it means viewers enjoy the content. A lesser save simply tells you that you need to re-strategize by looking for new patterns and creative ideas that would likely score a post. Then, work towards applying them in future publications.
The Bottom Line
Whether you have an IG business page or not, next time you’re thinking up posts to publish or planning out an effective content marketing strategy, don’t simply focus on having more likes, comments or shares. You need to create a publication that will promote higher engagement rates and increase follower counts and saves.
Saves work the same as likes but in an advanced way. It shows that followers enjoy whatever content you upload and want to revisit it later. In essence, saves indicate that the post resonates with the audience and offers them real value. However, the only way users can achieve this is if they optimize their content, as doing so help them get followers to save posts. It also tells the IG algorithm that the post is useful, and as you know, relevant publications will always appear in viewers’ feeds and Explore tab.