For those in the social media realm of Public Information Officers (PIOs) – I want to address a common question I get all the time:

How do I get more likes on Instagram?

My response: It’s not how much likes per Insta post, it’s really about how much engagement or interaction you have with your identified audience.

That’s right – while likes are one form of measurement of your post, it is not the only form of engagement that you can have on Instagram.

For those that post videos, you can likely include the number of views as a point of engagement.

For those that count the amount of click-throughs out of your main page (listed in your link on your Instagram profile) – yes, that too is a form of engagement.

And for those that post multiple pictures on one post, IMHO, it will likely get you more swipes! But think for a moment, that is a deterrent to more likes?

While I think posting multiple pictures are cool, I would lightly discourage it as it takes away from the viewer’s attention span – and likely causing them NOT to like as they have already committed a swipe or click to your post by reviewing other images. They are not likely to re-engage and double tap your already multiple pictures they spent time on swiping left or right on. Consider multiple pictures in one picture (Layout or PicStitch).

Yep, videos and multiple pictures will likely get you less likes because of the inherent human action replacing the actual double-tap (like) by actually viewing your posted video or viewing your multiple picture post.

So to recap:

• A video will likely cause you to decrease your likes.
• A multiple picture post will cause you to decrease your likes.
• Just some food for thought this Tuesday.

Prediction: I believe Instagram will add more emotions to their posts to increase engagement (similar to Facebook’s multiple emotional reactions).

Don’t forget to Instagram that.

@rusnivek