It‘s an all-too-common tale these days – you‘ve spent years building your Instagram following into the thousands, but now all those followers seem to have gone quiet. Where once you‘d get hundreds or even thousands of likes on a post, now you‘re lucky to break 100. What gives? If you feel like your engagement has fallen off a cliff, even as your follower count remains high, you‘re not alone. Many users are struggling to get their followers to actually engage with their content in 2024. As a social media expert and tech geek, I‘ve done a deep dive into the reasons behind this perplexing phenomenon to help you diagnose why your likes have disappeared and what you can do to revive your engagement this year.
The Hard Truth About Vanity Metrics
First, let‘s talk about the elephant in the room – the concept of "vanity metrics." A vanity metric is a number that may look great on the surface, but doesn‘t necessarily translate to any real business results or impact. On Instagram, follower count is the ultimate vanity metric. It‘s an easy number to fixate on, but at the end of the day, the amount of followers you have means nothing if they aren‘t actively engaging with your content.
In fact, a high number of ghost followers can actually hurt the overall performance of your account. A 2023 study by HypeAuditor found that the average Instagram account has a 25.8% fake follower ratio. For accounts with over 1M followers, that number jumps to nearly 50%! These fake followers could be bots, inactive accounts, or people who followed you just to gain a follow back with no intention of engaging with your posts.
Large numbers of ghost followers tank your engagement rate, which is a key metric Instagram‘s algorithm uses to determine how often to show your posts to other users. If the algorithm sees that only a tiny percentage of your followers engage with your content, it assumes the content must not be very good/relevant and will show it to fewer people as a result. It‘s a vicious cycle that results in even less reach and engagement over time.
Engagement Rate Benchmarks
So what is a "good" engagement rate on Instagram these days anyways? The answer varies widely by industry and follower count. A 2023 study by Rival IQ analyzed over 200,000 Instagram posts to establish average engagement rate benchmarks:
| Follower Count | Engagement Rate |
|---|---|
| <1K | 4.55% |
| 1K-10K | 1.86% |
| 10K-50K | 1.44% |
| 50K-100K | 1.24% |
| 100K-500K | 1.16% |
| 500K-1M | 1.19% |
| >1M | 1.01% |
As you can see, engagement rates naturally decline as follower counts grow since it becomes harder to maintain a tight-knit community feeling. For reference, the average engagement rate across all industries and account sizes was 1.42% in 2024.
If your personal engagement rate has declined dramatically from where it once was, even if you‘re still above average for your follower count, that‘s a signal that something has changed and it‘s time to investigate why.
The Instagram Algorithm‘s Impact
To understand the engagement puzzle, we have to talk about the almighty Instagram algorithm. This complex system of ranking factors ultimately determines which posts get shown to whom and how often. While Instagram keeps the exact recipe secret, we do know that the algorithm heavily favors posts that generate a lot of engagement quickly.
A post that gets a ton of likes and comments right after posting sends a strong signal to Instagram that this is high-quality, relevant content that more people will likely want to see. As a result, the algorithm will show that post to more of your followers and potentially add it to the Explore page where it can reach even more new eyeballs.
On the flip side, if your post generates lackluster engagement right out of the gate, Instagram is less likely to prioritize showing it to the rest of your followers. The algorithm wants to show users the content they are most likely to engage with, so posts with low initial engagement get deprioritized and shown to fewer people over time.
Complicating matters further, Instagram revealed in 2022 that not all followers will see your posts anymore, even if you post consistently at the best times for your audience. For many users, only 50-60% of their followers may actually regularly see their posts in their main feed. With such reduced reach, it‘s no wonder overall engagement has declined for many accounts in recent years.
The Shift to Video Content
A major reason many accounts are seeing reduced engagement on photos in particular is Instagram‘s aggressive push into video content. What started with Stories and IGTV has now expanded to Reels and a full-screen, video-first UI very similar to TikTok. Instagram‘s CEO Adam Mosseri has made it clear that video, especially Reels, is a top priority for the platform going forward.
As a result, where once photo posts reliably appeared at the top of users‘ feeds, now most people see a mix of photos, videos, Stories, and Reels from both accounts they follow and suggested content from accounts they don‘t. With so many different formats competing for attention and only so much space at the top of each user‘s feed, photo posts are seeing less reach and engagement than they used to.
If you‘ve historically focused on photo content, this shift to video can be frustrating. However, it‘s important to remember that Instagram is ultimately a business and will always prioritize the formats that keep users on the platform the longest. Right now, that‘s video. Tracking from Sensor Tower shows that time spent on Instagram increased by 14% in 2022, largely thanks to Reels. If you want to continue reaching your audience on Instagram, you‘ll need to embrace video content and weave it into your content strategy.
Intense Competition for Attention
Another factor working against engagement is the sheer volume of content being posted on Instagram these days. A 2022 Mention report found that, on average, 95 million photos and videos are shared on the platform every single day. That‘s a staggering amount of competition for users‘ limited attention spans.
What‘s more, users‘ feeds are becoming increasingly oversaturated with paid ads and sponsored posts. Instagram‘s global ad revenues grew 50.2% from 2021 to 2022 and are expected to reach nearly $50 billion in 2024. For the average user scrolling through their feed, it‘s becoming harder and harder to distinguish organic posts from paid promotions, leading to increased ad fatigue and reduced overall engagement.
In this hyper-competitive environment, only the most thumb-stopping, saved-for-later caliber content is going to generate significant engagement. Putting extra effort into your visuals, captions, and calls-to-action can help your posts stand out in an overcrowded feed and inspire more interaction.
The Comparison Trap
Beyond the technical reasons for reduced engagement, there‘s also an important psychological factor at play – the pressure to be perfect on Instagram. Over the years, the platform has morphed from a candid, behind-the-scenes peek into users‘ real lives to a heavily filtered showreel of only the highlights.
A 2022 Bankrate survey found that 62% of Gen Z and Millennial users admit to feeling pressure to portray themselves in a more positive light on social media. 46% said they‘ve posted things that made their life look better than it really is. In an environment where everyone seems to be living their best life 24/7, it can be intimidating for users to engage with anything less than picture-perfect, even if they know deep down that it‘s an illusion.
For content creators, this pressure can lead to posting less often out of fear the content isn‘t "good enough" to generate likes. However, the irony is that the more authentic, vulnerable, relatable content often generates the most genuine engagement, even if the visuals aren‘t 100% polished. Your followers want to engage with the real you, not just an idealized version.
Strategies to Boost Engagement in 2024
Despite the challenges, it is still very possible to build a highly engaged Instagram community in 2024. The key is to focus on creating content that educates, entertains, inspires or solves problems for your specific target audience. Here are some of the top strategies to boost your engagement this year:
Embrace video content, especially Reels and Stories. Experiment with different video lengths, styles, and trends to see what resonates with your unique audience.
Write longer, more thought-provoking captions. Give your followers something meaningful to interact with beyond just a pretty visual. Ask open-ended questions, share behind-the-scenes stories, and provide valuable insights that encourage conversation.
Engage back with every single user who comments on your posts. Don‘t just respond with a generic emoji, but actually continue the conversation and make your followers feel heard and appreciated. The more you engage, the more they‘ll engage back.
Share more of your unfiltered, behind-the-scenes life. Pull back the curtain and show the process, the mess, the struggles. The more real and relatable your content is, the more your followers will trust and connect with you.
Regularly prune your inactive and fake followers using an analytics tool like HypeAuditor or SocialBlade. Removing accounts that never engage will improve your engagement rate and send positive signals to the algorithm.
Jump on trending sounds, hashtags, and challenges, but always put your own unique spin on them. Don‘t just blend into the sea of sameness.
Use Instagram‘s features like polls, questions, and quizzes in your Stories to engage your audience and learn more about what content they want from you. The more you cater to their specific interests, the more they‘ll engage.
The bottom line is that growing an engaged Instagram following in 2024 requires consistently showing up, delivering value, and nurturing real relationships with your audience. Likes and comments will naturally flow from an authentic, human connection.
Instead of getting caught up in the vanity metrics, focus on the quality of your audience, not just the quantity. A smaller group of loyal, engaged followers is infinitely more valuable than a large but disengaged audience. Keep putting your audience first and the algorithm will reward you.
