How to Increase Social Media Engagement in 2026 (Tactics That Work)

GrowthBoost engagement

BrainPost Blog

If your likes and comments are lower than they used to be, you are not imagining it, and you are not alone. Engagement on some major platforms has fallen as feeds have filled up and more sharing has moved into private messages. This guide explains why, shows you how to calculate your engagement rate properly, and gives you practical ways to increase social media engagement through shares, saves, comments, DMs and community.

Key takeaways

Engagement rates on Instagram fell year over year in both Rival IQ's and Buffer's 2026 benchmark reports, so a drop is often an industry trend, not just your account.
Shares, and especially sends by direct message, are among the strongest signals for reaching new people on Instagram.
Replying to comments was linked to higher engagement on every platform in Buffer's 2026 analysis of more than 52 million posts.
Engagement rate by reach (engagements divided by reach, times 100) is the most useful default for measuring organic posts.
Benchmarks vary widely because studies use different formulas, so compare yourself mainly against your own past results.
Engagement bait such as "comment YES if you agree" can backfire; Facebook has demoted such posts since 2017.

Social media engagement is any action people take on your content beyond simply seeing it: likes, comments, shares, sends, saves, clicks, replies, profile visits and messages. Watch time is also a form of engagement, and on video platforms it is one of the most important.

Not all engagement is equal. A like takes half a second. A save means "this is useful enough to come back to". A share or DM send means "I am willing to recommend this to someone I know". Platforms treat these deeper actions as stronger signals of quality, so they are the ones worth designing for.

Engagement has dropped for many accounts because there is more content competing for the same attention, feeds now mix in recommended posts from accounts people do not follow, and more sharing happens privately. Your content may be just as good as before and still get fewer public reactions.

The benchmark data shows the trend clearly:

The 2026 Rival IQ benchmark report (now part of Quid) found the median Instagram engagement rate for brands fell from 0.36% to 0.30%, a 17% year-over-year drop, while TikTok led all platforms at 2.01% and X doubled from a very low base to 0.03% (Quid).
Buffer's 2026 engagement report, covering more than 52 million posts, found Instagram engagement down 26%, Threads down 18% and LinkedIn down 5%, while X, Pinterest and Facebook rose (Buffer).

Common reasons behind the decline:

More competition. More creators and brands are posting more content than ever.
Recommendation-heavy feeds. Your followers now see a mix of posts from people they follow and people they do not, so each of your posts competes with the whole platform.
Private sharing. Instagram head Adam Mosseri has described a shift in which far more photos and videos are shared into DMs than into Stories or the feed (Business Insider via Yahoo). Those shares count, but they are less visible than public comments.
Algorithm changes. Platforms regularly change what they reward. We track the big ones in social media algorithm changes in 2026.
Content drift. Sometimes the cause is closer to home: posts drift away from what first attracted your audience, or quality slips as frequency rises.

How do you calculate engagement rate?

The most useful formula for organic content is engagement rate by reach: total engagements on a post divided by the number of people who saw it, multiplied by 100. Hootsuite recommends this as the default for most organic content, with engagement rate by impressions better suited to paid campaigns (Hootsuite).

Engagement rate by reach = (likes + comments + shares + saves) ÷ reach × 100

Worked example: a Reel gets 180 likes, 25 comments, 40 shares and 55 saves, for 300 engagements in total. It reached 6,000 accounts.

300 ÷ 6,000 × 100 = 5% engagement rate by reach

Other common versions:

Formula	Calculation	Best for
By reach	Engagements ÷ reach × 100	Judging individual organic posts
By followers	Engagements ÷ followers × 100	Comparing accounts, including competitors
By impressions or views	Engagements ÷ impressions × 100	Paid posts and video

Pick one formula and stick with it so your numbers are comparable over time. Include the engagement types that matter to you; some teams also add link clicks or profile visits.

What is a good engagement rate?

A good engagement rate is one that is steady or rising compared with your own recent average. External benchmarks are useful for context, but they vary enormously depending on how they are calculated.

For example, Rival IQ divides engagements by followers and reports a median of 0.30% for brands on Instagram (Quid). Buffer divides engagements by reach and reports about 5.5% for Instagram (Buffer). Both can be right because they measure different things. Small accounts also tend to have higher rates than large ones, since a close-knit audience engages more.

Practical approach: calculate your average engagement rate by reach over your last 20 posts. That is your baseline. Aim to beat it, and study the posts that do.

Make content that helps the sender look good, help a friend or express something they feel. Mosseri said in January 2025 that sends per reach are one of the three most important signals on Instagram and matter slightly more for reaching non-followers (Social Media Today).

Formats that get sent:

"This is so us" moments. Relatable skits about office life, family group chats, university hostels or Lagos traffic get sent to the exact people they describe.
Useful shortcuts. "Five free apps every small business owner should have" gets forwarded to business-owner friends.
Surprising facts or before-and-after reveals that people want to show someone.
Plans and recommendations. Restaurant lists, weekend ideas and travel tips get sent to the friend you are going with.

Before you post, ask: "Who would someone send this to, and what would they say when they send it?" For more on building shareable content, see how to go viral on social media.

How do I get more saves?

People save content they expect to need later, so make posts that are reference material. Saves are a strong sign of value and work especially well with carousels.

Checklists and step-by-step guides ("How to register a business name in Nigeria, step by step").
Templates and scripts people can copy, such as a caption formula or a pitch email.
Resource lists: tools, books, recipes, prices, locations.
Cheat sheets that summarise a complex topic on one slide.

Buffer's 2026 report found carousels were the top-performing format for engagement on LinkedIn and outperformed Reels for engagement on Instagram, though Reels still reached more people (Buffer). A good mix is Reels for reach and carousels for saves.

How do I get more comments?

Ask specific, easy-to-answer questions and reply to every comment you get. Comments come when people feel they have something to add and believe you will respond.

Ask a specific question. "Which would you pick: A or B?" or "What is the one app you cannot run your business without?" gets more replies than "Thoughts?".
Share a clear opinion. A thoughtful take that people can agree or disagree with starts conversation. Keep it respectful and on-topic.
Leave something open. Ask your audience to add to your list: "I have shared five, what is number six?"
Reply to every comment, fast. In Buffer's 2026 data, posts where the creator replied to comments had higher engagement on every platform studied, including about 42% higher on Threads, 30% on LinkedIn and 21% on Instagram. Buffer notes this is a correlation rather than proof of cause (Buffer).
Pin a good comment to set the tone of the discussion.
Write captions that invite a reply. Our guide on how to write social media captions has formulas you can use.

Avoid engagement bait. Since 2017, Facebook has demoted posts that ask people to like, comment, share or tag purely to boost reach, such as "comment YES if you agree", while allowing genuine requests for help or recommendations (Meta Newsroom). Ask real questions instead.

Speed matters, but so does not missing anything. Engagement alerts, such as BrainPost's engagement notifications, flag new comments and mentions so you can reply while a post is still being tested.

How can DMs increase engagement?

DMs turn casual viewers into loyal followers and customers, and they reflect where a lot of sharing already happens. Treat your inbox as part of your content strategy, not an afterthought.

Reply to Story replies and reactions. They are private conversations that deepen relationships.
Use interactive Stories: polls, quizzes and question boxes lower the effort needed to respond.
Offer something by DM: "Send me 'guide' and I will share the checklist." Make sure you actually deliver, and keep it genuine rather than a trick for comments.
Move detailed questions into DMs from the comments. It is more personal, and for businesses it is often where sales happen.
Start conversations yourself with people who engage regularly. A short thank-you goes a long way.

How do I build a community instead of just an audience?

Give people a reason to talk to each other, not just to you. An audience watches; a community participates, returns and recommends you without being asked.

Run a recurring series, such as a weekly Q&A, a Friday feature or a monthly challenge, so people know when to show up.
Feature your followers. Share their results, questions and user-generated content, with permission.
Go live. Live sessions create real-time conversation and are one of the easiest ways to meet regulars.
Create shared language. Inside jokes, a name for your community or a signature phrase make people feel part of something.
Collaborate. Partner with creators your audience already likes; our social media growth guide covers how to approach collaborations.
Show up consistently. Communities form around people who are reliably present. Posting at times your audience is online helps; see the best time to post on social media.

Frequently asked questions

Do buying followers or engagement pods increase engagement?

No. Bought followers do not engage, so they drag your engagement rate down, and buying likes or follows breaks Meta's spam rules. Engagement pods produce low-quality interactions from people outside your audience, which can confuse the algorithm about who your content is for.

Are likes still important in 2026?

Likes still count, and Instagram lists them among its top ranking signals, especially for reaching your existing followers. But shares, sends, saves and watch time usually tell you more about whether your content will reach new people.

Do hashtags increase engagement?

Hashtags play a smaller role than they once did. A few relevant ones can help platforms understand your topic, but they rarely drive engagement on their own. Read do hashtags still work for platform-by-platform guidance.

Does posting more often lower your engagement rate?

It can, because each post competes for the same audience's attention, even while total reach grows. Track total engagement and engagement rate together. If both fall as you post more, your quality may be slipping.

How long does it take to improve engagement?

You can often see changes within a few weeks of replying consistently, asking better questions and posting more shareable content. Building a real community takes months, so judge progress by trends over four to eight weeks rather than single posts.