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How To Get More Mentions on Instagram? 6 Tips for Brands [2026]
Mentions have become one of the most crucial signals of brand visibility – not only on social media but also across the whole digital ecosystem, including AI-driven search. So, when people tag your brand in Instagram content, they expose it to new audiences and create powerful social proof. In this article, you’ll learn six practical strategies to increase Instagram mentions and expand your brand’s reach.
Key takeaways
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Create content people want to share
High-quality, shareable content increases the chances that users will tag your brand in posts, Stories, or comments, expanding your reach beyond your own audience.
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Encourage your community to talk about your brand
User-generated content, influencer collaborations, and simple campaigns like “tag a friend” naturally motivate people to mention your brand in their content.
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Stay active and engage with your audience
Regular interaction with followers builds stronger relationships and increases the likelihood that people will mention your brand over time.
6 tips for brands to get more mentions on Instagram
01 Make high-quality and shareable content
Okay, I know. Everyone says it: content is king.
But the fact remains that nothing is more important than quality content! It’s the foundation of everything you do on Instagram.
The more valuable or entertaining your content is, the more likely users are to remember your brand.
Here, we can add one extra layer: shareability.
Content that people enjoy is good.
But content that people want to send to others is what really drives mentions.
When users send your post to friends, share it in Stories, or reference it in their own content, they often tag (or mention) the brand behind it.
That’s exactly where mentions start to grow.
🧠 Understand Instagram formats and their purposes
To make the most of your Instagram content, you should familiarize yourself with which formats to use to maximize your chance of getting mentioned:
• Instagram Stories are great for quick updates, behind-the-scenes glimpses, and asking engaging questions (utilize Instagram stories stickers!).
• Photo posts are suitable for checklists and quotes;
• Instagram Reels work well for tutorials, before vs. after process showcase, and answering questions (i.e., asked in Instagram stories);
• Instagram carousels are perfect for storytelling, sharing opinions, and presenting the path “from A to B”
02 Encourage user-generated content
User-generated content (UGC) is any form of Instagram content created by users or customers rather than by brands or professionals.
79% of people claim they rely on UGC when making their purchasing decisions.
At the same time, only 16% of brands have a user-generated content strategy. Don’t waste that opportunity because UGC is a win-win strategy.
On the one hand, it naturally connects your brand with your Instagram followers.
On the other hand, your fans-creators can showcase themselves to your audience and strengthen their own social presence.
On the third hand (who said there must be two?!), user-generated content multiplies the number of your Instagram mentions.
Okay, and how to invite people to create and share user-generated content?
You can:
- Run a contest or giveaway – encourage people to post photos or stories tagging your brand
- Launch a mention campaign (instead of old-fashioned hashtag campaign) – to make people your followers use your brand name when showcasing your products
- Feature customer mentions – repost customer stories and posts that mention your brand
Just remember: if you want to increase your Instagram mentions, remind your fans-creators to explicitly use your brand’s name in their content.
03 Team with influencers
Cooperating with the right influencers can increase your brand awareness and reach, driving you more mentions on Instagram.
And you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars for teaming with influencers with millions of followers!
In fact, according to eMarketer, nano-influencers (1,000 – 10,000 followers) boast the highest Instagram engagement rate, at 6.23%.
You can collaborate with them in many ways, like:
- Offering exclusive deals (like special discount codes) for them and their followers, prompting them to mention your brand
- Rewarding them by sharing or reposting your content.
- Inviting them to be brand ambassadors.
📋 Real-life case study
Besides doing a (hopefully!) great job in Brand24, I own a travel brand “Orientuj Adventures”.
To boost my brand awareness, I invited an influencer to participate in my adventurous tour to Oman.
Apart from being a wonderful person to work with, she mentioned my brand multiple times on her Instagram posts and stories.
As a result, I gained 360 new followers and – more importantly! – 5 new customers.
One of the most underrated influencer research techniques is cooperating with those who already talk about you.
Okay, but how to find them?
The easiest way is to use a social listening tool like Brand24.
Open the dashboard, narrow the results to Instagram-only, and visit the Influencers tab.
There, you’ll see the clickable username, number of mentions, followers count, share of voice, estimated number of people influenced by your brand mention, and the Influencer Score.
04 Engage with “regular” users
Collaborating with influencers can get you more views on Instagram. But you should never lose sight of ‘regular’ users. They are the vast majority and they are the target you’re striving for!
And this isn’t just intuition.
Social media plays a crucial role in the customer journey and overall customer experience.
According to Emplifi report, social platforms like Instagram are the most important way consumers prefer to use to engage with brands.
You don’t need to spend hours daily responding to mentions or hire a social media marketing specialist (though, in some cases, that might be a good decision!).
The key here is consistency.
It’s better to spend 15 minutes a day promptly addressing your followers and engaging them than doing it for 5 hours once per week.
Regular engagement keeps your audience connected, builds loyalty, and can significantly increase the chances of being mentioned over time.
Further read: How to get more engagement on Instagram?
05 Increase positive mentions
Have you ever heard that “any press is good press”?
Frankly, I hate this proverb. And I think it’s harmful.
You should work hard for positive mentions and genuine engagement.
Because positive mentions help build a strong, trustworthy brand image and attract more followers interested in what you offer.
Increasing positive mentions becomes easier when you compare your current social media performance with past results.
To do it, visit Brand24’s Comparison tab and change the view to “Compare Periods”.
That’s how you can define if your actual Instagram strategy brings you tangible improvements.
06 Launch “tag us” campaigns
One of the simplest ways to generate more mentions is to encourage users to tag your brand or their friends in the comments.
I guess you’ve probably seen posts like:
- “Tag a friend who would love this place.”
- “Tag us to win!”
- “Tag someone you’d travel here with.”
This technique works because it’s natural and low-effort. Users only need a few seconds to tag your brand someone, but every tag exposes your brand to another potential follower.
To make this strategy work:
- Ask a specific question that encourages tagging
- Connect the tag to an emotion or shared experience
- Combine it with a giveaway or reward
For example, a travel brand could post a photo of a scenic destination and ask: “Tag a friend you’d take on this trip.”
Each comment generates additional brand exposure – and sometimes new mentions in future posts.
FAQ
Why brands should care about mentions in 2026?
Mentions have become one of the most important factors for brand visibility and trust.
It’s because algorithms across social media, Google, traditional search engines, and AI search tools use natural language processing and entity recognition to understand which brands people talk about, in what context, and how often.
As the digital ecosystem is interconnected, mentions in one place often boost visibility elsewhere.
The more often a brand appears in positive or authoritative conversations, the more signals algorithms receive that it’s relevant and worth showing to users.
Further read: Brand mentions for SEO and AI visibility
Does the number of mentions impact Instagram reach?
The number of mentions can impact Instagram reach both positively and negatively – depends on how you use them.
Mentions can have positive impact if you:
- Mention individual people (according to Fanpage Karma’s study, mentioning people in Reels can increase reach by 17%)
- Mention verified accounts (the same study proves that mentioning verified accounts can boost reach by an average of 8%)
Mentions can have negative impact if you:
- Tag brands – especially if you don’t indicate that it’s a commercial / friendly mention
- Tag too many people – in the eyes of Instagram algorithm it may look spammy.
How long does it take to increase Instagram mentions?
Increasing mentions usually requires consistent activity over time rather than immediate results.
The SocialInsider’s study show that Instagram audience growth (which strongly influences mention volume) varies significantly.
Smaller accounts sometimes growing more than 20% while larger accounts grow closer to 11% over same periods.
In practice, brands that publish regularly and actively engage with their community are more likely to see improvements in mentions within several weeks to a few months, especially when they run campaigns encouraging tagging or user-generated content.
How do influencers help generate Instagram mentions?
Influencers show your brand to new audiences and often encourage their followers to talk about it as well.
According to eMarketer, nano-influencers (1,000 – 10,000 followers) enjoy the highest Instagram engagement rate – about 6.23%.
Cooperating with them increases the likelihood that their audiences will interact with or mention the featured brand.
Further read: An ultimate guide to influencer marketing
What type of Instagram content gets mentioned the most?
Content that generates strong engagement is most likely to be shared, referenced, and mentioned by users.
A benchmark study by SocialInsider analyzed 35 million Instagram posts and found that carousel posts have the highest engagement rate (0.55%), followed by Reels (0.52%) and images (0.37%).
Also, according to Adam Mosseri (the Head of Instagram), “sends” (content shared with others) is one of the most important signals for content distribution.
Posts that people want to send to friends or discuss naturally create more opportunities for brand mentions.
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