How to Use Instagram’s New Photo Comment Feature to Boost Engagement

Instagram is now allowing users to post images in comments, which opens up loads of engagement opportunities for real estate agents. 

Think about it. You post on IG asking viewers to share pics of their favorite coffee place, the best burger in town, whatever, and soon your comment section is a photo gallery of ideas for hyperlocal content. 

That’s just one idea (though it contains multitudes), but there are plenty more ways to use this feature. 

Which is why The Broke Agent covered this in yesterday’s Content Audits session in BAMx. 

This will be one of those posts to bookmark and come back to. 

How This Changes your Comment section

Here’s how it works. Once you click on an IG post’s comment section, if this feature is enabled for you, you can attach a photo from your camera roll to any comment, with an optional caption. 

So, say you asked your viewers to share pics of their favorite local coffee place. Commenters who share pics they’ve taken (or found) can add a caption with the shop’s name, along with details like “Best drip coffee of any place I’ve been to. I could live here.”

Could also be: 

• Best burger/pizza in your area
• Best cocktails in town
• Your kids’ favorite place to eat
• Where you find the best treats for your pet (pet pics welcome)
• Favorite place to celebrate with loved ones

Just like that, your comment section becomes a two-way gallery instead of a one-way broadcast. 

Instagram has been moving toward rewarding content that drives comments and shares over passive likes. And because photo comments require more effort than a quick text/emoji reply, when someone takes the time to comment with a pic, it signals genuine interest to the algorithm. 

Plus, the more you incentivize people to share pics of things that matter to them, the more other viewers will want to stick around to scroll and share pics of their own. 

And sharing a photo feels like more of an investment. It makes people more aware of your brand and more receptive to future posts.

The Broke Agent talked about this update in yesterday’s Content Audits, detailing a variety of ways real estate agents can use this to:

• Get more engagement 
• Get ideas for future content
• Find out what your audience cares about 

He shared a few ideas off the top of his head:

“Instead of commenting a GiF or commenting just words you could actually add photos. So I think this could be a really fun kind of engagement farming for people to do. 

“You could say something like, ‘Comment the most recent picture you have on your phone,’ or ‘Comment the most recent picture you have on your phone of [insert your local market],’ or ‘Comment a photo of your favorite coffee shop,’ or ‘Comment a photo of a location in your hometown and see if people could guess it.’ 

“I think it’s a good addition here by Instagram.”

Plays to Run This Week

The more we think about this new (and overdue) update, the more options come to mind. So, if you’re seeing the option in your IG mobile app, we recommend making the most of it ASAP. 

Here’s are a few plays you could run this week: 

1. Post a home feature and ask viewers to drop a photo of their own (e.g., “Drop your home office setup below”). 
2. Post about a client’s DIY home improvement project and ask viewers to drop photos of their own.
3. Post about the things you love most about your area and ask viewers to share photos of their favorite neighborhood feature or local spot.

Use the responses as hyperlocal content intel: what people care enough to photograph tells you what to create more of. 

Also, don’t forget to respond to photo comments (with your own photos, if it makes sense) to reward engagement and connect with your audience. This has the added benefit of keeping threads alive and boosting your reach. 

The biggest question now is where to begin?