Instagram analytics for beginners
So you’re an influencer, putting up regular posts and gaining followers but it all seems quite random. Some days you’ll get loads of likes, other days very little. So how can you keep track and make sense of what your “influence” is. The answer? Social Media analytics!
While social media analytics could easily sound like some scary computer science stuff, it’s actually quite understandable for just about anyone!
Basically, they’re a collection of interpreted data from your social media accounts, as dictated by the social media network you’re using. On Instagram they’re called “insights” because that’s what they do if you know how to read them- give insight into how your account is doing.
So now that we’re all on the same page, let’s get down to business.
How to find your “insights”
The first thing you need to do is make sure you account is switched to a business account, which can be done in the account section in your settings. Instagram does not give insights to personal accounts.
What to pay attention to
Once you’ve switched to business you’ll see you have access to a wide variety of analytics ranging from individual post insights to larger information about when your audience views your posts (note audience insights are only available for accounts with over 100 followers). There are words such as “‘reach” and “impressions” and while instagram does give you explanations of what that all means it still can be hard to know what to focus on to monitor and improve your stats.
For an influencer the two most important analytic metrics relate to awareness of your account and to your audience. These need to be monitored at a profile and post level because the profile analytics show your overall performance while monitoring each individual post can indicate what kind of content is preferred by your audience and which weren’t.
Awareness of your account can be seen by monitoring your profiles impressions and reach. Impressions refer to how many times your account has been viewed, these are usually quite high as it includes multiple viewings by the same account. Reach tracks the number of views of your account but unique accounts (so only counting each account view once).
While impressions are good to note, reach is the actual “conversion” as it is the true count of how many people have seen or interacted with your account or post at least once. For each individual post this reach metric will tell you how many of those people weren’t your followers, indicating how far your accounts awareness is reaching beyond the community you have already created.
Speaking of community, next to pay attention to is audience. They are the ones who make you an “influencer” or not. Monitor how many followers you gain and lose in relation to your posts and the kind of content you are promoting. Their interactions with your posts, the time of day your posts get the most views and which days are most popular can also guide you on when is the optimal time to put out your content.
Also, If it appears you are being followed by people who are not your expected audience, that could mean your posts are not putting out the message you imagine and need re-thinking.
How to improve your reach and audience
Although Instagram works on an algorithm, there is never a sure fire way to pick up followers and views quickly without buying them (which is inauthentic and not what we’re about). So, much like going to the gym to get the body you want, building your audience is a focused effort.
However there are some “routines” you can do to get your account where you want it to be.
Post regularly, Instagram favours accounts that engage with the platform on a regular basis. So if you keep up a regular posting schedule, your content is likely to be picked up by the algorithm and introduced to audiences it thinks would enjoy what you put up.
Use the right hashtags, this is another way to extend your reach. People search hashtags on specific topics and using the right ones can get your content seen. Also pay attention for trending hashtags that could relate to your posts.
Engage with your audience, Instagram is an online community and so there is a benefit to engaging with your audience to let them know that you appreciate their interest in your content. Like and comment on replied to your posts or stories and comment on content from your audience and even accounts who don’t follow you.
Promote your posts, while we said that paying for followers is a no-no, paying to promote your posts is encouraged. It will depend on your budget but since Instagram is a business it likes accounts who use promoted posts. In addition, it is a simple shortcut to getting a slightly bigger reach on content you think it worth it.
It’s always good to keep in mind that Instagram keeps changing up how their algorithm works, so sometimes your accounts effectiveness could be out of your hands. Keeping updated on any changes is also helpful so you’re not left in the dark.