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GET TO KNOW THE NUMBERS AND UNDERSTAND YOUR INSTAGRAM INSIGHTS
Instagram has gone through many transformations over the course of the last few years. With the ever-evolving social media world, it's necessary for you to stay in the know with major shifts, especially if you work in the social media space. Boosting your Instagram or general online presence requires you to analyze your content and get to know what works best for your business and audience.
Here's a little secret: If you want to grow on Instagram, start caring about what your audience wants to see instead of what you want to show them.
If you’re new to the world of data and analytics, knowing which Instagram metrics to track can seem like a daunting task.
But once you’re up to speed, understanding and analyzing these metrics can be revolutionary for your brand’s growth!
Knowing how to interpret Instagram metrics in real-time can help you find out what content performs best for you and your audience and allow you to adjust your marketing efforts while maximizing the potential of your page. Instagram makes analyzing your photos and videos easier through 'Instagram Insights' and this article will help you better understand your insights and how you can use them to improve your social media efforts and create content that actually works to help you grow.
How do you access your Instagram insights?
First things first, you need to make sure your account is set up correctly, meaning if you currently have a personal account; you won't be able to access your Instagram insights.
In order to access Instagram Insights, make sure your Instagram profile is set to public.
Switch your personal Instagram account to a business/creator account.
Here's how you can change your personal account to a business or creator account:
Go to settings > account > switch account type.
Once you switch your account type you will then be asked for the kind of account you would like to go ahead with, i.e a creator's account or a business account.
Be sure to select 'business account' if you're providing services to people or want to sell your products; and select a 'creator account' if you're an influencer. Both of these account types will enable you to view your Insights.
Once you've confirmed your new account type, connect it with your Facebook business page (if you have one).
If you don't have a Facebook business page for your business, Instagram will create one for you. Don’t worry, you won’t have to post anything on this Facebook page, it just simply needs to exist. Once your pages are interlinked, you're all good to go!
To get access to your Instagram data analytics and to understand them better, go to your profile, and tap on 'Insights'. Here you get access to your Instagram analytics for the last 7 days or 30 days.
To summarise it all, here's what these analytics mean:
Accounts reached - The number of unique accounts/profiles that have seen your posts in the last 7 days or 30 days.
Content Interactions - The number of times people have engaged with your content.
Total followers - The current number of followers you have on Instagram.
If you tap on any one of these 3 basic metrics, you’ll be able to see more detailed statistics that we’ll cover below...
Accounts Reached
Here's a brief explanation about these analytics shown above:
Impressions - The total number of times your posts have been viewed. In order to grow on Instagram, you'll need to keep an eye on your Impressions from ‘hashtags’. Account activity helps you keep track of the number of people visiting your account.
Profile visits - The number of people that have visited your profile
Website taps - The number of times people have visited your website.
Email button taps - The number of times people have emailed you on your provided email address.
If you scroll down you'll see some categories such as top posts, top stories, and top IGTV videos which simply mean that the posts, stories, and videos mentioned here have been seen by a lot of Instagram accounts and have a higher reach than others.
Pro tip: The more people interact with your content, the more your impressions are likely to increase. The more number of Impressions you have, the more you become visible on Instagram.
Content Interactions
This unpacks the different ways and number of times people have engaged with your content.
Your content Interactions are impacted by how you interact with your audience and other pages on Instagram. Engaging more while you're just starting out on Instagram will help attract people to your page and interact with your content.
Profile visits - The number of people that have visited your profile.
Post Interactions - The number of times people have interacted with your posts in terms of likes, shares, comments, and saves.
Story Interactions - The number of times people have engaged or replied to your stories.
IGTV video interactions - The number of times people have engaged with your IGTV videos in the form of likes, shares, comments, and saves.
The top posts, top stories, and the sections of the top videos are based on the highest number of engagements they have received from your audience in the period selected.
Pro tip: more interaction from your audience = Instagram growth.
Total Followers
You can keep track of your audience growth on a weekly or monthly basis.
The audience insights tab will help you keep track of your audience growth on a weekly or monthly basis. It will show you the number of people that have followed and unfollowed you in the selected period, get to know the age range and gender of the people in your audience, where they are based, when they are most active on the 'gram.
Additional 'post analytics' for you to understand:
Open a post you have recently shared on Instagram, tap on 'view Insights' to see the analytics for that specific post.
A screen will pop up showing the number of likes, comments, shares and saves for that post; and if you swipe up, you will be able to see even more insights.
A quick look at what the different metrics mean:
Likes - The heart icon usually indicates the number of likes you have received on a post.
Comments - You receive comments from your audience in the comment section, where you can also pin, like, and reply to them. Pro tip: Tap and hold a comment you like to ensure everyone sees it and set the tone for how others respond.
Shares - The number of times your posts have been shared with others.
Saves - The number of times your posts have been saved by other people.
Did you know that the more saves your post gets, the more likely the Instagram algorithm will position your post higher in people feeds, or even on the Instagram explore page!? Well, that's a tried and tested trick. So make sure your content adds value and is something that people can't help but save for later!
Profile visits - The number of times your profile has been visited by someone from seeing the current post that you have shared.
Follows - The number of new followers you received from a post.
Reach - The number of unique accounts your post has been seen by.
Impressions - The number of times your post was seen by people, which is also broken down into categories such as Impressions from hashtags, profile, and others.
Note: think of Reach as the number of accounts that have seen your post and Impressions as the amount of times the different accounts have seen your post - some people may come back to your posts to reread or show a friend.
And last but not least...
Instagram Stories Analytics
Instagram stories seem to have changed a lot since the past couple of years, they're more than just a story sharing feature.
You get access to two sets of data analytics: viewers and Interactions.
Viewers - The number of people that have viewed your story.
Interactions - Number of replies, profile visits, and sticker taps (stickers are any mentions or tags you might have added to a post).
Navigations - These metrics help you understand how people react to your stories.
Taps forward - Number of times people have tapped forward to view your next story.
Taps backward - Number of times people have tapped backward to view your previous story again.
Exits - The number of times someone has swiped out of your story, while the next story indicates the number of taps to your next story.
Now that you're aware of how your Instagram Insights work, be sure to make good use of them.
Whether you’re a social media pro or you’re just getting started in your Instagram marketing adventure, it’s necessary to understand these metrics and use them to aid your growth.
If you’re committed to your journey and need help in building your online presence, don’t hesitate to book a consultation call here.