Instagram Analytics to help the Algorithm? Some would say it’s debatable. If we’re being honest, we’ve been seeing a lot of articles saying that it’s better for growth if you don’t have a business account on Instagram. Even though the idea of testing that growth theory is compelling, having a business account on Instagram gets you some serious insight into your Instagram.
For those of you who have no clue what we’re talking about when we say “business account,” it’s a setting that you can choose for your Instagram via Facebook. When you make the switch, it gives you the option to state your professional, some of which include categories like “public figure” or “blogger.” It also allows you to get the “email” contact bar on your Instagram profile, which makes it super easy for brands, public relations companies and, really, whoever, to get in touch with you. Those are, obviously, some really great features, but the real value lies in Instagram Analytics.
The data points on Instagram Analytics are made accessible through having a business account. We’ll walk you guys through the different tools, what they mean and how to use them to your advantage to help yourself better navigate the algorithm.
Activity
Interactions:
The interactions section of the Activity Tab shows you the number of actions taken on your account within the past week. The analytics come with a visual bar chart that shows the number of actions taken on each day of the week. A lot of people overlook this chart, but we personally think that it’s one of the most useful tools in Instagram Analytics. This bar graph is a such easy way to see what content your followers are responding to, which ones they aren’t, and ultimately, where you should be focusing your efforts when it comes to content.
The Interactions section also breaks down the data into closer details and tells you the number of profile visits within the past week, website clicks and clicks on your email address (aka brand outreach). It also tells you whether each of those specific data points has increased or decreased from the week prior. So, to make it simple to understand, whether your site is growing in interaction from week to week, or whether it’s not, based on your content.
Discovery:
The Discovery section is also a crazy useful tool. This tells you the number of other Instagram accounts that you’ve reached in the past week. This feature also has a data bar graph similar to the one I described above. It also dives a bit deeper into the data and tells you your overall reach and overall number of impressions for the past week. Like the data from the Interactions section, it also compares your performance this week to the prior. Super useful in gauging whether or not your account is growing, in many more ways than just looking at your follower count. Impressions can be just as valuable as follower count when it comes to brand marketing, if that’s your goal, so don’t make the mistake of overlooking it!
Content
The content section is, you guessed it, all about your content. It tracks the number of posts that you’ve created over the past week, including both Instagram posts and stories. It also tracks and shows you the number of impressions that each of your photos has achieved. It lets you know how many eyes your Instagram photo (and Instagram stories) has actually reached, which is a really useful tool given the algorithm.
Audience
The Audience tab is all about knowing your follower base, and knowing them well. Not only does this section of the analytics tell you your current follower count, it also tells you how your account has either grown or shrunk from the week prior. Understanding your growth can’t get much easier than that.
Top Locations
There’s also a subsection within the Audience tab called “Top Locations.” This will tell you what percentage of your followers come from which countries and which cities. For example, this would be super helpful for a blogger from Europe who is trying to figure out whether to produce content or write captions in English or French. Looking quickly at these statistics would be able to tell that blogger where his/her followers are from, and subsequently, which languages they’d be speaking. It’s also just helpful for anyone trying to understand their follower base as a blogger/publisher/content creator. One of the most powerful ways to achieve success is by knowing who you’re marketing to, who your audience is.
Age Range
The age range tool is also really helpful in determining who and what your demographics are. The bar chart lets you easily compare numbers to see what the majority of your followers age ranges are. It also goes a step further and allows you to sort the age ranges by gender.
Gender
Gender is pretty straightforward and simple. It’s a pie chart that shows you your male to female ratio.
Followers
This is super important guys. We were actually so excited when we discovered this feature because it helps us navigate Instagram success and the algorithm the best we possibly can. This powerful tool lets you see what times of day and which days of the week that your followers are the most active. Amazing, right? This is a fool proof way that you can make sure that you’re posting when your photos has the most potential to reach the most people.
All together, these analytics are an incredibly powerful marketing tool. If you’ve ever taken a single business course in school, no matter the level, you’ve learned just how important it is to know your demographics and have insight into performance levels. We’re completely convinced that addressing these things and paying attention to them is the key to navigating the Instagram algorithm.
Where the analytics really become useful is for fine tuning of your Instagram and personal brand. Combined, these tools let you see what content works for your growth and your audience, and equally as valuable, what doesn’t work. It allows you to optimize your posting schedule to better fit the times and days that your audience is active on the platform. To make it really simple, it lets you be the best version of yourself, your personal brand and your business on Instagram. The analytics give you a well-rounded picture of where you are in your personal growth and from those data points, you can derive little points for improvement and growth that ultimately make a huge difference.
Another thing that Instagram Analytics is amazing for is collaboration opportunities. Ever heard of a media kit? A media kit is a PDF document that lots of bloggers and social media influencers create that highlights who they are, what they’re about, who their audience is, what their engagement or readership statistics are. Media kits are so, so important for securing collaborations and also for establishing yourself as someone to be taken seriously. It’s a lot easier for a brand to agree to pay you or work with you, in general, if they have a few pages to look at where you essentially lay out in numbers why you’d be valuable for them and their business. Luckily for everyone who has an Instagram business account, all of the info you would ever need in a media kit is readily available through their Analytics. Using Instagram Analytics to help the algorithm is possible, but relying on it alone is probably not the best idea.
