Growing on Instagram organically can be tough, and sometimes it feels like no matter what you try, nothing is working. But, have you checked your metrics?
It can be easy to just post something and see how many likes and comments you get to measure the success of an Instagram post. However, there are so many more analytics you can be looking at to truly see why that post underperformed.
When properly utilizing the metrics Instagram gives you, you’ll be able to see more organic growth in your account.
How do you find your metrics?
First thing’s first, you need to be operating from a business account. If you don’t have a business account, you’ll need to set one up so you can see your insights.
After creating your account, you’ll be able to find your metrics by clicking the insights tab on your profile.
Profile metrics you need to know.
Reach:
Your reach shows how many unique visitors have seen your published content.
Impressions:
This is the total number of times your content has been viewed.
Ex: One person views your story 10 times. You now have one reach with 10 impressions.
Profile Visits:
This metric is pretty self explanatory. It tells you how many times someone went to your profile from a post.
This metric is helpful because it can show you what types of content will drive the most interest to your business.
Engagement:
Engagement is probably the most important metric. There are a few different ways you can look at your engagement to gain different insights.
- total engagement: how many likes and comments your account has gotten
- average engagement: total engagement / # of posts
- This shows you how involved your audience is
- average engagement per post by followers: ( average engagement / # of followers ) x 100
- This will give you the most accurate perspective into how your audience interacts with your content. This excludes promoted and boosted posts. Think organic content only.
- average engagement per post by reach: ( average engagement / reach ) x 100
- This is the most accurate metric for showing how a post is received in general. If you have a low average engagement per post by reach, you may need to try different posting strategies to draw in some more engagement. If your rate is high, keep doing what you’re doing!
Stories Metrics you need to know
Navigation:
Outside of the normal impressions and reach that we’ve already talked about, your navigation metrics can give you the most insight into your stories and how your audience perceives them.
Types of navigation:
- Back: People who tap back on your stories are re-engaging with the content they’ve already seen from you. This is a great metric to look at when assessing the content you posted prior to the post you are assessing currently. The more back taps, the more likely that the previous content was engaging.
- Forward: These people are still tapping through your stories, wanting to look at more of the content you’ve posted.
- Next Story: People have skipped over the rest of your content to see content from a different account.
- Exited: People have left stories completely. This can mean they closed the app or went back to scroll their normal feed.
These are some of the most important metrics you can look at when it comes to assessing your social media strategy. Unfortunately, though Instagram Reels have taken the world by storm, you can’t do much to evaluate their performance outside of views, likes and comments. If the ability ever comes available to gain insights on Instagram Reels, we will keep you updated!
