Which Instagram Analytics are the Most Important?

So, you already know you should be looking at Instagram Analytics, but you don’t know where to start…don’t worry, a lot of people are in the same boat. Let’s take a deeper dive into the analytics you should be considering.

Believe it or not, part of what determines a successful post is when you actually publish it. Have you ever noticed that when you post an amazing piece of content at some days of the week or times in the day you see less or more interaction than others? It’s likely that you could post the exact same photo or video at 1pm on a Sunday and 9am on a Monday and see totally different levels of engagement. So, when you post really matters if you want the best chance at a high engagement rate, ranking on hashtags, and ultimately reaching new followers. There are a number of ways you can see when the best time on average is to post on your account. With Flick, you can view this on the Desktop or Mobile app, in the Overview and Insights sections:

In the Insights section, you can see where you historically get the most engagement, by day of the week and specific time. You can follow this to plan your posting schedule or use it to determine whether you should post on a specific day or wait.

In the Overview section, you can view the best time to post for that day, which is great for spontaneous posting! Start using these analytics as part of your strategy and you will likely see an increase in your engagement per post.

If you don’t already use hashtags on your posts – get to using hashtags on your posts. We’ve made it easy with this guide. Hashtags are a great vessel to reach new audiences within your niche on Instagram, and the way to know if your hashtags are really working is by understanding whether they have ranked. When you rank on a hashtag, it means your post has received enough engagement to appear in the ‘top posts’ section of that hashtag, so when someone searches it, your post is one of the first ones they see.

With a great hashtag strategy in place, you can start ranking easily and increase your post Impressions. In your analytics, you can also see exactly which hashtags you are ranking on as well as which position you are ranking in, so you can continue to use the ones that consistently perform well and swap out the hashtags that never do.

Saves and Shares are insights that you really should pay attention to, beyond likes and comments. Why? Because they indicate the quality of your content. If someone is willing to take that step farther and either share your content to their story or save it for later, then you know it’s done the job! You can view this either in Instagram’s native analytics or via Flick.

If your main goal on Instagram is to grow your account, Reach and Impressions are important analytics to look at, as they let you know how many eyes are on your posts, and whether your content is being pushed beyond just your existing followers. If you have a solid strategy, usually this is reflected in the number of people you reach, so you can readjust your content, scheduling, and more based on this. For example, you might be someone that consistently posts static content, but once in a while posts a video or an ‘inspo post’. If the Reach and Impressions are better on your videos or inspo posts, you might consider introducing more of these content styles into your regular schedule.

Whenever you create content, you should have a goal associated with that post, so you are always thinking strategically. Is your post going to help followers get to know you better? Or is your post more focused on attracting a large audience so that they visit your page? You can use your existing analytics to inform your future strategy, and the types of content you post based on their success rate.

We’ve got more posts detailing the best practices for analytics coming soon, so keep your eyes peeled! In the meantime, check out the new, in-depth analytics section of Flick, which is now available on our mobile app!