THE FUNDAMENTAL INSTAGRAM STATS YOU SHOULD BE TRACKING

Raise your hand if you have ever:

• Shared a post only to see little to no engagement
• Felt totally confused about what your audience actually wants to see and hear from you
• Seen your total IG subscriber count stagnate month after month
• Wondered how many people are actually even seeing your post

 

Guess what, we’ve been there too and it’s SO FRUSTRATING. 

 

Constant algorithm changes make it feel like a losing game trying to grow your brand and get more clients in the door via platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.

 

You are not alone in feeling like you are not seeing the growth and engagement that you know is critical to brand growth.  

 

But there is one critical component that is so often overlooked by small businesses, especially early on in the biz building journey.

 

You MUST track the critical Instagram metrics to see growth.

 

Which critical metrics should you track and how should you track them you ask?  

 

Well,  we’re here to get you up to speed and on track so that beginning TODAY you will be able to see real measurable progress on this journey!

 

Let’s start by dissecting the anatomy of a post.

 

On any given post, your audience is able to take five important actions. They can like, comment, share, shop or save your post. If your post really stops them in their tracks, they can visit your profile and go to your website or contact you. If they aren’t currently following you, this profile visit might even earn you a new follower.

 

Those five actions are all essential metrics you should be tracking as they will tell you what is resonating the most with the audience you are trying to reach which translates into getting more clients in the door!

Here is how you can interpret some of these actions:

• Your best overall content = Your most liked
• Your most compelling topics & CTAs = Your most commented
• Your most timely/relevant content = Your most shared/saved
• Your best “stop-the-scroll” = Your most followed

 

To view these metrics, you will need to have an Instagram Business or Creator Account set up. Whether or not you convert to a Business account, however, really depends on your unique business.

 

Assuming you have a business account set up, We’re going to quickly (and visually) walk you through how to view these metrics so you can start keeping track of what resonates with your audience.

 

Finding your Metrics:

1. Select profile visits (at the top) to get into the Instagram Insights dashboard
2. Select Content
3. See All

This area will show you the performance of your posts up to a two year period! Here you can filter by post type, time period and the interaction you want to track. Going back to our Top 5 metrics, this will help you see what content is performing best based on your goals.

Now, if you want to see additional information like profile growth and a breakdown of your actions over any given week head back to the main Insights dashboard and select any of the two remaining categories, Activity and Audience. 

 

Under Audience, you’ll also be able to explore your best times to post. I recommend having posted consistently for 30 days to get the most accurate data. 

 

Instagram Insights can be a bit limited in the data you can pull so if you want to get more granular and automate your reporting, check out Iconosquare or the Later business plan. 

 

Now that you know which critical metrics to keep your eyes on, begin testing different content types and posting schedules to determine what resonates most with your audience. Understanding what gets them to like, comment, share, shop or save your post will help to simplify your planning and it’s the very first step in building out your content buckets.

 

Today’s Quick Start Step:

 

Spend 20 minutes today (this will pay dividends later!) and take a look back at your highest performing posts on Insta. Make a list of what images performed well AND what the topic of your caption was.  Save this list! This will help you build out your content buckets.