Instagram Metrics - What to Track and How

Now that you:

It's time to learn about metrics!

Which Metrics to Track and Why

Do you know what metrics are? Specifically, metrics applying to Social Media? (link to descriptions post) Basically, it's the stuff that is important enough for you to measure and focus on. This is how we track if our strategies and campaigns are performing in such a way to meet your social media goals.

Generally, there are key metrics or Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) that truly measure your efforts. Those we consider most important are:

Follower Growth Rate

The name says it all. Essentially, this measures at what rate you gain followers.

This is oftentimes unnecessarily considered the end-all-be-all metric. When considering we focus our efforts on Organic Social Media Marketing (link to post), it isn’t just about the numbers of followers you have, but HOW you got those followers, and WHAT they do.

Follower Engagement Rate

Engagement (link to definitions page) by your audience is very important. Once you have followers, you need to keep them engaged. A quick formula for gauging engagement as a percentage of total followers would be:

(Total likes and comments for all followers for 1 month) / (total number of followers) = engagement % of total followers

Engagement can also be broken down per post, and hashtags for a more narrow view of your metrics. A formula for this would be:

(Total likes and comments for all followers for 1 month) / (number of posts over last month) = Average engagement per post

Hashtags

Assuming you have followed our advice and made a branded hashtag, are your followers using it/them? This engagement is SO important! This can help you get recognition from non-followers and organically gain additional followers.

Story views

Instagram stories is a pivotal part of your strategy (link). You can track what bite-sized content is engaging your followers more, and make use of the voting systems within the stories feature. Many influencers using this feature to get insight into what content their audience wants, without having to consult old metrics. Essentially, taking the guesswork out of it while boosting engagement.

You can check a few different things within your stories.

Unique Views: The number of people who saw your story, and the number of people who saw each singular story.
Completion Rate: Number of people who viewed your full story. This can be a hard metric to track, not many metric platforms track this. But, considering how important it is, there is a simple formula! (# of people that saw your last story) / (# of people that saw your first story) * 100 = percentage of followers that watched your entire story
Direct messages to your story: This one is relatively self-explanatory. This is the number of messages you get from within the story messaging option your followers have. This is a great way to gauge interest in your content!

Website Traffic

We have discussed why it is important to include links to your website/store/product page/swipe ups in your Instagram strategy and account profile. Focus on what links your audience is following. Maybe your strategy includes updating your links to your most recent blog post, and referencing those posts in your stories and posts - this is a great time to see if those links are being used!

You want to be sure the links you have on your profile and in your stories coincide with where you want the traffic to flow. Is it your goal sell additional services? Link to your services page!

Where and How to Track Them

There are awesome platforms that will help you track your KPI’s! Some of them also offer direct posting features, and are platforms we know and love! These include Buffer, Sprout Social, and Hootsuite. These sites also track the metrics for all the other connected profiles, so we definitely recommend them! But if you are looking for something specific for Instagram, there are a few we would recommend: Inconosquare, Union Metrics, Squarelovin, and of course, Instagram Insights.

Instagram Insights analytics tool is completely free, but it does require that you convert your Facebook profile to a Business profile. This is a great place to track your Instagram ads metrics. Unfortunately, if you just recently switched to a business profile, your previous content can’t be used to measure metrics, BUT all content posted moving forward can!

We hope you track your metrics and get a front row seat in watching your business and audience grow online. Social media is a wonderful tool to connect with your followers, and when you listen to what they do and do not like, your products/services improve - just like you do!

If you would like any additional information or help with your social media presence, please visit our website!

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