Instagram influencers have created a thriving business model. Through endorsement of products, online advertising, and product testing, businesses can use influencers to market their businesses and spread brand awareness. Meanwhile, these individuals with a knack for social media make an impressive side income or run a full-time business. (Images Credit: Pixabay)
If you’ve been acting as an influencer on Instagram, and would like to see your business grow, you’ll need to use Instagram analytics data. Real-time, actionable insights into your Instagram account will provide valuable information as to your strengths and weaknesses as an influencer. You can change and grow as necessary, simply because you know how to measure your success.
Analytics is somewhat difficult to master, so if you’re new to the game, here are a few things to know about Instagram analytics and how they can help your influencer account grow.
Instagram Analytics Overview
Think of analytics as a marketer’s best friend. It’s a gold mine of data about your followers, posts, activity, engagement, and more. This information will guide you to becoming the best influencer you can be if used correctly.
Instagram analytics tracks everything that occurs on your account, from what you post to the people who engage with it. There are a variety of metrics that you can monitor on this account, but four of the most important include:
- Followers: You can monitor your follower count and recognize its correlation to your content. These insights are useful for determining what content attracts followers what loses them.
- Engagement: Lots of followers but poor engagement is a very bad sign, and it makes your account look spammy. You want real, long-term engagement, and the data in this analytics category can determine if your content will do that for you. If you’re receiving low comment rates, it probably has to do with the quality of your image or the lack of a compelling caption.
- Stories: As the most popular feature on Instagram, you should be using Instagram Stories and tracking your success on it. View counts, leads, and conversions on this feature will help you maximize the reach of your messages.
- Conversions: Most influencers are looking for more conversions because that means increased revenue and customers. You can track what’s converting your followers so that you can try to replicate that in the future. Establishing a healthy track record of conversions is the best thing you can do to grow your business.
Each category provides invaluable insights that will help you strengthen your brand. Watch these metrics carefully and look for ways to improve your account in order to reap the full benefits.
Remember that Instagram analytics is only available to those with a business account, so if you haven’t yet, now is the time to switch over. It won’t change anything about your profile other than the internal categorization, so it’s really easy to upgrade. Plus, you’ll have access to Instagram ads, a better bio including email and contact information, and the ability to add links to your Instagram Stories.
Benefits of Instagram Analytics
After reading the overview of Instagram analytics for influencers, you can probably see how it can benefit your business, but here are a few key benefits worth considering.
Improve Customer Engagement
It’s very important as an influencer that your account doesn’t look like it’s purchased followers. If you have low engagement and lots of followers, however, that’s exactly how it will be perceived.
Watching the numbers marking follower engagement as well as your own comments, likes, and posts will help you establish a strong brand, increase your following, and attract more paying customers. Greater engagement shows that your influencer account is successful.
Spread Brand Awareness
Instagram analytics can’t show exactly what people think about your brand (it’s not a mind reader), but it can show you a little about how it’s perceived online. You can track brand mentions across the platform to learn what others are saying about you and how you can improve or maximize these opinions.
Know Your Audience
You might think you know your audience, but the audience tab on your Instagram analytics chart proves who they are without a shadow of a doubt. You’ll see the demographics (gender, age, location, purchasing habits, etc.) and detailed other information about the majority of followers who interact with your account. You can then leverage this information to cater your strategy and content to these people.
Make and Track Goals
How can you know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been? Instagram analytics provides a base for you to start from as you climb the influencer ladder. You can use your current information to set goals and use the numbers and charts provided to measure your success. This method of tracking creates a tangible feeling of success that motivates you further.
Post at the Right Time
Studies show that if you want to make the biggest impact on your target audience, you need to post when they’re online. You don’t have to guess when this is—your Instagram analytics will show you which days of the week and which times of the day your followers are there. You can schedule your content to go live when they’re there. Since posts typically see the best engagement they’ll ever see within the first 12 hours, this is paramount to your success.
Create Better Content
You might think your content is great, and your client might agree, but the only way to truly know whether or not your content is succeeding is to look at the numbers. Compare the engagement on each piece of content to determine what was most successful and why. This will help you develop a killer content strategy for more conversions. You can get an Instagram post generator online for your content.
Get More Paying Gigs
The overall benefit of watching analytics and improving your account in all of these categories is access to more paying gigs. Businesses trying to grow their brand are looking for Instagram influencers with a proven track record of success. As you make analytics tracking a priority and improve your influencer business, more customers will find you and compensate you for your service.