Have you ever wondered how influencers take over Instagram?
Instagram is one of the biggest growing social media platforms with 2 billion active users as of 2021 and is predicted to reach 2.5 billion by the beginning of next year. Instagram is a known platform for people to share photos and memories of their life. In recent years social media has begun to see a shift with the emergence of influencers; they have changed the social media scene and online buying completely, with 40% of people reported purchasing an item due to an influencer’s review. Influencers were seen using their platform to show off their lives to the world and promote their own brand and brands they are partnered with. As influencers continue to pop up, the question is how are they growing from a small instagram page, to over 100 thousand followers? This article will review 3 ways Instagram Insight’s will help you begin boosting your brand like an influencer.
#1: When To Post
One of the most important analytic Instagram offers you, is their break down of most active times. Why is this a crucial step in advancing your brand?
“Social media platforms are more crowded with posts than ever before, and so the major platforms fight this overcrowding with algorithms.”
BuilderFly
In these insights it breaks down at what day/time users will be most active on Instagram, taking into consideration your followers specifically. As shown in the photo, the user can see the predicted number of people active at specific times of the day on Sundays. Instagram also gives you breakdown of which days are most popular and what hours will have the most active users. Influencers use these metrics to determine when is the best time to post to get the most engagements and grow their brand. Strategically planning when to post your content is one of the most important aspects to growing your brand, you need to get your content in front of as many people as possible.
#2: Who’s seeing your posts?
Understanding your follower base is another critical aspect to growing your brand. As shown in the above, Instagram breaks down your followers by gender. Using the picture as an example, it clearly shows that more females are following this page than males. Now what does this mean for your brand? Influencers use this data to strategically plan what they will be posting to engage their audience. With almost 20% difference in female following, the posts will be targeting more towards them, however, there needs to be a balance to keep that 40% of the men still engaged and interested in your page. Instagram also offers the feature of breaking down the age group most of your followers fall into. If most of your followers are between the ages of 18-24, then it is important to create posts that will interest them. Especially since that age group is huge part of the influencer fan base; posting like an influencer will really draw them in. Breaking down the age groups will additionally give you better perspective on how you have been doing and your plan for moving forward. Do you want to keep only 18-24 year old’s interested? Or do you want to reach an older audience too?
#3: Past vs. Present Performance
One last tip to get your brand and Instagram page to perform like an influencers is comparing your past analytics to your present. Let’s start from the top of the image above, Instagram’s showing you that your page has reached 575 unique accounts in the last week with a gain of 11.2% more reach that last week. This number will be a collected amount of accounts whether you reached them through posts or stories. The insights also offers what age groups and gender are interacting and being reached every week. By understanding what the analytics are telling you, you can further your brand by targeting those active users. Let’s use an influencer for example, Kylie Jenner, she has one of the biggest followings on Instagram and a good portion of them will be men. However, if you look at her page closely, she posts content that is mostly aimed towards females (makeup, swimwear, fashion). This is because by analyzing her own data every week it becomes clear mostly females engage with her content and she can continue to capitalize on that by targeting the female audience with her posts. By analyzing your page’s past performance you’ll begin to find areas of improvement and areas to continue emphasizing.
Now It’s Your Turn
It’s time to take what you have learned here and put to use with your own brand to really increase your social media scorecard. To be an influencer you must post like an influencer; use the tools Instagram has given you access to and promote your brand. One of the biggest reasons influencer’s take over social media is because they play to their strengths and use the resources at hand to tackle the algorithm. After you understand the full detail that Instagram Insights offer you, you can continue to track posts and stories individually with more functions they offer. You may have had a good week but was there a certain post that did better than others? Use that knowledge to boost your brand and become a top user on Instagram.
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