How to Make Sense of Instagram Insights

If you are a business owner using Instagram to promote your product or service, you’ve hopefully by now upgraded your Instagram profile to an Instagram business profile.

If you still haven’t made the switch to an Instagram business profile, you can learn how to do so here.

Getting an Instagram business profile is free, only takes a few minutes, and it’s totally worth the effort if you are a business owner because you will instantly get access to Instagram Insights and all their mighty powers.

Unleash the power!

Seriously, though – Instagram Insights provide entrepreneurs with valuable feedback on how their Instagram profiles are performing. So, do not overlook this free and valuable feature. It can help you create your Instagram content, decide when to schedule your posts, and understand your audience on a new level.

In addition to switching over to the business profile, you will also need 100 followers before Instagram gives you access to Insights.

Instagram Insights might seem overwhelming at first glance, but they are actually quite easy to decipher.

In fact, Instagram Insights (sometimes referred to as Instagram Analytics) are quite similar-looking to Facebook Insights (or Facebook Analytics) – which is not surprising, since Facebook owns Instagram.

So, if you’ve been managing a business page on Facebook, this primer on making sense of Instagram Insights will seem very familiar to you.

You gain access by clicking on the “View Insight” link located at the bottom left of any of your Instagram posts (you have to be logged into your account to see this).

Once you click on “View Insights,” you will be able to see that post’s Impressions, Reach, and Engagement. Here’s what these terms mean:

Impressions – the number of times someone sees your post. One person might come across your post twice, in which case, you get two impressions.

Reach – the number of people (unique Instagram accounts) who have seen your post. If one person comes across your post twice, your Reach would be one.

Engagement – the number of likes (hearts) and comments your post gets.

On your bio page, you’ll see a bar graph icon at the upper right of your screen. Click on that, and you’ll see your Insights once again, only this time for the entire week: Weekly Impressions, Weekly Reach, Weekly Number of Page Views, and Weekly Number of Website Clicks.

You will also see your Top Posts for the week, based on the number of impressions each post received. Click on “See More” under Top Posts, and you’ll get a nice visual breakdown of how well your best posts performed.

Keep reading, and you will also see your Followers, illustrated with a snazzy bar graph indicating what times of the day your followers are online. This is vital information because it essentially tells you what times of the day you should be posting!

If that wasn’t enough, click on “See More” under Followers and you’ll be treated to some serious demographics of the people who are following on Instagram, broken down by Gender, Age Range, and Location (by city, and by country, no less).

The Followers demographics in particular might surprise you, depending on the nature of your business. In its early stages, Instagram was hailed as a social media platform for teenagers (mostly female), and so business owners often omitted Instagram from their social media marketing strategies, if their service or product wasn’t tailored for the young female market.

But now, entrepreneurs have come to realize that they can still get a sizeable following on Instagram within the demographics they cater to.

Did you find this information useful? Were you surprised to find out who was following you on Instagram and what posts they found most interesting? Tell me in a comment below!

If you’re ready to take your business blog to the next level, check out my FREE eBook, “How To Blog Like An Entrepreneur” here…