Metrics To Look at On Instagram (that aren't likes!)

Instagram’s CEO recently announced that as of last week the platform will be testing out hiding “likes” on users instagram posts. According to instagram this is to create a “less pressurized environment where people feel comfortable expressing themselves.” [source]

I’m all for this new change.

On instagram I feel a lot of pressure to post content I think will “perform well” in terms of likes. I love the funny f-bomb filled quotes I post, don’t get me wrong. They get a lot of likes. But I also want to be able to post the less funny content too. The meaty stuff.

Content like this doesn’t always perform as well in “likes” [exhibit A this post from a few weeks ago] but is still valuable content to post, in my opinion.

I know for me I’m also so guilty of feeling bad about myself because of how many likes a photo gets. It sounds silly, but it’s the truth. And I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling this.

With this new change being rolled out, it’s super important to look at metrics other thank “likes” on Instagram. There are other metrics to pay attention to that might actually give you more information on what’s resonating with your audience.

Instagram Metrics that Bloggers Should Pay Attention To:

Website Clicks

As a blogger I want to drive my audience on instagram to this here blog. I certainly make use of the swipe-up feature in instagram stories, but you can also drive people to your blog through static instagram posts.

To do this, I tease new blog posts in an instagram post. At the end of the post, I use the call-to-action “click the link in bio to read the full blog post.”

By looking at how many people clicked on my website from that specific post I can track what type of blog posts my instagram audience is interested in. For example, well over 100 people clicked on the link in my bio after reading this instagram post. I get it, guys, ya want the juicy break-up gossip…

How to find website clicks: On an Instagram post click “View Insights.” If there are website clicks, it will show up as one of the metrics.

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Discovery

Are people finding your content through hashtags, locations or tagged accounts? You can check this by looking at the Discovery part of Instagram insights on a specific post. It gives you some insight on how people wound up seeing your post. A few weeks ago I started playing around a bit more with hashtags. By looking at how many people saw my content thanks to hashtags it helped me figure out what was and was not working.

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Follows

Do people want to follow you after seeing something you posted? Every so often a posts of mine will go “viral” or get a ton of views thanks to the Discover page on instagram. It’s helpful to see what kind of content people want to follow me after seeing.

How to find Follows: On an Instagram post click “View Insights.” Follows will be listed under Discovery at the bottom.

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Comments

This is a biggie for me: are people engaging with the content I post? One way to check is to look at if people are commenting on your content — and what are they saying?

Take this recent savasana instagram post for instance, I love seeing y’all get fired up with me! The post might not have gotten a ton of “likes” but a lot of you commented with your own savasana thoughts.

And a word of advice, in this day and age of instagram pods I’m sick of seeing “OMG CUTE OUTFIT” as a comment on other bloggers pictures over and over again. Unless of course, the outfit is super cute, then I’ll comment that too. I’m not some Instagram monster.

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IG Stories

I could write a whole blog post on instagram story metrics, but I’ll keep it short. Here are the important metrics to pay attention to on instagram stories:

Sticker Taps: Did you tag (@) a brand or a person? How many people clicked on that tag to learn more?
Replies: I find for me often times people reply to the same story because it’s something that really resonated with them.
Swipe up: If you have the swipe up link of course important to see if people are swiping up. When I do round-ups with a lot of blog posts it’s an easy way to quickly gauge what content people are interested in.
Poll response: I don’t post polls all too much but it’s a fun way to get people engaged — and also gauge how many people ARE engaged in my content. This week I learned that my followers also still eat ice cream even when its COLD out. You are my people 🙂