5 Metrics to Consider now that Instagram is Hiding āLikesā ā¤ļø
Following ā
I mean, this is probably a no-brainer, but you should always be keeping an eye on your follower count to make sure you can see the patterns your account is forming. For example, do you gain a lot more followers when you post a certain type of content, or have you historically lost followers for posting another type of content? This is all important in understanding what your current audience enjoys. It can also give you insights in to what type of content attracts your target audience, so by looking deeper than just the numbers, you can actually learn a lot about what tactics you should be using on your account.
You can do this in a lot of different ways, but our
Flick Assistant app does have a feature that allows you to see the followers youāve gained and lost week on week. Check it out and do some deep diving, as itāll help you re-strategize your Instagram plan for the future.
Post reach and ratio šāāļø
Another important Instagram metric to consider is how many people your post is actually reaching, and what this number looks like in comparison to the number of followers you actually have. Your post reach can give an accurate picture of the percentage of your audience that is actually seeing your posts.
If your post reach to follower ratio is low, you should consider re-strategizing when it comes to your account by implementing a few tips and tricks to make that number look a little healthier.
One thing you can do, is take a look at your hashtag strategy. Hashtags are a quick and easy way to increase your reach over time, as well as gain a boost to your follower count ā a win-win. Picking the right hashtags can
increase your visibility by 15-40%, in turn increasing your āreachā. For example, if you utilize hashtags that are relevant specifically to the content you are posting, your post is more likely to be shown to more people, making it more likely to be engaged with and then shown to even more people. If you want to learn a little more about hashtag strategy,
take a look at this blog post. Another way to increase your reach, is by reminding your followers when youāve posted. It could be that you content just isnāt showing up in their feeds if they havenāt engaged with your account for a little while, so by posting a story when youāve uploaded some new content, you can direct your current followers to your page.
A final way that can help you increase your reach, is by naturally engaging with, and interacting with other pages that are similar to yours, or within your niche. This can help to up your own engagement, which will in turn increase your reach when you are posting.
Engagement š¤
Of course, calculating engagement has traditionally taken ālikeā count in to consideration, but this may change a little with the, well, lack of like count. Whilst you can still see your own like count, itās important to take in to consideration your views and comments too. Likes can be bought easily without people sussing it out, but fake comments are a little easier to debunk, so authentic accounts will be determined based on the authenticity of their engagement. Also, video views are important, as they are an outward display of the reach you achieve on your account. Views are a clear way to show the amount of people who have āconsumedā your content on Instagram, and will help you determine what works and what doesnāt.
Saves šØ
As an avid Instagrammer, you probably save a lot of content you like on your own account ā whether it be for fashion inspiration, beauty looks to try out or new recipes. Saves are a great Instagram metric to measure what content has worked well, and what content is deemed āsaveableā by your followers. This type of content is long-lasting, as it lives within peopleās saved lists for as long as they want that inspiration you provided. By checking out what has been saved, and what hasnāt you can get a better idea of what you should be posting, that might provide value to your audience.
Hashtag growth #ļøā£
As mentioned before, you can also measure how well content is doing based on your hashtag performance. If you ārankā in a specific hashtag, this means its amongst the most popular posts within that hashtag, and is thus likely to be shown to more people. So, by monitoring hashtags you can jump on the bandwagon when certain trends pop up, or, just check in on how your branded hashtags are performing. You can also view the impressions you recieve on a post by segmentation, so you can see how many impressions you are getting via hashtags specifically. This gives you a deeper look in to what hashtags are helping you reach a more engaged and interested audience and which hashtags donāt work so well for your account.
Branded hashtags are also great if you are a business, because they can offer you a plethora of user-generated content that you can repurpose on your own channels, if you use them the right way in your campaigns.
Try our new hashtag assistant!