Professional accounts on Instagram have been around for quite a while, but many businesses still struggle to find success on the platform. Considering the billions of data points on social media, it’s highly advantageous to make the most of them. Thankfully, there are many tools and insights available that can help take your efforts to the next level.
Taking advantage of those data points can be accomplished in more ways than one. Of course, everybody likes to make a sale, but sometimes you have to take a more funneled approach. Metrics like followers, post shares, and the whole of your profile analytics can help guide business decisions in more ways than one.
In this blog post, I will highlight several social media insights that are proven to support your business efforts on Instagram.
What are Social Media Insights?
Combining platform context and data is what leads you to actionable insights. You want to understand the “why” in the data you’re looking at; otherwise, you won’t be able to use it to your advantage. It’s important to understand that insights are more than just engagement numbers.
You also want to make sure you have the proper toolset to utilize these insights, and a great example of this would be an IG downloader tool. The content you can download from Instagram includes photos, videos, Reels, Stories, highlights, and even entire profiles.
Take a look at the video below to see how the Instagram downloader works, as it allows you to anonymously collect content without having your data involved.
Aside from that, here are several key details about how social media insights work:
- User demographics and behavior data pinpoint your target audience and how they interact with your content
- Content trends show you which topics, formats, or content styles drive the most organic engagement as well as conversions
- Brand perception helps to identify loyal followers, as well as the other side of the coin when it comes to addressing issues
- Benchmarks from competitors are how you compare your own performance to what might be working well with others
The point of this information is to refine your strategy, make improvements where needed, and then repeat the process in the long term.
How to Gather and Utilize Social Media Insights
One of the best ways to lean into this is to download Instagram’s analytics from your account. The built-in dashboards for business accounts have a lot to offer, and this includes angles like reach, impressions, demographics, and general engagement.
Keep in mind this is real-time, actionable data you can use that comes at zero additional cost. The data is relatively siloed, meaning it can be challenging to make cross-platform decisions based on this alone. There are several ways you can get around this, including tools like an Instagram HD downloader, cross-referencing data points, and more.
Social Listening Tools
Using social listening tools helps to track specific data points like keywords, account mentions, and conversations related to your brand. Some of the benefits you can pull from this include sentiment shifts, trending topics, and even potential PR risks that might be brewing online.
Whether it’s emotional factors, increasing engagement from influencers, or viral content, there’s a lot you can take from this. It’s also important to focus on every content type available, whether the bulk of your data is coming from a story, video, or carousel post.
Third-Party Analytics
You don’t have to rely solely on Instagram’s dashboard analytics. While the data from this source is definitely helpful, it doesn’t hurt to get a third-party look at the situation. There are many tools you could choose from, many of which focus on data points like predictive analysis, competitive benchmarking, and custom reporting.
In short, it’s a lot more in-depth analysis compared to what Instagram gives you. Often, all you have to do is paste a link from a post or account profile, and you’ll get an entire report back full of actionable data. Between the free and paid options on the market, there’s no shortage of data collection through IG anonymous-based tools.
Segmentation and Insight Application
Once you’ve had time to collect a detailed report, it’s time to start segmenting. Considering how much data is available to you, it’s best to separate categories for better visibility. From audience type, region, to different platforms, this is how you get down to specific targeting.
Whether it’s derived from a mass downloader for Instagram or just dashboard analytics, segmenting is always crucial. If you take this approach, your campaigns will not only be better optimized but much more personalized to the target audience.
Best Practices and Common Mistakes
If you’re new to navigating analytics or just looking to optimize your strategy, there are several best practices and common mistakes to think about here. Regardless of whether you’re heavy on the reels or love to stick to what you know, it’s important to keep an adaptable mindset. Take a look at the lists below, and keep them in mind the next time you decide to pivot with your Instagram content.
- Best Practices
- Practice strong collaboration across all of your teams from marketing, product, customer service, and more
- Make sure relevant insights are available to decision makers within your organization
- Tie actionable metrics to specific business objectives on your socials
- Make use of automated alerts and scheduled reports for ongoing oversight
- Monitor social media data on a daily basis
- Common Mistakes
- Don’t ignore quantitative data like comments or sentiment toward your brand
- Combine quantitative metrics and qualitative feedback for a better look at the whole picture
- Experiment and A/B test your strategies using collected data
- Never rely on one source for your data collection
- Always gather insights from multiple channels
- Don’t confuse causation with correlation and misinterpret data trends
Some of these are easier said than done, but it’s possible with long-term due diligence and keeping a close eye on your data points.
Final Thoughts
The scope of social media insights is bound to change over time. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t always try your best on a consistent basis.
Instagram is an excellent tool for any modern business, regardless of your objective or stage in growth. At the same time, to avoid being surpassed by competition, it requires a multi-layered marketing strategy that’s heavily supported by the right data.
