9 Easy Steps To Use Instagram Insights (2/2)

1. Go to the hamburger menu and click on “Insights.”

To view insights into your overall Instagram account, begin by visiting your profile. Then, at the top, click on the hamburger icon and choose Insights from the menu.

From there, you will reach the Recent Highlights page where you may see some basic information about how people are engaging with your profile, like what number of followers you gained or lost the previous week.

Next, we’ll get into the extra specific profile insights you can explore.

2. Measure reach.

Click on the Accounts Reached section. Reach shows the number of unique users that have seen any of your Instagram posts.

Within this category, you will see insights for:

• Impressions – What number of times your posts were seen.
• Top Posts – The posts that get the most reach and engagement.
• Account Activity – Profile visits, website taps, and other actions.
• Top Stories – The Instagram Stories posts that people reach and engage with the most.
• Top IGTV Videos – The IGTV videos that people reach and engage with the most.

Some of these insights can be expanded for more information.

3. Track profile visits and followers.

On the Accounts Reached page under Account Activity, you can see Profile Visits.

Profile Visits shows the number of times that people view your profile.

4. Determine website clicks.

Website Taps may also be discovered under the Account Activity section. This insight shows the number of times people click any links you’ve got included in your business profile.

5. Track content interactions.

Navigate back to Recent Highlights and choose Content Interactions. This will bring up a page that shows how your content is performing when it comes to engagement, breaking down the metrics by content type.

Likes speak for themselves, reflecting the number of users who liked your post. As with likes, Comments show the number of comments left on your post. Saves highlights the number of unique users or accounts who saved your post or clicked the bookmark-like icon that is under it in their feeds.

6. Track your followers.

Go back to Recent Highlights and click Total Followers. They will lead you to the Follower Breakdown page.

This page shows how many followers you’ve increased or lost over the previous week, in addition to the average times of day when your followers are using Instagram — data that may be highly useful when planning posts.

7. Learn which actions people take in your post.

To view insights for a selected Instagram post, start by visiting your profile. Tap on the post you’d like to check, then choose View Insights below the image.

These insights describe the number of actions that users done on your profile as a result of seeing your post — things like visiting your profile, then taking an action such as going to your website from your link or following you.

Source: Instagram

8. Use “Discovery” to see where your post appear in feeds.

As the name might recommend, these insights indicate where people see or discover your post the most, including how many accounts weren’t already following you once they first saw the post.

This section consists of metrics on Impressions, which reflect the variety of times your post was found from a particular place within Instagram, like the user’s home feed, a search, your profile, or a hashtag.

Source: Instagram

Discovery insights also show data on a post’s reach — which displays the number of unique accounts that saw your post.

9. View Story insights.

Finally, an users with a business profile can check insights into their ephemeral Stories.

To view your Story insights, visit Insights then go to Content You Shared section on the Recent Highlights page.

Scroll right down to the Stories section, and you can see insights for older stories, in addition to any that haven’t yet expired.

Next, we’ll get into the extra specific insights you’ll be able to discover.

Impressions

This insight represents how many times that people see your Story.

When viewing these insights, remember that you’re able to add many images or videos to your Story. Whenever you do this, Instagram will count every piece of visual content in your Story as a single photo or video in your post.

For instance, you add six pictures to your Story. Whether someone only views one or 5 times, Instagram only counts your entire Story having received one impression.

The same goes for Story content that has been seen by a single person more than once. Instagram still only counts all these actions as one impression.

Reach

This insight displays the number of unique users that have seen your Story.

Taps Forward

This insight displays the number of times a user taps your Story picture or video to skip to the next piece of media.

Taps Back

This insight shows the number of times a user taps your Story photo or video to get back to the previous piece of media.

Replies

This insight displays the number of times users send messages via the Send Message text box on your Story.

Swipe Aways

This insight describes the number of times users skip to the next account’s Story — not to be mistaken for “tap forward,” which reflects users skipping ahead to your next piece of Story media.

Exits

This insight displays the number of times a user leaves the Stories section completely to return to the home feed.

Measuring Your Effectiveness With Instagram Insights

Now that you understand the way to access data with Instagram Insights, you’ll be able to analyze that data and determine what’s working for your audience (and what’s not). From there, creating content that will get a ton of engagement will be a lot easier as you think about those benchmarks.