Instagram is one of the largest social media services in existence; boasting over 200 million active users, 20 billion shared photos, and 1.6 billion likes daily (Salleh et al., 2015). From a marketing perspective, Instagram is also considered to be highly influential. US-based marketing analytics agency Mediakix estimates that Instagram influencer marketing could total to around $2billion dollars by 2019 (Mediakix | Influencer Marketing Agency, 2017).
Post engagement on Instagram is also one of the strongest offered from social media platforms. A study conducted on the 25 most engaging global brands revealed that the average Instagram post gained an engagement rate of 3.31%, this is a significant figure considering tweets from the same company averaged a rate of 0.07% (Peterson, 2017).
This article therefore draws from the 6th channel of Chaffey’s focus on digital marketing (Chaffey, 2012), focusing on the management of a company’s presence on their social media channels. 2 key factors are detailed below suggesting how a company could effectively audit their Instagram account, as a means to engage its target market more successfully, and in-turn analyse and track its progress.
1). Evaluate Content
The first step to consider is the content; is what’s being posted relevant to the company and actually engage with the target market? Kietzmann et al., (2011) states it as as crucial to identify the common interests of the businesses target market and tailor the company’s social media content to appeal to these.
This considers if the images are appealing to the viewer and whether they will attract and engage them further. Achieving strong appearance comes from initially identifying the companies brand image and altering the page’s layout to represent this (Guerrero, 2017). Examples from Taco Bell, Go Pro and Square Space can be seen below:
Wishpond (2017) reveal that the most engaging Instagram images are customer / employee centric, contest photos, product-centric, and blogger endorsed imagery. These various styles are exhibited in the above examples, and provides an insight into how these pages effectively visually engaged and persuaded their target market to subscribe.
2). Hashtags
An Instagram hashtag is a word of phrase comprised of letters, numbers, and / or emoji preceded by the hash symbol. If one of these is attached to a photo you post, it will become immediately discoverable by anyone who searches for this particular phrase (Aynsley, 2017).
Below are some key examples of popular hashtags for food, records, and furniture. As we can see the various phrases topping the lists are highly searched, and are likely to be accessed for by a high volume of users with a specific interest for the actual content:
Research analysing the effectiveness of hashtags concluded that companies experienced increased interaction from their consumer base almost instantly once they began to use appropriate hashtags (Bergström and Bäckman, 2013). A similar study also concluded that posts with hashtags average up to 12.6% more engagement (Simplymeasured, 2017).
However, it’s important to consider what terms are being used for hashtags, as purely using the most popular phrases as seen above may cause the post to be lost amidst a large quantity of other posts using the exact same phrase. Therefore, adopting more niche phrases is an effective method to reach engaging communities that have a genuine interest in what you are posting (Loren, 2017).
3). Measuring Performance
Once these changes have been applied, it is then advised to incorporate an analytical tool to measure the progress of the account over time Lamachenka (2017). Simply Measured is an application which analyses the levels of engagement on the Instagram profile, focusing on likes and comments over a specific period:
The graph on the left displays the levels of engagement achieved over a period of time, allowing a more specific analysis of posts which gained more popularity. The table on the right then totals all data into an average, providing an overall summary of how successful the page has been at engaging visitors as a percentage of total followers.
Audiense also offer a similar service which allows tracking and analysis of a profiles success over a given period of time. This tool slightly differs however, offering an additional method to measure click through conversions, which may be useful if the Instagram profile contains a link to the company’s website:
There are plenty more analytical applications on offer to provide a method to track and monitor the success of the profile, Hootsuite provides a useful summary of these within their blog post:
4). What metrics to measure?
Account metrics:
This has a specific focus on the total overview of the account, giving a detailed insight into the success of the Instagram’s activity over a period of time. This type of data is specifically useful when looking to determine which posts were most successful at engaging users, and ultimately may help when developing campaign goals.
This can be focussing on analysing new followers, most popular posts, how many mentions your account has received etc.
Individual post metrics:
As the title suggests, this is looking to analyse specific posts and how successfully they are engaging consumers.
So this metric will focus more on how many likes / comments each post has received. When these figures are divided by how many people actually viewed the post, this will give an insight of what percentage of the target market engage with the content.
Utilising these few methods should work as a useful starting point to appropriately monitor the effectiveness a companies page!
References
Aynsley, M. (2017). The Complete Instagram Hashtag Guide. [online] Hootsuite Social Media Management. Available at: https://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-hashtags/#whatis
Audiense Userguide. (2017). Profile Performance Report – Audiense Userguide. [online] Available at: https://userguide.audiense.com/profile-performance-report/
Bergström, T. and Bäckman, L. (2013). Marketing and PR in Social Media: How the utilization of Instagram builds and maintains customer relationships. [online] Diva-portal.org. Available at: http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:625012/FULLTEXT01.pdf
Chaffey, D. (2012). Digital marketing: strategy, implementation and practice. 5th ed. London: Pearson Education Limited.
Get.simplymeasured.com. (2014). Simply Measured: Q3 2014 Instagram Study. [online] Available at: http://get.simplymeasured.com/rs/simplymeasured2/images/InstagramStudy2014Q3.pdf
Guerrero, A. (2017). How to Establish an Instagram Aesthetic: 10 Brands Doing It Right. [online] www.hubspot.com. Available at: http://How to Establish an Instagram Aesthetic: 10 Brands Doing It Right.
Conner, S. (2017). The 7 Best Instagram Analytics Tools (And Metrics You Need to Track). [online] Hootsuite Social Media Management. Available at: https://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-analytics-tools-business/ [Accessed 1 Dec. 2017].
Kietzmann, J., Hermkens, K., McCarthy, I. and Silvestre, B. (2011). Social Media? Get Serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media. Indiana University, Kelley School of Business.: Elsevier.
Salleh, S., Hazarina Hashim, N. and Murphy, J. (2015). Instagram Marketing: A Content Analysis of Top Malaysian Restaurant Brands. [online] Available at: http://3ws1wk1wkqsk36zmd6ocne81.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/files/2015/02/SP04_MktSession_Salleh.pdf.
Lamachenka, A. (2017). How to Analyze Your Instagram Marketing: 4 Metrics to Consider. [online] Socialmediaexaminer.com. Available at: https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-analyze-instagram-marketing-4-metrics-to-consider/
Loren, T. (2017). The Ultimate Guide to Instagram Hashtags in 2017. [online] Later Blog. Available at: https://later.com/blog/ultimate-guide-to-using-instagram-hashtags/
Mediakix | Influencer Marketing Agency. (2017). Instagram Influencer Marketing Is Now A $1 Billion Industry. [online] Available at: http://mediakix.com/2017/03/instagram-influencer-marketing-industry-size-how-big/#gs.fkyUY=g.
Peterson, Z. (2017). Instagram Blows Away Twitter on Brand Engagement By Almost 50x. [online] Socialbakers.com. Available at: https://www.socialbakers.com/blog/2321-instagram-blows-away-twitter-on-brand-engagement-by-almost-50x.
Wishpond. (2017). 5 Best Types of Instagram Photos to Drive Engagement. [online] Available at: https://blog.wishpond.com/post/56884222190/5-best-types-of-instagram-photos-to-drive-engagement