The Complete Guide toINSTAGRAM ANALYTICS

Thi rd Ed i t ion

TABLE OF CONTENTSINTRODUCTION

LEVERAGING INSTAGRAM’S MOST RECENT UPDATESThe Impending Algorithmic Feed

60-Second Videos

THE KEY TO INSTAGRAM ANALYSISEngagement Metrics

Likes

Comments

Total Engagement

Engagement per Post

Engagement as a % of Followers

Hashtag Mentions

Hashtag Volume

Hashtag Reach

Hashtag Impressions

Engagement Optimization

Set up a Benchmarking Program

Solicit User-Generated Content

Leverage Ancillary Apps

Follower Metrics Total Number of Followers

Percent Change in Followers

Follower Growth Tips

Use Hashtags Effectively

Encourage User-Generated Content

Promote on Other Channels

The 4 Essential Instagram Analytics Tactics

Learn About and Cater to Your Audience

Pay Attention to Timing

Employ Competitive Benchmarking

Work with Influencers (And Measure Success)

CONCLUSION

ABOUT SIMPLY MEASURED

INTRODUCTIONInstagram is top-of-mind for any social marketer, and with 400 million monthly active users and 80 million photos posted daily, it’s no surprise that the network has been focused on adding more value for the brands using the network.

The photo sharing network has continued to innovate, with several recent additions to the platform: Instagram has recently added 60-second videos, video view counts, and is planning on an algorithmic feed to increase relevance and enable marketers to surface their best content.

The mobile app also has a full network of “feature” apps like Hyperlapse, Layout, and Boomerang, boasts an intuitive Direct Messaging service, and has developed a robust ad platform.

In March, Instagram added notifications and the “Discovery” section to their web app, making the platform even easier to use.

Instagram is changing the way that brands evaluate their audiences and create content. This is clearer now than ever before. 90% of the Interbrand 100 companies are active on the network, and a recent study from eMarketer found that by 2017, over 71% of companies with 100 employees or more will be using the network.

Whether your brand is just starting to invest time and energy in Instagram, or is an established powerhouse on the network, you’ll want to optimize your strategy. This must be done without a solid understanding built on analysis. Through research and measurement, you can develop a solid foundation of what works, what doesn’t, and what to focus on for your specific brand. This guide to Instagram analysis and optimization outlines the metrics required to measure and fully understand the photo and video-sharing network, and walks through some tips for using these metrics to plan and optimize your Instagram campaigns.

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ADAPTING TO AN ALGORITHMIC FEEDInstagram announced in March that the network would be moving from a chronological feed to an algorithm that will surface the content that Instagram believes a person cares about most.

As is its way, the internet freaked out:

As marketers, we tend to get too excitable about changes like this, but this time, we shouldn’t be surprised or upset.

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Instagram’s newsfeed update is not the first we’ve seen. Facebook first adopted this strategy in 2009. Twitter added this feature as an option earlier this year. We freaked out about both of those, and the world has continued to spin.

That said, this will change how you use Instagram as a marketer. Here are a few things we’ve learned from these changes when they happened on other networks.

1. Engagement for CLTV?

With these algorithm updates, the content that people “would be most interested in” is surfaced first. What this means is that customers who regularly engage with your content will see more of it. This can keep your brand top-of-mind for the people who are already interested in it.

As Instagram and other third-party services make it easier to connect to purchase points directly from the app, this can mean the users engaging with

your content will have a higher likelihood of buying.

2. Quality Will Likely Be Key: Don’t Spam

When Facebook updated its ranking algorithm in 2013, the network penalized pages that “asked for Likes” (as opposed to posting content that is relevant and engaging).

This will likely become a factor on Instagram as well. Focus on content that

people want to engage with, instead of telling them to.

3. The Importance of a Paid Strategy

Like we’ve seen on other networks, this will likely impact organic reach. All this means is that you’ll need to incorporate a paid strategy (as well as an organic one) on Instagram.

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Paid and organic social are becoming more and more intertwined, and if your strategies live in silos, you’re missing out on big opportunities.

4. Connect with Your Audience

Like Facebook, there’s a good chance that the relationships between users will have an impact on the content that’s surfaced first. Your follower count won’t be the only audience factor that matters. As a brand, you’ll want to develop a “follow” strategy to ensure that the right users have the highest likelihood of seeing your content.

5. Prioritize Your Influencer Strategy

Influencer marketing is becoming a major component on Instagram, and this will only amplify that. Influencers will likely surface higher in feeds because they’re creating engagement within groups of users that have similar characteristics.

If you use Instagram for marketing, there’s a good chance this change will impact you. Luckily, it’s not the end of the world. If you can stay focused on delivering good content to relevant audiences, the tactical shifts will seem less daunting. Keep an eye on brands you respect to identify strategic shifts as this change takes hold.

What can you learn from them?

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INSTAGRAM’S NEW 60-SECOND VIDEOSInstagram also recently increased the maximum video length from 15-seconds to 60-seconds. Combined with view counts, this lends well to optimization. Time spent watching video on the network has increased by 40%. This means the opportunity to impress, entertain, and convert viewers is greater than ever.

For the Creative Class

Instagram brands itself as a creator’s network, with influencers at the core, and this extension is a signal of that focus.

As we found in our 2015 Instagram Influencer Report, the most-followed accounts on Instagram aren’t brands; they’re influencers like Ciara or Kim Kardashian. Just as relevant to marketers are the niche influencers who are

known and respected within specific industries and segments.

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For brands, partnering with these micro-influencers is a great way to get in front of a targeted group of potential customers. These are people who gained their audience by producing high quality content, and Instagram has just given them more flexibility to get creative with the visual stories they tell on the network.

Instagram is also bringing back the ability for iOS users to create videos from multiple clips in their camera roll. This is another way for influencers, who don’t

always have a full production studio, to leverage Instagram as a tool.

For the Data Geeks

Brands are posting more than ever before on Instagram, and while video engagement has risen, it hasn’t caught up to photos.

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More flexibility is always better for a marketer, especially one who tests and optimizes content based on data. What can you do with 60 seconds that you couldn’t with 15?

Instagram has already started showing “views” on posts, and if the network follows Facebook’s suit, it’ll eventually share data about view length. Understanding what is getting your followers to stop and watch a clip is as

important on Instagram as anywhere else.

Flexibility Is Always Good

Whether you’re a data geek or a creative type (or a bit of both), this new update gives you the flexibility to develop better-quality videos that your audience will want to watch, however long they are. And isn’t that the point?

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THE KEY TO INSTAGRAM ANALYSISTo understand any network, you need to know its parameters: what it does, which actions users can take, and which metrics count toward your success. You can’t analyze what you don’t know, so we’ll start by defining the different ways of measuring Instagram. Armed with the proper metrics, you’re able to research, measure, and optimize your Instagram programs.

Engagement MetricsLikesLikes on Instagram are much like Facebook Likes or Twitter Favorites. They are a signal that the image you’ve posted has resonated with your followers. A user taps a photo or video twice in the center to like it, and the heart icon beneath the post turns solid red. Next to this icon is a count of how many Likes an image has earned.

CommentsBesides liking posts, users can also share comments. The comments appear under the photo, with the option to collapse or expand when there are more than three. Users can tag other Instagram users and include hashtags and emojis in their comments.

Total EngagementTotal engagement is the sum of Likes and comments on your Instagram posts during an established time period.

Total engagement gives you insight into how active your audience is and how well your strategy is working.

Engagement per Post

The engagement per post metric provides deeper insights than just total likes or comments. It gives you an average of how much engagement you’re getting

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per post and helps you discover which posts earn the most interaction. Keep in mind that some of your posts will resonate well and earn high engagement numbers, while others will fall flat.

In addition, it’s important to look beyond average engagement per post number and take a magnifying glass to your content. This can be done by breaking engagement per post into engagement per video and engagement per photo to give you more tactical insight on which types of content your audience responds to most.

Engagement as % of FollowersEngagement as a % of followers is calculated for a specific time period, and is an invaluable tool for benchmarking.

Engagement as a % of followers shows the portion of your current followers interacting with your posts during a specified time period. By comparing this metric period-over-period, marketers have a starting point to find valuable insight into their specific tactics.

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Hashtag Engagement MetricsA secondary type of engagement on Instagram is interaction with your brand hashtag. An “engagement” with a hashtag happens anytime an Instagram user mentions a hashtag in a comment or caption on any photo or video across the network.

Hashtag VolumeHashtag volume is the total number of hashtag mentions during an established period of time. If you’re more interested in how viral a campaign hashtag is rather than how your Instagram account is being interacted with, you’ll want to pay attention to hashtag volume, the number of times a hashtag has been used in any given period.

Potential Hashtag ReachYour potential reach shows you how many people have seen your hashtag on Instagram. For the most part, reach is considered a “potential” metric; just because a post appears on a feed doesn’t mean the target user has seen it.

Potential Hashtag Impressions Your number of potential impressions is the amount of times that photos and videos using your hashtag are displayed in a user’s stream. Just like reach, this is a “potential” metric.

ReachThe number of unique people who have seen content associated with your page

ImpressionsThe number of times content associated withyour page is displayed

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Engagement OptimizationBenchmarking account PerformanceTake a look at your brand’s engagement for a specific period or campaign and compare it to similar timeframes.

By benchmarking period-over-period, you can develop a predictive model for future content and campaigns, gaining valuable insight into tactics that moved the needle. Look for anomalies in your engagement and identify the tactics that caused them.

This kind of analysis tells you what your strongest and weakest engagement levels look like, and helps you put together more ambitious goals for the future.

Benchmarking Against CompetitorsThe engagement metric is also useful for benchmarking your own progress against industry innovators and competitors on Instagram.

You might find that a brand you consider your biggest competitor in terms of revenue or popularity on another social network is actually not your biggest competitor on Instagram.

After you have a good idea of where you stand in comparison to the other brands in your space, take a look at the posts among all those brands that drove the greatest amount of engagement.

You might find that a brand you consider your biggest competitor in terms of revenue or popularity on another social network is actually not your biggest competitor on Instagram. After you have a good idea of where you stand in comparison to the other brands in your space, take a look at the posts among all those brands that drove the greatest amount of engagement.

This information about your success and that of your competitors will show you what kind of content, specifically, gets Instagram users to comment and Like a post.

Measuring the Value of User-Generated Content Instagram is a great place to encourage user-generated content, whether by contests, compelling content, or a mix of both. A lot of brands ask followers to “double tap” (Like) and tag their friends for a chance to win a prize.

This is a great way to gain brand awareness and, subsequently, followers — but only if it is tested well to make sure it’s effective.

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Here’s what you should do to see if the people being tagged in your comments actually become new followers: First, make a list of all Instagram users tagged in your Comments section.

Next, wait two weeks (you don’t only want to see how many new followers you’ve gained — you want to see how many you’ve retained) and then take a look at your follower growth over that time period, from the start of your contest on.

More specifically, dig into the data and come up with a list of all the Instagram handles of your new followers. Compare this list with the list of folks tagged in the Comments sections of your contest posts.

Come up with a ratio of people tagged: new followers. This will help you set a baseline for future benchmarking.

Leverage Ancillary AppsInstagram has built a comprehensive suite of apps to improve your ability to engage your audience in an entertaining way.

These apps allow any social marketer with a smartphone to quickly create compelling visual stories for their audience without any professional video equipment.

HyperlapseHyperlapse allows users to create high-quality time-lapse videos without worrying about stabilization.

BRAND HIGHLIGHT: NIKENike is among the many large brands to find success with Hyperlapse, giving a high-energy vibe to their videos. This Hyperlapse of a shoebox-shaped electronic billboard created a massive level of conversation among the shoe brand’s fans.

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LayoutLayout brought the functionality of third party apps like PicStitch in-house, allowing Instagram users to create collages that they can share on Instagram and other social networks.

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BRAND HIGHLIGHT: SEPHORASephora uses Layout to show step-by-step make up tips to it’s active follower base.

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BoomerangBoomerang is Instagram’s standalone video app that loops one-second videos.

BRAND HIGHLIGHT: TIMBERLANDBoomerang is a relatively new service from Instagram, offering users the ability to create 1 second video clips that play forward and then bounce back (hence the name). Timberland was one of the first brands to use the service.

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Follower Metrics

New FollowersYour total number of new followers on Instagram during a given time period

% Change in Followers The percentage by which your Instagram follower count has changed during a given time period.

Follower Growth Tips

Use Hashtags EffectivelyBy analyzing the data behind past, current, and competitive Instagram hashtags, it’s easy to set objectives, show what works, monitor progress, and keep track of audience reaction. Whether you’re interested in a high-level view or deep.

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With in-depth information about your top cities for Instagram engagement, you can build Instagram campaigns that focus on those cities, and begin doing further research to figure out why your brand gets so much Instagram love there and not in other places.

Pay Attention to Timing

Measuring engagement by a specific day or time helps magnify your engagement, and shows you how posting times influence your content’s reception.

How often you post is largely dependent on your audience. Many audiences appreciate more frequent posts, but too many posts tends to turn users off.

When you post is also dependent on your audience. Different audiences access their Instagram accounts at different times of the day.

This hashtag performance overview from the Simply Measured Hashtag Performance Report allows users to see a snapshot of their branded hashtag for any established time period.

PRO TIP: Taking a peek at the metrics for one of your previous hashtag campaigns (or a competitor’s) can provide you with a good benchmark for where you should set volumes, reach, impressions, and engagement goals on your upcoming or current campaign.

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Set Clear Hashtag Goals

The best way to do this analysis is to look at the performance of a previous branded hashtag, using several components as the basis for your review:

• The number of unique people who’ve used the hashtag in the past

• The number of times the hashtag was used

• The number of people those posts potentially reached

• The number of potential impressions

• The total amount of Instagram engagement with the hashtag

Grow a Hashtag CampaignFocus first on which day your previous hashtag was most popular, and also which type of media was most successful—photo or video. Figure out what caused momentum for your comparable hashtag, then model your own hashtag and Instagram posting techniques after those successes. Possibly more important than volume is what folks are saying when they use your hashtag—the good, the bad, and the ugly.

This “Hashtag Mentions” chart from the Simply Measured Hashtag Performance Report allows users to analyze a hashtag over time and identify peak performance days.

PRO TIP: Many brands don’t give their unique hashtag enough time to grow and become commonly used and associated with them. Make sure you’re including your hashtag on every relevant post so that you have the metrics you need to track progress later down the line.

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Identify Success on Other Channels

Check out previous Instagram hashtag campaigns you wish to emulate (or avoid) to inform your own campaign and foster cross-channel hashtag success.

Identify the Influencers Who Add Value

The engagement outside of Instagram chart from Simply Measured’s Instagram Hashtag Performance Report showcases the engagement Instagram photos and links have generated on Facebook and Twitter.

This chart from the Simply Measured Instagram Hashtag Report identifies the top impression driver during the specific period.

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Look at the hashtag for a past Instagram campaign to figure out who your top impressions drivers are, and when they were the most active.

Carefully Choose Your Hashtag Terms

Look at the most-used keywords for either a previous hashtag or one that has achieved an effect you wish to replicate. This information tells you the hashtags and keywords that are most often mentioned in post captions along with the targeted hashtag. You can then produce more content with that hashtag and the most popular keywords to drive greater engagement and attract new followers.

PRO TIP: Engage with your most active, impression-driving users to gain broader reach for your current and future campaigns.

PRO TIP: Look at data on your brand name as the hashtag. You’ll then be able to see the other hashtags that Instagram users are deploying in conjunction with your name, providing you with some valuable insight into how the public perceives your brand and how to play on this moving forward.

#This top keyword chart from the Instagram Hashtag Performance Report lets you know which terms your audience is organically using with specific hashtags.

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Encourage User-Generated Content

You can leverage user-generated content in a variety of ways, but the two major avenues are contests and reusing content which Instagram users have already posted (after asking their permission, of course). Let’s take a look at the steps required for each of these tactics.

The Contest Approach

Step 1: Find Out What People Are Saying About Your Brand

First, you’ll need to find out what people are saying around your brand handle, your brand hashtag, and any keywords directly related to your brand. This will give you a solid starting point for understanding what the conversation around your brand already is and directing your contest that way, instead of trying to impose your own idea of what your Instagram audience will respond to.

Step 2: Make Sure Your Goals Are Clear

The goals of your campaign should be crystal clear. Do you want to gain more followers? See your engagement as a percentage of audience skyrocket? Simply gain a better feel for what your Instagram audience is like? It’s fine to have more than one goal, but make sure you have at least one, so you can have a way to gauge success.

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Step 3: Run Your Contest

Now it’s time to execute. Run your contest with a unique, clever contest hashtag you’ve brainstormed from your research on what people are saying around your brand. Having a consistent hashtag which people have to use to enter your contest is an easy way to capture data around your contest.

Some successful contest creation strategies include:

• Ask followers to “double tap” your photo/video and tag a friend to enter the contest

• Run a contest in which your followers have to post a different picture each day, such as a month-long gratitude challenge or yoga challenge, and tag friends to join them

• Run a clue-finding contest over a week, and ask followers to tag a friend to join the fun

• Ask followers to post a picture of a beautiful view with your chosen hashtag and describe what the scenery means to them

• Ask followers a question and incite them to film an Instagram video with their answer using your contest hashtag

• Have a GIF contest! Ask followers to use Boomerang to make a GIF and use your contest hashtag to enter.

Step 4: Test, Test, Test

Here’s what you should do to see if the the people being tagged in your comments during a contest actually become new followers:

• First, make a list of all Instagram users tagged in your Comments section.

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• Next, wait two weeks (you don’t only want to see how many new followers you’ve gained — you want to see how many you’ve retained) and then take a look at your follower growth over that time period, from the start of your contest on.

• More specifically, dig into the data and come up with a list of all the Instagram handles of your new followers. Compare this list with the list of folks tagged in the Comments sections of your contest posts.

• Come up with a ratio of people tagged: new followers. This will help you set a baseline for future benchmarking.

Here’s what you should do to see if your contest got you more followers: Look at your follower count and growth period-over-period. Say your contest took place over the course of a week. Evaluate the contest week next to the previous week and the following week to see how your contest week compares to the norm.

Here’s what you should do to see if your contest got you more engagement: Look at your engagement total and growth period-over-period. Say your contest took place over the course of a week. Evaluate the contest week next to the previous week and the following week to see how your contest week compares to the norm.

The Reuse Approach

Step 1: Find Out What People Are Saying About Your Brand

First, you’ll need to find out what people are saying around your brand handle, your brand hashtag, and any keywords directly related to your brand. You’re looking for posts that your Instagram audience has already tagged you in which you might want to highlight using your own account.

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Step 2: Ask to Reuse

Reach out to the Instagram user and ask if you can post the photo or video to your own account, giving him or her credit, of course.

Step 3: Reuse

Now it’s time to execute. Post the photo and tag the photo-taker, while also explaining why you chose the photo and encouraging future posts tagging your brand and/or using your brand hashtag.

Step 4: Test, Test, Test

Reusing is especially useful if your brand wants to connect with and leverage nascent influencers. If your brand does “takeovers,” where an influencer takes over your account for a day or week, then you should be testing your takeovers against one another. This will show you which kinds of influencers are most relevant to your Instagram audience.

Here’s what we recommend: run a period-over-period report for the two weeks that two different influencers took over your Instagram account. Look for strengths and weaknesses in both takeovers, and keep this in mind for future campaigns.

+ Promote on Other Channels

Don’t be afraid to shout your Instagram account’s existence from the rooftops on your other social channels. The most likely pool of people to be potential Instagram followers? Those who are already Twitter followers, Facebook followers, etc.

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The 4 Essentials of Instagram Strategy

If you don’t take anything else away from this eBook, make sure you understand these five essentials of Instagram strategy -- and the analytics that are inextricably tied to them.

Learn About and Cater to Your Audience

The most successful brands on Instagram know their audiences and post content that appeals to them. Sometimes you can’t tell who your audience is on a network right away, even if you have a pretty good idea of who’s attracted to you on other social networks or offline. It’s always best to start with your market instead of trying to push your pre-packaged messaging at people. So, how do you figure out who you’re marketing to on Instagram? You start with the data. This will help you identify tactics that resonate with your audience.

Find Your Most Active Commenters

Use your most active commenters to get information about which types of people love your Instagram content.

This “Most Active Commenters” chart from the Simply Measured Instagram Account Report shows which of your followers left the most comments during a specific time period.

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Conduct a Keyword Analysis

Keyword analysis is not only a fantastic way to gauge which content components are most meaningful to your audience, it’s also a great way to contemplate future hashtag campaigns.

Check our example “Keyword Analysis” chart above. For example, #ToastyQuiznos is going to have a lot more resonance and brand association with Quiznos sandwiches than #ToastySandwich, which could refer to any toasty sandwich on the market.

However, it is important to remember that common hashtags allow you to newsjack or capitalize on seasonal events like #backtoschool or other popular topics for maximum discovery.

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Identify Your Top Location

You can know exactly where your audience lives more easily today than ever before.

With in-depth information about your top cities for Instagram engagement, you can build Instagram campaigns that focus on those cities, and begin doing further research to figure out why your brand gets so much Instagram love there and not in other places.

Pay Attention to Timing

Measuring engagement by a specific day or time helps magnify your engagement, and shows you how posting times influence your content’s reception.

• How often you post is largely dependent on your audience. Many audiences appreciate more frequent posts, but too many posts tends to turn users off.

• When you post is also dependent on your audience. Different audiences access their Instagram accounts at different times of the day

Start gathering data on engagement trends. One option is to run an A/B content test, posting very similar content in set time increments, or at the same time each day.

This “Top Cities” chart from the Simply Measured Instagram Account Report shows where most of your engaged followers were located during a specific time period.

PRO TIP: If you’re just beginning your brand’s Instagram journey, or simply want a fresh perspective, look at the “Top Cities” metric for a similar brand or competitor. You’ll wind up with a much greater understanding of your target audience and what they respond to on Instagram.

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Then examine the number of comments and Likes for each of those posts, and begin charting your data to find the “sweet spot” for your post cadence.

For example, based on your post cadence and frequency, you may find that posts at 9 a.m. PST perform well. Developing an understanding based on this information and your audience location data can help you target content to your audience when they’re most likely to be active.

For example, with this information about 9 a.m. PST, you may realize that your West Coast audience has just arrived at work and is catching up on the day’s news, and your East Coast audience is now on their lunch break, giving them time to surf the Web. You can cater your content to each of these audiences.

Employ Competitive Benchmarking

Choosing Your Competitive SetsCompetitive benchmarking is defined as looking at your primary competitors on a regular basis to understand top-performing (and low-performing) accounts and campaigns. It’s the only way to know where you stand in the context of the brands you want to beat.

This “Comments and Posts by Day and Time” chart from the Simply Measured Instagram Hashtag Report shows which days of the week and times of day people used your hashtag most during a specific time period.

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There are three major kinds of competitive sets you should incorporate into your competitive benchmarking program.

1. Competitors for Share of WalletWho are your brand’s top competitors when it comes to revenue? For instance, if you’re Beyoncé, you might look at other high-grossing musical artists who you know are dropping an album around the time you are, or going on tour at around the same time. This would be a great competitive set to keep an eye on consistently in the months leading up to your big release or tour.

2. Competitors for Social Engagement and/or Follower Count

Who are your brand’s top competitors on social right now? Which brands are excelling when it comes to the following metrics, and/or picking up a lot of press?

You won’t know the answer to these questions off the top of your head, but you’ll probably have some good guesses. Make a list of who you think your brand’s top competitors on social, then validate it by looking at a report which includes all these competitors.

You might find that a brand you think of as a big fish on social is actually seeing a decline in audience growth, or that a brand you added to this competitive set on a whim is blowing you out of the water when it comes to impressions. Running a report which shows you how you stack up against your competitors is the only way you’ll find out for sure.

3. Aspirational Competitors

Who are the brands you look up to? Remember that these brands don’t have to be direct competitors for wallet or even on social. These are just brands you see doing cool, innovative things on social and reaping rewards from those risks. Or they’re brands with the kind of engagement you can only dream about. They don’t even have to be in your industry.

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The Metrics That Matter Competitive measurement is vital not only for knowing what your competition is doing but also for benchmarking your own progress against industry innovators on Instagram.

Here are the top three metrics you should be paying attention to.

1. EngagementYou know what your engagement looks like, but what about your competitors?

You might find that a brand you consider your biggest competitor in terms of revenue or popularity on another social network is actually not your biggest competitor on Instagram.

This “Instagram Comparison: Total Engagement” chart from the Simply Measured Instagram Competitive Analysis shows total engagement and engagement as a percentage of followers for Oscar De La Renta, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Prada.

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After you have a good idea of where you stand in comparison to the other brands in your space, take a look at the posts among all those brands that drove the greatest amount of engagement.

This information about you and your competitors’ success will show you what kind of content, specifically, gets Instagram users to comment and Like a post.

Relative Share of Followers Once you’ve determined who your true competitors on Instagram are, it’s time to pay attention to the size of the competitive pie you own.

This excerpt from the Simply Measured Instagram Competitive Analysis shows total engagement, from largest to smallest, for Oscar De La Renta, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Prada during a specific time period.

PRO TIP: Use the top posts for total engagement among you and your competitors to draft a list of the different types of posts that are proving successful in your field. In your next content planning or brainstorming meeting, use this list as a jumping-off point.

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Add up all of the follower counts among you and your competitors, then figure out who has what percentage of that total. It’s useful to check this “relative share” metric on a weekly basis, especially since a lot of progress on this front can happen very quickly.

2. Number of Daily Posts

This chart from the Simply Measured Instagram Competitive Analysis shows how Oscar De La Renta, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Prada stack up when it comes to follower count.

This chart from the Simply Measured Instagram Competitive Analysis shows how Oscar De La Renta, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Prada stack up when it comes to number of posts.

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Take a look at how the daily volume of new posts and videos produced by you stack up next to your competitors on Instagram. Could you stand to back off or ramp up?

Try to compare yourself to a group that is seeing faster follower growth than you. There is no magic potion for winning at Instagram. That’s why testing and measurement are so important on the network to begin with.

When you’re contemplating the metrics we’ve outlined above, trying out strategies or watching your competition make moves, remember not to lose your own story. Remain true to your brand or transform it in a conscious, measurement-based way, but always remember: it’s authenticity that’s truly engaging.

Week 1: 1 Post Per Day

Week 2: 2 Posts Per Day

Week 3: 3 Posts Per Day

Week 4: 4 Posts Per Day

Week 5: 5 Posts Per Day

Keep tabs on your engagement numbers and relative share of followers compared to your competitors on a weekly basis as your test progresses.

By the end of the testing period, you’ll have a solid idea of your best cadence for posting. Conduct the same test, but with different ratios of videos to photos per week, to see which kind of content performs best for you.

Work with Influencers (And Measure Success) In a recent study, nearly 60% of marketers stated that they are planning to increase their influencer marketing budgets in 2015.

Variety magazine found that six out of ten teens are more likely to believe and buy from YouTube stars than movie stars.

PRO TIP: Conduct testing on your post cadence to see what your audience responds to best. Choose a high frequency and a low frequency. Then, run weeklong tests for each cadence in between.

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And, earlier this year, a survey from digital agency Burst Media found that influencer campaigns are a good deal for brands, earning $6.85 in earned media value for every $1.00 of paid media.

Influencer marketing is now a vital brand strategy for building credibility and boosting sales.

But what is an influencer, anyway?

An influencer has a loud voice, substantial reach, and a significant network, including followers, readers, or viewers. He or she has the ability to sway opinions of a specific audience by association.

Knowing what an influencer is and what benefits an influencer-brand relationship can reap isn’t enough — you need to know how to work with an influencer to get the most out of that relationship.

Here are some tips for working with influencers, by influencers.

1. Look for Influencers Everywhere: Okay, maybe not “everywhere,” but look in a variety of places. Some influencers make themselves easy to find because they’re already talking about your brand via blog posts or social media. A simple Google or social search can unearth those influencers.

Work with affiliate networks like GLAM Media, who vet, reach out to, and sign bloggers to their network. Affiliate networks are an easy one-stop shop for a brand to reach multiple influencers at once. The network facilitates the contract and partnership.--Jess Estrada, Content Strategist at Bezos Family Foundation, FreshJess.com Creator, and Lifestyle Influencer

2. Make Sure Your Values Are Aligned: Ideally, influencers only support and promote brands and products that completely align with their values. An influencer will be much more intrinsically motivated and passionate about a brand if there is a natural alignment in personal values.

Build out a dossier on each prospective influencer before making the initial contact; strive to find out his or her top values and favorite hobbies on Instagram.

--Mari Smith, Social Media Thought Leader and Top Facebook Marketing Expert

Knowing what an influencer is and what benefits an influencer-brand relationship can reap isn’t enough — you need to know how to work with an influencer to get the most out of that relationship.

3. Build a Rapport Pre-Approach: The beauty of social media is it allows you to build rapport with someone before you reach out directly. If your brand wants to work with an influencer, retweet his or her content and share his or her Instagram photos. This will help you engage your fans through a different lens and flatter the influencer that you’re consuming and sharing his or her content.

This makes it easier when you want to reach out to the influencer for a partnership because you’ve built a relationship in advance.

Neal Schaffer, Global social media speaker, creator of the Maximize Social Business blog, Forbes top-ranked influencer

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4. Pay Attention to Content Resonance: When we work with influencers, we gauge success by looking at how our content resonates with their audience.

In theory, an influencer’s audience should be like an extension of our audience.

We’re looking for the indicators of well-received content: web traffic, engagement, and positive qualitative feedback

Jade Furubayashi, Social Media Manager at Simply Measured

5. Make It Easy and Mutually Beneficial: Make it easy for the influencer to work with you. Also ensure that you both win from the relationship.

This could be in the form of increasing both brands’ awareness, credibility, and also a financial reward for the influencer.

Each influencer will want different things from the relationship. Make sure you know what that is and it should be included in initial discussions and ongoing conversations, because that could change.

Jeff Bullas, CEO at Jeffbullas.com, social media marketing strategist and speaker, Forbes-ranked influencer

6. Consider the 1-9-90 Model: Think of it this way: the 1% are influencers who create content, shape the market, and drive conversation about a topic.

The 9% are highly active online. They are brand advocates. They recommend, share, sign up, download, comment, and let their communities know what they think.

The 90% are the great majority of any market. They lurk and learn. They are satisfied with using search or consuming peer content. They decide how compelling the 1% and the 9% really are in telling your brand’s story.

Michael Brito, Head of Social Strategy at WCG, a W2O Company

7. Treat Everyone Like a Who: You might define your short list of the most influential influencers to work with specifically, but be generous with how you define “influencer” in any ongoing program.

A clear strength of our social, connected world is that everyone has a voice and can be heard.

Consider incorporating less-obvious influencers from time to time in your program—nurturing them along as you nurture your own business and marketing, by making them part of your success story.

Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer atMarketingProfs

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8. Know the Influencer’s Community: Oftentimes, brands approach the relationship with a “me first” mentality” rather than identifying what matters to the influencer and their community.

Take your time to properly piece together a pitch that clearly spells out the benefits. An influencer has the ability to lead a community and impact decisions, bringing your brand to a potential new marketplace.

If you want to engage an influencer, get to know them and their community before hastily making contact.

Rebekah Radice, Social media strategist, speaker, digital marketing specialist, and Chief Experience Officer at Imagine WOW

The Metrics That Matter

Measuring the success of your influencer program is an important step towards understanding, first, which influencers you should partner with, and, second, if the partnership is beneficial on an ongoing basis. Here are the top three metrics you should consider in the influencer marketing space.

To Find an Influencer posts using your brand’s hashtag (or a hashtag relevant to your brand).

If an Instagram user is driving significant engagement around your hashtag, he or she has many followers and will likely be worth contacting for an influencer partnership.

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To Compare Influencers compare influencers, you’ll want to view all their major stats side-by-side to compare, then drill down into particularly successful posts to get a more tactical view.

This will help you choose between influencers and/or see the different strengths that difference influencers bring to the table -- and when/where you should leverage each.

To Track Success How do you know if your influencer program is bearing fruit? By choosing the metrics which matter to you -- engagement around your brand’s hashtag? Awareness around a new hashtag? Followers? -- and keeping an eye on those metrics throughout your influencer campaign.

CONCLUSION Now you have a well-rounded understanding of basic Instagram metrics, along with some tried-and-true tactics to deploy in your upcoming campaigns.

Whether you’re looking to harness already-existing buzz around your brand or you’re building awareness from the ground up, be sure to turn to this resource whenever you find yourself needing some more Inspiration.

ABOUT SIMPLY MEASURED Simply Measured is a fast-growing team of data geeks dedicated to making the world of analytics and reporting a better, more beautiful place. Find out more at simplymeasured.com

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