Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
As an influencer, it’s your job to be informed about the stats that will affect your job. Although data and statistics aren’t a glamorous part of your job, they’re essential to understanding how, when, and what you should post, therefore, becoming instrumental to achieving organic Instagram growth.
Over the past few years, more online publications are reporting on the data that leads to Instagram growth. While this is good, it’s not always helpful for influencers and Instagrammers, because not all data is equal, important, or applicable to your growth on Instagram.
As an influencer, or someone looking to increase followers on Instagram, you want data that will lead to results, the kind that’s necessary for your journey.
To help you get the edge over other creators on Instagram, we’ve compiled a list of the most critical data that will help you grow on Instagram.
4 Instagram Stats That Will Help You Grow Organically On Instagram
To be successful on Instagram you need information on the RIGHT stats. If you use the data revealed in these four stats, you’ll see instantaneous growth.
1// The Right Time To Post
Higher engagement relies on several factors, one of them being time. When you post is just as impactful as what you post, because there’s a wrong time to post just as there’s the right time.
In the Ultimate Instagram Blueprint, we go into detail on how the Instagram algorithm works, and how you can use the algorithm for fast organic Instagram growth.
However, the TLDR is: Instagram favors fresh content. To increase engagement, you want to post when more people are using the app. So, if you’re wondering, ‘When should I post on Instagram?’ data has shown that people are most engaged between 9 am and 11 am EST. Of course, if you’re in a different time zone or country this won’t apply to you, but it gives insight into when people might be most engaged: lunchtime.
Because most data on Instagram focuses on the US, limited data exists for those outside the US, so you’ll need to create your own.
If you’re in another country, try posting images at different times of the day and see which posts perform the best. As you continue posting, see if you can replicate the results you’ve gotten, to reveal the time you should be posting.
What Does The Data Say?
The best time to post is when people are most engaged on Instagram. In most countries that will be during lunchtime, from 12 pm to 2 pm. However, data shows that for the US images posted between 9 am and 11 am EST gets the most engagement.
2// Hashtags That Get More Engagement
Hashtags rise and fall in popularity. The hashtags you use now may not produce similar results later, making it necessary to keep your hashtags as up-to-date as possible. You can do this by frequently researching which hashtags get the most engagement. To find hashtags that are still performing as expected, I’d recommend a tool like Ritetag or Keywordtool.io, both of these offer free and premium solutions.
What Does The Data Say?
The data shows that using just one hashtag increases engagement in a post by 12.6%. Probably because the more hashtags you use on a post the more your post will show up as tagged on different hashtag feeds.
3// Your Target Audience
Who is your content targeting?
As an influencer, it can be challenging to think of Instagram as pure numbers. But understanding WHO your audience is will help you create content THEY want to see.
That said, Instagram is a fairly diverse community. It has a fair split of income earners, high school and college graduates, and men and women.
Globally women surpass men on the app but only account for 51% of Instagram users. The most noticeable difference, however, is age. Nearly 75% of people ages 18 to 24 use Instagram, this decreases to 57% for ages between 25 and 29.
Unfortunately, not much information exists for those under 18, in line with Instagram’s push to be a safer space for minors.
Why is this data valuable? This data is significant because it demonstrates that you can create ANY type of content on Instagram so long as you’re targeting younger people. Because it’s the younger audience(18 to 24) that enables a significant increase in engagement.
What Does The Data Say?
Although Instagram users are quite diverse when it comes to education, earning, gender, and so on. Most of the app’s users are young. So, if you’re wondering, age matters – especially on Instagram.
4// Your Images
No data reveals which IG pictures get the most likes, so it’s anyone’s guess at the moment. However, some rudimentary studies reveal the type of content people engage with the most on Instagram. If you couple that with Instagram’s machine learning algorithm, you can predict which images are going to get the most likes.
A look through Instagram’s 20 most liked posts of 2020 will reveal that aspirational content and selfies certainly dominate. However, something quite intriguing is how nearly ALL of the images are either slides or a group picture, perhaps showing that giving people more to admire can be more effective than just always posting pictures of yourself.
What Does The Data Say?
The best performing (highest engagement) posts are motivational quote posts. However, if you’re not looking to run a motivational quote page, the second-best option is to create nostalgic, aspirational, or photo slides, as these receive more engagement.
If you use a combination of all the data discussed in this post you’ll be that much closer to achieving organic Instagram growth. Because, like most social media apps these days Instagram relies heavily on its machine learning algorithm data and less on actual human interaction.