A well-crafted Instagram social media report can be the answer to all your prayers. It can prove that a strategy is working (kudos!) or it can signal certain cracks that should be fixed (oops, glad you caught that now!).
In the first case, a social media report gives you something to be proud of and stirs up new ideas. In the second case, it pinpoints the tactics that are weighing you down or sidetracking your objectives. No matter the situation, a solid social media report helps you plan your strategy further by bringing valuable insights to the surface.
“Awesome”, you might say, “Give me that report!”. Well, not so fast. In case you’re a social media manager, you’ll have to create it yourself. By learning where to discover the data and by understanding what every single statistic is, you’ll have a crystal-clear picture of what you should do next. And you’ll be highly motivated to do so. So let’s do it.
What exactly is an Instagram social media report?
An Instagram social media report is, in a nutshell, a collection of stats and data. And, for Instagram, you don’t even have to jump through hoops and loops to get your hand on these. In fact, most of the stats and data you need for a reliable report are available under the Insights tab, under three separate categories (Content, Activity and Audience). Here’s what you can get from there:
Reach: how many users have come in contact with your account or with a specific post.
Impressions: how many times a single user has seen/engaged with a specific post.
Profile visits: how many people have bothered to go beyond their news feed and “step into” your virtual Instagram home on your profile page.
Audience/Follower count: the number of people who liked your account can be proof that you’re doing things right. This number indicates social popularity, but sometimes it can be just a vanity metric.
Audience demographic: everything from location, age, gender, to see if you hit your target in terms of profiling.
Audience growth: how has your audience changed in time. Have you gained followers? Lost any? If so, when? All these answers can help you pinpoint what works and what doesn’t.
Of course, there are other valuable means through which you can gather more data to blend into your Instagram social media report. Among the most sophisticated ones (not to say complex) is retrieving data from Google Analytics. From here, you can check the conversion rates and draw a direct conclusion on how your Instagram efforts affect sales.
And, of course, the Instagram Stories Insights will provide you with valuable data on Profile Visits, Impressions, Follows and Navigation Patterns.
What to include in your Instagram social media report?
Now for the big philosophical question all social media marketers seek the answer to. For this one, be prepared to do some serious soul-searching, deep into your Instagram objectives. Because yes, your goals will dictate the type of stats and data you should focus on.
If your current efforts have all been aiding an awareness objective, then the “reach” and “impressions” count are going to be your best friends, alongside their more egoistic friend “follower count”. If, on the other hand, you’re analyzing the effectiveness of a particular campaign, things such as “profile visits” or “navigation patterns” could be more suitable to get your point across.
What time-frequency to cover?
Again, there’s no right or wrong answer.
The time-frequency you select depends on the objectives (surprise!) you have and on what you’re trying to prove (or disprove and discover) with your report. Usually, a month to month approach hits the sweet spot for a lot of marketers, but maybe you’re different.
Weekly, quarterly or custom frequencies (especially for campaigns) are also very common. Set your priorities straight and then you’ll figure out the time-frequency too.
Who are you presenting to?
Once you paint the bigger picture of your Instagram social media report in your mind, it’s time to ponder upon how to present the stats and data. Most of the time, your presentation style will be dictated by the ones you’re presenting the report to.
In case you’re presenting to your direct boss, a more analytical report might do just fine. If, however, you’re presenting in front of a client, you might want to be more creative. A visually appealing report that includes analogies will help you sort out complex data and concepts into easy-to-grasp info.
Say it with snapshots
Whichever way of presenting you choose (spreadsheet, keynote, PDF) make sure you include snapshots for context. These will help those you present to make the necessary connections between and anchor the numbers in reality. Left unattended, the abstract data will remain just that: abstract.
Analyze the data and draw actionable conclusions
An Instagram social media report’s magic is greater than the sum of its parts. And so is its power. The collection of numbers, graphs and charts might be impressive (bravo, bravo!) but what does it all mean? Yes, we’re really asking you: “What does it mean?”.
You have to take all the stats and data and connect them to learn something new. For example, if you’re analyzing the efficiency of a leads campaign, look at its engagement rates. Next, go to Google Analytics and see how much web traffic came from Instagram in that particular time frame. This way, you’ll be able to assess just how successful your campaign was in generating traffic and leads.
The most crucial step of any social media report is drawing actionable conclusions! As they say, “let bygones be bygones” and focus on what you can change next. Maybe your campaign was a success, or perhaps it crashed, but what did you learn? And how can you implement those learnings further? Food for Instagram thought.
Plan a strategy for the upcoming months
Take the actionable conclusions from your report and put them head-to-head in a coherent marketing strategy to cover the upcoming months. In this new strategy plan, make sure to mention what tactics are a continuance of old ones and what tactics have been changed as a result of your social media report findings. Also, it might be a great idea to mention when your next Instagram social media report will be out.
Now, have fun with it! 😉
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