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Instagram plays an important role in a company’s social media strategy. Everybody talks about understanding its algorithm but everyone seems to forget the very foundations. Most importantly – the Instagram usage habits of their audiences. It is absolutely vital to determine when to post on Instagram. If you can find the sweet spot when your audiences are checking their phones, you’ll be able to get maximum impressions with minimal effort. Think about it, people post over 95 million posts on Instagram per day.
So, if you don’t post on the right time exactly when your audiences are online, you will get pushed underneath mountains of content from other content creators, businesses, brands and general users. In this detailed article, we cover everything you must know about Instagram analytics, including how to view them, how to use them, and the best times to post on Instagram.
What is Instagram Analytics?
Instagram analytics or Instagram Insights, whatever you call them, is an in-app tool that shows data of your account and content. It shows you your engagement, reach, and follower increase. Many social media experts use this tool to study and improve their content strategy.
With over a billion monthly active users, Instagram content mainly comprises visually appealing photos and short reels that are very popular among Gen Z and millennials. According to Katie McKiever, a social media consultant, “Instagram Insights unlocks an account’s growth potential. It’s the one definitive place you can point to that will help drive your Instagram and overall social media strategy.”
There are a few points that you need to know before we move forward:
- Having a business or creator account is necessary to view Instagram Insights.
- To view data on your audience, you must have a minimum 100 followers.
- You can see data for any time frame within the last 90 days.
Why Does Posting Schedule Matter on Instagram?
If you post something on Instagram when your audience is not online, it is likely that many of them will never see your post. On top of that, Instagram’s algorithm pushes engagement-heavy posts, making the case even worse for you. The reason you are unable to achieve your engagement targets is because you could be posting at a wrong time.
To identify the best time to share something on Instagram, a lot of companies have studied engagement metrics of millions of posts in the world. However, there is no universal answer to the best posting time. It is because it all depends on audiences in your specific industry, timezone, and type of content.
Making Sense of Instagram Analytics
Before going into the details of Instagram’s best posting times, you need to understand your Instagram Insights. With Insights, you can target the right audience, make your content strategy better, and achieve your goals. In short, they will help you know who your audience is, when it is active, and what content they engage with.
If you are new, knowing which Instagram metrics to monitor can be tricky. But once you have gotten a grip, analysing these metrics will accelerate your growth. Here are 10 Instagram metrics to keep your Insta-game strong:
- Reach: It is the number of unique accounts seeing your posts.
- Engagement: It shows users’ interaction with your content in the form of comments, likes, shares, and saves.
- Traffic: It is the amount of clicks your CTAs, stories, and websites generate. It helps you understand the motivation of your audience.
- Shares: It is the number of times your post has been shared.
- Saves: It is the number of times your post has been saved/bookmarked.
- Audience growth: “Followed” and “Unfollowed” metrics show you exactly the number of followers you lose or gain per day.
- Watch through rate: It is the percentage of people viewing your content (reel, stories, and videos) from beginning to end.
- Story views: Every Instagram story slide will have its own stats, such as responses, impressions, and navigations.
- Reels engagement: As the name implies, it is the number of users interacting with your reels.
- Best time to post: Posting at the right time increases the chances of more views and engagement on your posts.
Analyzing the things that engage your audience will help you plan your content strategy and increase your fanbase on Instagram.
Understanding Your Instagram Audience
Understanding your Instagram audience helps you create your marketing strategy in a way that ensures promising results. Your chances of success automatically increase when you deeply understand your audience activity. Using Instagram analytics and insights will help you post at the right time, especially when your audience is hooked with their phones.
Benefits of Knowing Your Audience
- You can see how well your current strategy is working.
- You are able to know which days and times your followers are most active.
- You have in-depth knowledge about their interests and behaviours.
If your goal is to gain traffic, monitoring website clicks is important. If it is creating brand awareness, your follower count and reach is more relevant. In short, it all depends on your targets. You can also view the top 5 cities and countries where your audience lives through Instagram Insights. By doing this, you will have an idea which timezone to target when posting on Instagram.
Estimates by Reuters reveal that over 95 million photos are shared on Instagram per day. You can see what photos your target audience engages with the most.
Finding the Perfect Time and Day to Post
According to Later, a social media marketing platform, in 2023, the best time to post is 4 AM. It got this number after analysing more than 11 million images, videos, carousel, and reels. However, Hootsuite disagrees with Later. Because the best time according to them is 11 AM on Wednesdays. They discovered that midweek and during working hours, Instagram users are the most motivated to engage with the content.
You must be thinking, “Wasn't the weekend the perfect time to post?” Well, Hootsuite says that weekend is the worst time to post and has minimal engagement. If you are planning on posting more than once a week, here is a table showing best times to post on Instagram.
Best Instagram Schedulers in 2023
As we have seen, Instagram has emerged as the mega-platform for brands and creators. Especially, after it launched features such as reels, stories, product tags, AR filters, etc. As the platform grew, it became harder for brands to find the best time and resource to reach their audience. There are several tools to post exactly at the right time.
To name a few, SocialPilot allows you to schedule posts, reels, and stories. It also supports other social media platforms, including TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, etc.
Hootsuite is another tool used by professional marketers. You can create your social posts and even preview them before scheduling with this tool. However, this tool is a bit difficult for beginners (and expensive). Its huge selection of features could become overwhelming.
Later, Instagram's official partner, is simple to use. It has over a million users around the world and comes with many useful features. Agencies, influencers, even small businesses use it to schedule their posts.
Other notable tools include Hopper HQ, Sendible, Tailwind, and Buffer.
Playing Around With Posting Schedules
As you observe some growth on your account, you can change your posting schedule to meet your audience’s engagement patterns. Because in the end, the world changes and also the habits of your audience change with it. Always set a reminder in your calendar to analyze your performance. So that you can alter your course on a regular basis.
You can also learn from your competitors by observing them. Lots of brands post on the hour mark. What you can do is to post a few minutes before or a few minutes after the “:00” mark. Brayden Cohen from Hootsuite’s Instagram team reveals that they consistently monitor their insights, which helps them remodel their social media strategy and posting time.
How to Get More Out of Your Social Media Strategy
If you are still a small content creator, you will face intense competition on Instagram on your journey towards growth. Instagram is perfect for content creators but its complexity and sheer size makes it hard for you to stand out. That’s why you should combine it with monetization platforms designed to help you grow.
Try Paysenger
Paysenger is a social media marketplace that will help you grow your online presence and monetize your content without worrying about content scheduling. It’s hard to compete with content creators and businesses on Instagram especially if you’re on a budget. The standards of quality on Instagram are extremely high and most creators have to deliver great content free of cost until they eventually have a big audience.
However, you can’t consistently create high-quality content without budget and support. Paysenger allows you to earn money by monetizing your content on a big marketplace. Here are some of the features it offers:
- On-demand content: Sponsors or UGC marketers can easily get in touch with you and request you to create content based on their ideas. You get paid each time you complete a request.
- Tokenized economy: Paysenger actively rewards creativity and has a create-to-earn economy powered by its native cryptocurrency called EGO tokens. If your posts get likes, comments and shares, you earn tokens that can be reinvested to promote your profile or purchase collaborations with other influencers. Tokens can also be withdrawn to your real-world bank account.
- Paid messaging: Your fans or potential business partners looking to work with you have to pay for your attention on Paysenger. Instead of going through spam, you can easily identify high-value opportunities by adding a paywall to every direct message you receive.
It also offers many collaboration tools, which you can use to connect with other creators. These creators will help you develop your social media presence on other platforms such as Instagram by giving shoutouts or by doing collabs.
Final Word
Choosing the best posting schedule is important for your Instagram journey. You can select the ideal time and day to post on Instagram by researching your audience and frequently reviewing your Instagram stats. Try out various posting times, and use different tools to maximise the efficiency of your account. Remember that Instagram is a continuously changing platform, so it is crucial to regularly review your data and adjust your strategy.
Instagram is highly competitive for new creators. Become an early adopter of Paysenger to get early exposure (since the social platform is in its early growth phase) and access to all monetization tools in one place. Jump-start your content creator journey on Paysenger today.