Newsflash! Analytics and social media insights aren’t scary… If you disagree, let me change your mind.

When I first began using social media to market my business, I typically posted things I wanted to post, like pictures of my dog, my morning coffee, the books I was reading and my husband. 

But as I’ve gotten more experienced with powerful platforms like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more to connect with my ideal client, I’ve started paying more attention to what followers want to see. This completely changed the game for me! 

But I’m not trying to convince you that they’re important, I’m trying to sell you on the idea that they aren’t *scary.* So let’s talk about it, shall we?!

Many times, when we think about testing, tracking, and analyzing our social media analytics we instantly imagine unreadable spreadsheets, huge pie charts, and crunching numbers. *I can’t be the only one!*

But social media analytics does NOT have to be so stuffy! 

Today, I want to give you a few ‘beginner’ level ways to start dipping your toes in the water of using basic metrics to create scroll-stopping content for your ideal customer. It’s time to take control of your social media content and make sure that every post, Reel, Live video or Story captures your audience’s attention!

The easiest way to get started with keeping track of your analytics *let’s call this level one tracking* is to simply start with keeping track of your comments and likes on every post.

>>Likes and comments are a great first indicator of how your audience feels about the content you’re creating.<< 

I recommend tracking these on every post for a month, analyzing the data to see what they like, and then create more of the highest performing content. 

Then rinse and repeat this process!

>>So how can you tell what type of content your audience likes? People typically ‘like’ posts for the visuals, and they comment for the caption.<< 

• For example, if you have a post that has a lot of likes but not many comments: people liked the visual rather than the caption. 
• If you have a caption with a lot of comments and not many likes, your caption really resonated with your audience, but they didn’t feel compelled to ‘like’ your photo, Reel, or video. 
• But if you come across a post you made that has a good amount of both likes AND comments… *ding ding ding!* make more of THAT type of content!

Now you might be saying, “Jasmine, I already keep track of which of my posts get the most likes and comments. I want to take analyzing my analytics to the next level!” *Okayyyyyyyy! I’ll clap that up all day and twice on Sunday!*

If you’re ready to dive into “level two,” or a more advanced level of tracking, then let’s dive in. 

What I’m about to teach you requires the use of Instagram Insights. To use Instagram Insights, you must first have a business profile or be running ads on Instagram to get access. If you're currently using a personal account, you may want to switch to a business profile to up your analytics game, or even possibly run small-budget ads to view Insights.

So for those of you who DO have a business account, go to your profile and tap “Insights” right underneath your Instagram bio. Once there, tap “Audience” and under the heading “Your Audience,” click on the amount of followers you have to see your audience demographics, including: 

• the average age of your followers, 
• the top cities they live in, 
• statistics on your audience’s genders, 
• and their most active times on Instagram by the hour and also by the day.

Once you’ve combed through this data, use this information to further cater your content for them! 

You can choose to post at times of the day in which your followers are most likely to be active, speak your audience’s language by making references to their age, gender, or city, and more.

But remember: whether you’re on Level One or Two of tracking your analytics, the only way you can measure what people are responding to is by being consistent. 

Posting once a week isn’t enough. Give yourself permission to test your content as much as possible because more posts = more data!

Need a little help coming up with ideas for all that content? I gotchu! Over time, I’ve gathered a list of 20 content ideas to refer to whenever I get stuck, and the best part is they work for any industry! I know it will take your business (and analytics) to new heights! Download 20 Content Ideas For Any Industry and never run out of things to post AGAIN! Simply click >>HERE.<<