It’s no secret, I love Instagram! I’ve been a huge fan of the platform from Instagram’s early days. My first post, of homemade cookies, is from March 2011. Sadly, my over-filtered cookie photo has 0 likes. Luckily, that didn’t discourage me from continuing to post and grow my account overtime.
As Instagram has grown in popularity, it has become an important tool for creative small businesses owners and bloggers. If you are using Instagram as a tool for your business, it is much more important to have a group of engaged followers versus a large number of followers. If you are looking for higher engagement, the key is to find the best times to post on Instagram. With the help of an app or two, you can easily determine the best times to interactive with your followers.
Instagram business account
The easiest way to determine the best posting times is to switch to an Instagram Business Account. (Learn more about the benefits of an Instagram business account.) You can easily access this information via the app on your iPhone or Android. (You cannot currently access this on your computer.) Here is how you navigate to the analytics:
- From Instagram home screen, navigate to your profile (icon on the far right)
- Select the icon in the top right corner that looks like a bar chart
- You will then be on the Insights page where it will give you information about the current week, top posts and information about your followers
Instagram gives you the days and times of the week when your followers are most active. Once you have that information, you can determine optimal posting times for every day of the week. As you can see, on Tuesday, my followers are most active around 1pm and 8pm CST. Therefore, for maximum post engagement, I should plan to post around those times.
Squarelovin
If you don’t want to switch to a business account or are looking for additional Instagram analytics, Squarelovin is a great resource and it is currently free. Aside from tracking the best times to post, it also shares the worst times to post. Noting the worst posting times can save you from sporadically posting content. (Note: This account is set to EST time and Instagram and Iconsquare are set to CST.)
In addition to optimal posting times, Squarelovin provides analytics on engagement rates, community growth and popular posts. For a free tool, it provides a lot of information you can use to optimize your Instagram posting.
Iconosquare
The other tool I use to track Instagram engagement is Iconosquare. This is not a free tool, but I it provides a lot of information that other tools do not provide. Iconosquare provides a variety of different suggestions about the best times to post. You can also compare the times you post to the best times to post.
I like the specific information Iconsquare provides about my community. I can easily see who has recently followed and who has unfollowed me. It provides great information about who you are attracting and repelling to your account. You just need to make sure you don’t take it personal.
The best times to post on instagram
An Instagram Business Account, Squarelovin and Iconosquare are all easy to use tools that can help you determine the best times to post on Instagram. Once you have this information, you can easily create a posting schedule optimized for your followers. When you start to post around the time your community is active on Instagram, your engagement will soar.
Are you currently using any of these tools? What questions do you have about Instagram analytics?
This was such a helpful article! I love that you shared resources that are both directly associated with Instagram as well as standalone options. Made my way here from Savvy Business Owners on Facebook 🙂 Have a brilliant day!