How to Access Instagram Metrics for Reach, Views and Engagement

It’s obvious enough that influencer marketing has completely changed the face of modern advertising. More and more companies, large and small, are recognizing that they need to engage their potential customers where they already are, and traditional advertising messages are being ignored or dismissed. Getting “real” people to talk about these products and services directly with their engaged audiences is much more effective.

If you are fortunate enough to be on the other side of this conversation, then you’ll also recognize that while “good stories” and “great content” have incredible value in their own right, brands still want to see the numbers. And while they may qualify some influencers based on the number of followers that these influencers have, brands often want to conduct a review after the fact to get a sense of their return on investment (ROI). This means, as an influencer, you may need to provide some information on metrics and stats.

Instagram is a hugely popular platform, particularly because it has such a great engagement rate compared to other social media platforms. But, how do you go about finding these key figures to share with the brands you’re working with? Let’s break down some of the key stats and where to access them.

Instagram Story Views

Instagram Stories have become such an integral part of overall social media marketing, even if the individual stories are available for viewing for only 24 hours. Does this mean you need to grab the stats right before the 24 hours expires on any individual story? Not at all!

To see how many views each story post got:

  1. Open the Instagram app on your phone.
  2. Tap on the profile icon on the bottom corner.
  3. Tap on the menu icon in the top corner.
  4. Select Archive.
  5. Tap on any given story post.
  6. Look at the bottom left corner for “Seen by.”
  7. Swipe up from the bottom for more detailed stats.

The more detailed stats — you may need to tap on the column graph icon — will show the number of accounts reached (equal to the “seen by” figure), as well as total impressions, follows, and navigation (forward, next story, or exited).

Instagram Post Reach and Engagement

In terms of Instagram posts in your main feed, accessing the individual stats and insights is really straightforward.

  1. Open the Instagram app on your phone.
  2. Tap on your profile icon to bring up your main feed.
  3. Select the Instagram post for which you want to access stats.
  4. Tap on the “View Insights” link just below the main image.
  5. This will show the number of likes (hearts), comments, shares (sends), bookmarks, profile visits and reach.

If you’d rather not add up all the different types of engagement, or if you want the total engagement across several posts, it’s easier to see that by accessing Instagram on desktop.

When you do that, and open your profile page, you can hover over any given Instagram post, and it will show you the number of likes (hearts) and comments, though it will not tell you the number of shares, bookmarks, profile visits or reach.

You’ve Got to Know Your Numbers

Love him or hate him, Kevin O’Leary was always right about one thing on Dragons’ Den and Shark Tank. In business, you’ve got to have a handle on your numbers. The next time you run a branded Instagram campaign, particularly if it consists of multiple posts and Insta stories, you’ll know the fastest and easiest way to access the key insights and metrics to share with your brand partner.