Is your Instagram account aligned with your business goals?
Not sure?
Then it’s time to perform an Instagram audit.
It’s a simple way to make sure every Reel, feed post, and Story you post has a purpose and to ensure each post supports your brand objectives, helping you generate more sales and grow your online presence.
Plus, it’s one of the best ways to ensure your social media accounts are free from fake followers and that fake accounts are skewing your Instagram results either.
In this blog post, we’ll walk you through five easy steps for completing an Instagram audit to help you get back on track to crushing your Instagram goals.
How to Perform an Instagram Audit
Unlike tax season, preparing and conducting an Instagram audit is easy and won’t cost you a single grey hair.
Follow these five steps to whip your account into shape and meet your Instagram marketing goals.
Step 1: Identify Your Instagram Goals and KPIs
When it comes to figuring out a strategy for anything, you want to start big and then zoom in on the smaller details.
That’s what setting goals and KPIs for your Instagram marketing strategy can do for your business.
It gives you a high-level overview of what you want to achieve and creates a clear path with milestones you can tick off along the way.
Let’s look at a few examples:
Goal: Growth and Engagement
You’re a new influencer or brand, and your Instagram goal is growing your account and engagement to increase sales or land your first brand deal. You would focus on strategies to attract engaged followers and increase brand awareness.
Goal: Sales
You’re an established brand, and your goal is to generate sales. You would focus on using Instagram’s e-commerce features like shoppable posts and tagging products in Stories to drive your sales strategy.
Once you have your goals, you can create KPIs (key performance indicators) for each one.
For example, if your business goals are growth and engagement, your KPIs would be things like:
• Number of comments, likes, shares, saves, and saves.
• Number of new followers.
• Number of DMs and Story replies.
• Number of accounts reached.
• The average engagement rate per post.
Step 2: Analyse Your Engagement Levels
It doesn’t matter if your Instagram goal is sales, you still need to take a deep engagement dive.
Why?
It’s the key vital to your account’s health.
If no one is engaging with the content on your Instagram page, the algorithm isn’t going to pick it up and recommend it to new users.
That’s not all.
The algorithm pushes the accounts you engage with the most in your feed. So, even if someone is following you, there’s a high probability they won’t see your new feed posts, Reels or Stories if there is low or zero engagement history.
But an engagement audit doesn’t start and end with your followers. You also need to assess how you’re engaging with content and users on the platform.
Remember, you’re here to build a community. You can only achieve that goal and reap the benefits if you’re taking the time to genuinely connect with people.
Your engagement checklist includes:
• Responding to comments and DMs.
• Interacting with your most engaged followers, other accounts and content on the platform.
• Connecting with other creators in your industry.
• Encouraging engagement on Stories with the Poll or Question stickers.
• Your posting frequency.
Step 3: Audit The Type of Instagram Content You Create
Are you using the different content formats on Instagram to your advantage?
There are Instagram Reels, feed posts, Lives, Stories, Guides, IGTV, and Shoppable posts.
While not every single one is suitable for your business, it’s a good idea to analyse each one for your Instagram audit and see if there is potential.
Let’s say you’re a travel blogger, your content type mix might include:
• Stories
• Reels
• Guides
But if you’re an Esty store your mix could include:
• Shoppable posts
• Stories
• Reels
The content types you choose depend on how each one visually supports your brand, but also your audience engagement. Not sure which content format is working best for your brand? Use marketing tools and even Instagram’s in-built analytics tool to figure out whether high quality images, dynamic videos or even carousels are your highest performing posts.
For example, you might throw Instagram Live into the mix, but the only response you get is crickets. Instead of spending time and resources on Lives each month, you remove it from your content mix and decide to spend that extra time creating more Reels (your top-performing content type.)
Step 4: Audit Your Instagram Profile
Your Instagram profile is your first impression. If someone is intrigued enough to check it out after watching a Reel, you want to make sure you give them a reason to hit the “follow” button.
Here’s a quick Instagram audit for your profile:
• Profile Picture: Is it a clear photo of your face or brand logo? Your profile picture takes up small real estate on the app, but it’s the image someone will see the most. Make sure it leaves an impact and creates strong brand recognition.
• Profile Headline: Your headline and Instagram account name are searchable. Add your name and the most important keyword associated with your account. E.g. Lauren | South Africa Travel.
• Bio: You only have 150 words – make it count! Use your limited space to tell the world who you are, what to expect from your account, and end it with a call-to-action for your clickable link in bio. E.g. Influencer coach | Founder of @allinfluencecollective | Buy my merch
Step 5: Evaluate Your Hashtags
The final step in your Instagram audit is hashtags.
At least once a quarter, you should review your strategy to make sure you’re using relevant tags for your business.
The secret formula to audit Instagram hashtags?
Choose smaller hashtags. The more niche hashtags the better.
This will ensure you’re attracting high-quality followers and will make it easier to spot a fake follower if they do engage with your brand.
As long as there is an engaged community using them, you’re setting yourself up for success. With less competition, your posts stand a much higher chance of being discovered over a longer period of time.
Plus, you’re using hashtags your audience follows and that’s worth its weight in gold.
Why?
You’re attracting Instagram accounts who will care about what your brand is selling, improving your audience quality score.
Get Your Instagram Account Back on Track
Done your Instagram audit and not happy with the results?
Don’t worry.
Your account is saveable. All it needs is a little attention, a dash of consistency, and a strategy to help you grow.
Sign up for a 7-day free trial of Plann Pro, and you’ll get all that and more! Discover the best hashtags for your niche, figure out on-brand themes for your content, kick writer’s block to the curb with caption prompts, and become one with your Instagram content calendar.
All it takes is a few months of showing up a couple of times each week, and you’ll see your account engagement rate go up, and an influx of new followers who care about what you have to say.
