Instagram: Everyone’s Favorite Marketing Tool, but the Most Rewarding?

Instagram is the favorite social media app that everyone is using and talking about. How many people exactly are using Instagram? It’s estimated by eMarketer that 104.7 million people in the US — or 31.8% of the population — will use the app this year.

With pretty, curated squares and engaging personalities online, it’s tough to pull away. Though it’s time to get strategic! How much traffic to your site, and revenue to your business, is the app really using? Traffic is notoriously not really Instagram’s thing.

I’m not in any way suggesting that it’s not a viable social media platform to use… but the question becomes, are you using it in the right away? Is it great for driving people to a new blog post–or better for conversing, networking, and engaging with your tribe?

One thing we should all be doing? Tracking our outside links and traffic to analyze what’s working for us, and what isn’t. This will help you understand Instagram’s (in fact, everything’s!) place in your marketing strategy.

Ready? First, make sure you have Google Analytics installed. Get in touch with me if you don’t!

Most of your Instagram traffic right now is probably being bucketed into one big channel on Google Analytics: Direct Traffic. Oh, Direct Traffic. The big lost bucket! Even if you’re using a bit.ly or link app, there are limitations. LinkTr.ee was recognized by Google as a referral at one point; Bit.ly‘s will track clicks. My favorite right now, Bio.Fm doesn’t. (And then there’s the new, Milkshake app!)

So, just set up a tracking URL. You can even use it to test out different calls-to-action on your profile and see what works best for you.

Once you set that up, you can start to see how many people are coming to your website via Instagram every week, what they’re doing when they get there, how long they’re staying, and whether they’re taking the actions you want them to take. (You can also serve them up custom stuff later!)

Find me on Insta at @hi.brittbrewer.