The Saturday Social
Are you struggling to get your Instagram posts to stay visible in your followers’ feeds? The lifespan of an Instagram post depends on a number of factors, including engagement level, and the type of content you post.
To extend the lifespan of your Instagram posts, you can try some of the following strategies:
- Increase engagement: Ask questions, create conversations, and use other tactics to boost engagement rates.
- Use hashtags: Adding relevant hashtags to your posts can help increase their discoverability on the platform.
- Post at your best time: Posting at your optimal time and avoiding non-peak times can help give your posts a boost and make them last longer.
- Cross-post: Cross-posting on other platforms such as Twitter and Facebook can help increase reach and extend the lifespan of your posts.
Additionally, using Instagram Stories is a great way to keep your content visible for longer, as they remain at the top of the user’s feed for 24 hours. You can also use Instagram Live to engage with your followers and keep your content visible for longer.
Measuring how effective your content is over time is a key component of any social media strategy. Fortunately, there are a few tools available, like *Iconosquare*, which make tracking Instagram post performance and engagement easier.
Understanding the lifespan of an Instagram post is crucial if you want to maximize engagement and reach. Remember to post regularly, focus on quality over quantity, and engage with others to help extend the lifespan of your posts.
1776 Faux Farmhouse
The curve above is what I like to call a post engagement lifespan curve. What it does is it aggregates likes and comments received on your posts within the first x hours and converts them to a percentage.
But why does this curve matter?
If you know how your previous posts have performed, you can maximize engagement on your posts (which will extend their overall lifespan) by posting at a time when more of your audience is online.
Using the chart above our engagement crests within the first 4 hours. Using the followers online data below I want to find the 4 hour period where the greatest number of our audience is online.
For example, on Thursday, from 5 PM to 9 PM there are 4 consecutive red dots indicating that we have the highest number of audience members online during that time period so we should post at 5 PM on Thursdays. The best time to post for you won’t necessarily be at 5PM, you have to look at your own data and find out when your audience is online.
Actionable Takeaway
Here are a couple of action steps you can take to extend the total lifetime of your Instagram posts:
- Figure out your best time to post using the strategy above
- Consider using the power hour method and engage with others content
Stat of the Week: 4.5 Hours
About 50% of our total engagement occurs within the first 4.5 hours of a post. It’s crucial to maximize your posts potential during this time frame. One thing to focus on is what we call the power hour. For at least the first hour after you post engage with others on Instagram. Comment on their posts, respond to questions on your post, consume content and be an active participant on the platform. The more you focus on engaging with others, the better your own content will do.
When You Are Ready, There Are 3 Ways I Can Help:
1 – If you’re looking to further improve & grow your social media using analytics, I’d recommend starting with a course:
➡️ Analytics for Content Creators: In development, but register your interest using the form below
2 – If you’re more hands off and would like us to audit your Instagram account:
➡️ 1:1 Instagram Account Audit: In development, but register your interest using the form below
3 – Promote yourself to over 140k+ followers/subscribers by collaborating with me on a project!
