Saves are the New Instagram Engagement Metric You Want to Start Increasing Today

Move over likes… Instagram saves are the new “it girl”!

Likes have been the engagement metric that many brands and influencers relied on to measure the success of their posts. However, Instagram has been toying with the idea of removing public likes for some time now. This has left brands searching for a new way to measure engagement and the performance of their content.

What is a save?

Instagram saves have been around for a few years. Unlike public comments and likes, saves are a private metric that allows users to bookmark posts, add them to collections, and easily access them at a later date.

Instagram’s algorithm uses many engagement metrics to prioritize posts on people’s feeds and the explore page. As likes are slowly becoming a thing of the past, saves are becoming a key engagement indicator for the algorithm. A save indicates that your post resonates with your audience and that your content is high quality and worth displaying to a wider audience.

Okay great, now that we know what a save is and why we want more of them… How do we get them?

Save-Worthy Content

In order to boost your numbers and increase how many saves your content receives, you must first understand your target audience. You should always be creating and sharing content that is relevant to them - for more information on how to build and attract your target audience on social media, CLICK HERE.

1. Infographics - Instagram is a photography-based social media platform and while pretty photos and aesthetically pleasing visuals have reigned supreme for a long time, don’t be afraid to mix things up. Infographic-style images can boost your saves due to the relevant and useful content they contain. If your followers find your infographics interesting or helpful, they might save them to a collection to reference at a later date.

2. Evergreen Content - We usually reference the importance of evergreen content with blog writing, but the same can be said about social media posts as well. Instagram is a fast-paced environment and posts are rarely seen more than once on a person’s feed. However, if you create content that will be relevant next week, next month or even next year, the more likely your audience will save it for later thus boosting your numbers.

3. Meaningful Captions - As I stated before, Instagram is a photography-based social media platform, but that doesn’t mean the caption isn’t just as important as the photo. Yes, the photo is the first thing that catches a viewer’s attention, but what keeps them engaged and interested is the caption. Longer, richer captions are necessary to increase the number of saves your content receives on Instagram. Share valuable information with your audience that will capture their attention and keep them coming back to that post to reference.

4. Tips & Tricks - “You learn something new every day” has reached a whole new level thanks to the Internet. Sharing industry tips or life hacks on Instagram in a fun way is a great way to gain more saves. Craft educational content in this way to help people understand your product or service while teaching them something new along the way.

5. CTA - Call to Actions are necessary for any Instagram content, so encouraging your audience to save your post should be no different. A friendly reminder at the end of your caption nudging your followers to save your post to reference later should do the trick.

How to Track Saves

Utilize Instagram Insights to see which posts your audience is saving and which ones are performing the best so you can continue creating save-worthy content. Head to the Insights tab on your Instagram Business or Creator Profile. Under Content, you can see how well your posts performed based on reach, likes, shares, saves, etc. Start tracking your engagement rate utilizing the number of saves to see how well your posts are performing:

Engagement Rate = (Likes + Comments + Saves) / Impressions x 100

To view more metrics and understand how successful your content is, consider using a reporting platform. We like to use Sprout Social to give ourselves and our clients a clear understanding of their performance over any given time period.

Use this information to see what content your audience is saving so can create more save-worthy posts that your followers will enjoy over and over again!

Level Up Your Content Strategy

Instagram is constantly changing its algorithm. With millions of photos and videos being shared every single day on the app, the algorithm is actually there to help get quality, top-tier content to the top of people’s feeds. Make sure your content is a part of that!

If you’re looking to create quality content for your brand and increase your social media presence, give us a buzz! We would love to help you create something sweet.