How to Grow on Instagram in 2024 (According to Science)

Hello. Hello. Welcome back to the freelance Friday podcast today.

I've got some new Instagram data to share with you because let's be honest over the past year or so, Instagram has, uh, given a lot of us. Headaches, confusion. And I want to set the record straight and talk about what's actually working on Instagram today, this moment, this data comes from Metricool.

Metricool is my social media scheduler and analytics tool of choice. You can always use my code LaTosha. For 30 days free on any of their pro plans.

And I'm going to link this full report down in the description and the show notes for you, highly recommend giving it a download so you can have this data accessible whenever your clients are like, Hey, why aren't we doing this? Or why are we doing this? You can point them straight to the source and say, this is the data.

These are the reasons why. So definitely be sure to download the full study to have a read yourself, but really quick, I'll give you an overview of what this, the study is. Is, uh, all about.

So they analyzed nearly 400, 000 professional Instagram accounts, both business and creator accounts. They analyzed 5. 6 million feed posts, 3.

6 million reels, 23 million stories, 3 million images, 1. 8 million carousels, and 19, 000 reels from feed. Now.

Reels from feed is a metric that is referenced throughout this study. And they explain here in the annotation that there are reels shared in the main feed and then reels shared exclusively in the real feed. So, you know, when you post an Instagram, you can choose whether or not you want it to appear, you know, on the main feed and in your profile or not.

Or you can choose to just have it be in the reels feed. So that's what they mean by reels from feed. Just an important differentiation, I guess, to make.

So the first thing they go into in this report. Our stories, stories are brands most used format, which I think sometimes we forget about stories. You know, when we think about Instagram, we think about reels nowadays, like reels are the most popular reels are the most important.

Right. And they kind of are, we'll get to that, but stories actually have such. A big potential for connecting with your existing community and brands, smart brands know that 71, almost 72 percent of the sample study that metrical included in this report were stories.

The next most popular post format. Was reels at 11 percent actually images at 11. 39 percent then reels at 11 percent carousels at 5.

6 and reels from feed. So just the reels feed 0. 6%.

Okay. So in other words, if you're working with a client or you're looking to build your, your own business. Uh, don't forget about stories.

Stories are a widely popular format on Instagram, and because they are so popular, I think our audiences expect them. You know, it might not be something that our audiences say, Oh my gosh, this is my favorite, you know, post format ever. But if they follow you and you're not posting stories, it's gonna look odd.

Even if they can't place their finger on why. If it's missing something, so stories are incredibly important. Now we go to reels, which are the star of reach according to Metricool.

So it looks like the format that reaches the most users at 37. 87 percent is reels. In order of reach, we've got reels at 30, almost 38%.

We've got carousels at 27%. Very important to note here, carousels come second. Images alone are 17%.

Reels from feed are 14. 6%, and stories are 3. 13% in that order.

Again. This is where we've got to put our strategy hats on as social media managers, content creators, entrepreneurs, right? Is our goal to connect with our existing community, connect with our existing followers, maybe sell them more stuff, get repeat customers.

If so, maybe we need to spend a little bit more time in stories. A little bit more time doing some of these other post formats, which we'll talk about. But if our goal is client acquisition, customer acquisition, reaching new people, I hate to say it.

I don't know. Do I hate to say it? I don't necessarily hate to say it, but you know, the truth is out there.

Reels are what you need to be creating. Reels are what are going to be reaching the most new people. Bringing the most new people in to your community is essentially what reach means.

And it looks like. According to this report, reach increased for all account sizes, except for a slight drop for huge accounts. Now, when it comes to engagement, again, remember we're thinking about this marketing funnel, right?

We're attracting the audience with reels. Now, how do we get them to stay? How do we nurture that community?

How do we maybe encourage our existing community to purchase, to hang out, to leave us comments? Well, carousels are that post format. Carousels are the most engaging post format, according to this study, which shows that carousels have an average of a 10.

15 percent chance Engagement rate. That is huge. I am not getting 10 percent on any of my reels or most of my posts at all.

You know, and as a reminder, the engagement rate formula is essentially all of the engagement. So likes comments, shares, et cetera, divided by your focus. Follower count that shows the percentage of your audience that is actually engaged with your content and carousels engage people.

The most 10. 15%. Next up, we've got images alone at 7.

3%. Reels from feed at 6. 9 percent and reels overall at 6.

2%. They know in this report that carousels are really, uh, you know, important because of their storytelling capabilities. And as I reported a couple of weeks ago in my last, what's new in social episode.

We now can post carousels up to 20 slides each. It used to be 10 slides, which that alone is, you know, it's like a storybook. You're flipping through, you're reading slide by slide.

You're wanting to see, uh, what comes next. Well, now they're upping that to 20. So you can tell an even longer, more compelling story.

And I highly recommend playing around with it. If you, if you haven't, uh, tested out. Uh, carousels at all.

I think the other thing about carousels is they're highly savable. I know I save carousels all the time. I'm like, Oh, I'm going to read that later.

Oh, I'm going to, you know, check that out again. Cause they just contain so much good information. So that definitely factors into the engagement rate.

So we go into most widely used format. Again, we talk about stories 71. 9%.

Of the accounts analyzed are stories, and that makes it the most popular Instagram format of 2024. I probably would have said reels. Again, we forget about stories, but they are widely, widely important.

They go into some data and break it up by account size. I'm not going to go in depth on that. I highly recommend you download the report yourself and look into it, figure out where you fit in.

And then, According to account size and you can kind of benchmark against other accounts, your size, just to make sure you're on the right track, but it's highly individualized. So I'd recommend checking that out yourself. Again, reels are where you need to be.

If you're looking to reach a wider audience, carousels are the champion of engagement. With reels coming in last reels are last in place with just a 6. 2 percent engagement rate on average.

So if you feel like your reels are not getting engagement, you're not alone. Now I have a theory though, not only are reels. Highly effective at reaching new audiences.

They also, I theorize, attract kind of this quiet lurker type of audience member. I know I'm guilty of this myself. I am a content creator, so I always try to like and comment on things because I know how much it helps the creator.

But sometimes I'll just catch myself doing something else, you know, just. Kind of passively scrolling and watching reels, but not actually engaging with them. So do keep that in mind.

Sometimes I get discouraged. I'm like, why am I even posting this clip from the podcast when nobody is liking it? You know, it's getting a hundred likes or something, uh, pretty small for an accounts of my size yet.

I'll hear from people. Hey, I really liked your reel that you posted the other day. And I'm like, Hmm, didn't see your name in the likes, but okay.

You know, so I, and I don't think there's any, uh, malice intended with that. I think it is just par for the course with the format. So keep in mind, engagement rate does not always correlate with.

You know, success rate or ROI. People can still be retaining that information without necessarily engaging with it. So do keep that in mind.

It's not to say don't look at engagement rate. But just keep that in mind. Now, here's what we all want to know about, right?

How are these metrics comparing with last year? Because I, I hear from my clients, I hear from my friends, I hear from my students, uh, other creators in the space that reach is just so hard right now. Reach has plummeted.

Instagram is way harder than it was last year. So does that actually hold up? Survey says no.

It kind of does. Metricool, in their report, they went through and compared 2023 to 2024 on these different post formats, as well as these different metrics. Reach overall is down for every single post format.

Again, the uh highest reach is Comes from reels, but it is down 2023. We're seeing an average reach of 18 K 2024. We're seeing 11 K.

We look at some of the lower ones, like let's see images. 2023 was 14. 8 K 2024 5.

2 K. So is that the biggest drop? It's, it's a significant drop for sure.

So just something to keep in mind, if you're seeing lower numbers than you were last year. It doesn't necessarily make it better, right? This report is not making it better, but at least you know you're not alone.

You're certainly not alone. Engagement, on the other hand, holds pretty firm. So that's good news.

We're not seeing a significant drop in engagement for any of the post types. In fact, reels from feed is actually up 20, 23, 4. 5%.

Engagement rate, 2024, we've got 6. 9 percent engagement reels. Overall, actually engagement appears to be up 2023 5.

4, 2024, 6. 2. So what does that mean?

Well, we're reaching less people, but the number of people who are coming to our posts are still liking those posts format. They're still liking those posts. And by like, I don't just mean the heart.

I mean, they're enjoying them. They're saving them. They're commenting.

They're liking, they're sending them along to friends, whatever. Another interesting part of this report is this page on publishing frequency and It's correlation with higher reach. Well, that seems to be debunked.

In other words, if you want to reach more people, don't think that posting more is going to get you there, unfortunately. So according to the data, they say the weekly posting frequency of feed posts has increased across all account types while reach has actually decreased. And they go on to just kind of.

Annotate that before posting, make sure that you really look at your data, pay attention to what types of content your audience is really enjoying. You know, essentially it's that old adage of quality over quantity, you know, it's kind of what they're honing in here. There's also an interesting page in this report about reels.

They really hammer home that if you want to reach new accounts, you have got to post reels. And they also break this up by account size and showcase how different account sizes are rewarded. And it turns out smaller accounts are actually rewarded the most handsomely.

For reels, keep this in mind. You do not need to be some big famous celebrity or content creator to get in on this. And in fact, if you are just a small newbie account, you might actually see the biggest benefit from posting reels.

So get in there, give it a try. Don't be shy. You don't got to be popular or have an existing audience to have your reels really take off.

So it looks like a reach increased by 32%. For small accounts, 32%. And let's go back to the data and see what exactly a small account is classified as a small account is 500 to 2000 followers.

It tiny account is under 500 medium account is two to 10 K. Big is 10 to 50 K and huge is classified as 50 K followers or more. So that very small, you know, under 2000 account, if you were looking to start a new brand or launch a new business.

Reels are the way to really start building up that account. Once you get some of those followers, then I would probably pivot over to posting more carousels, making sure that you're posting daily stories, et cetera. But small accounts have a lot of potential on reels and all of the account sizes, again, except for huge accounts, which did see a small decline, all of them.

Saw higher reach from their reels, tiny accounts at 7%, medium accounts at 8. 7 and big accounts at 17. 3%.

Amazing. Something interesting about stories, even though brands are posting a lot of them, Reach has decreased, which I don't think is, uh, all that surprising considering it's never really been a major discovery format, meaning you typically are not getting random stories, you know, popping up in your feed stories are really a community engagement type of. Uh, format, meaning that they are a good way to have two way communication with your audience and get feedback from them and just kind of do something a little behind the scenes for them.

The best time to post on Instagram. Let's answer this question for once and for all. It is 8 p.

m. universally. So no matter your time zone, according to this report from Metricool, 8 p.

m. tends to be when the majority of users are online. Makes sense.

End of the night, everybody. Maybe you put the kids to bed, you get on Instagram and you start scrolling. The best days to post have shifted a little bit from what was previously Monday and Thursday in their 2023 report.

Their 2024 report shows that Fridays and Wednesdays are actually the best days to post on Instagram. So if you want your best bet. Post a reel on your new account on Wednesday or Friday at 8 p.

m. Do that consistently and report back and let me know if you see better reach on your posts. In this report, they also go through a bunch of best practices, which I definitely recommend checking out.

They have some of the latest data on the Instagram algorithm. They have some recommendations for thumbnails for your reels, and they even have an editing tutorial linked in here. Which is amazing.

So be sure to check out the Metro cool 2024 Instagram report, but I think we learned some interesting things. Let me know if you learned anything from going through this with me today. I hope it was helpful and thanks to Metro cool for.

Sponsoring the podcast. You can use my code Latasha at the link in the show notes to get 30 days free on any of their premium plans. And you can also download the report.

I'll have that direct link for you to check out as well. And yeah, definitely let me know what you learned, what you're going to be trying new, how are you going to be adjusting your Instagram strategy for yourself or your clients down in the comments. If you're watching on YouTube and I appreciate you being here, I will talk to you in the next one.

Bye.