Save Is The New Like
Since instagram has removed the ability to see how many likes a post has gotten, likes themselves starting to become more obsolete. Creators of Instagram posts are now favouring “saves” over likes. The Instagram Algorithm uses 7 key factors to determine how to rank a post on the Instagram feed, one being the engagement you get on a post (likes, comments, views, and saves). It tracks the number of saves an Instagram post gets as an indicator of quality: people saving your post is an indicator to Instagram that this is high quality content, so it could appear to more people in the feed.
To help measure this overall engagement, a lot of businesses have started to track saves as part of their Instagram engagement rate calculation:
Engagement Rate = (Likes + Comments + Saves) / Overall Impressions * 100
This is usually referred to as “true engagement”, since the calculation includes not just likes and comments but also the number of times your post is saved.
So, If you want to grow your instagram account you need to start focusing on saves rather than likes. The good thing about the Save button is the ideas/ inspiration/ guides you save are easy to get back to later. Not only can you organize saved posts into different collections, but you can get a clearer sense of what you’re into and can show you better ideas. How can you do this?
Start by creating more content that is educational or valuable. These images are more likely to be saved by the viewer since a lot of people want to “save for later”.
Write longer and more insightful captions on your posts, things that actually have meaning or context to the image above. Having a short paragraph that acts as a mini-blog is a great way to generate interest from people.
Use quotes from insightful people are a great way to boost saves on your post. People often want to remember the information said in the quote and will save it so they don’t forget about it. The best thing about using these quotes is you can literally post anything relevant as long as you give credit to the owner.
You need to ask your audience to save the post, sometimes people just don’t think about doing this and need that extra push to make them understand why it’s valuable. This is commonly known as a call-to-action (CTA). Always add ‘save for later’ at the end of your post.
Getting people to save your posts is much more valuable than generating likes - it’s evidence that what you are posting is important to people. It’s so important that they actually want to see it again in their personal saved posts collection. So, next time you’re planning out you content strategy for your Instagram page - consider using some of these tips and see your engagement rate and audience grow!
