Which Instagram Interaction is the most important?

If you check your individual post analytics, you will know that there are five different types of Interaction on a grid post on Instagram: Likes, Comments, Shares, Saves and Profile Views. But which Instagram interaction is the most important?

Let me explain a little bit about each one…

Likes

If your content stands out to someone, they will like it. This is the most common interaction and the one that people usually measure the success of their post by. The more likes you get, the more chance you have of expanding your reach and getting seen by more people. This is a vanity metric, it’s the only one people see. Your followers have no idea how much engagement you are getting from the interactions that give you the real insights into your post (see points 2 – 5).

Comments

If your post really engages the person looking at it, they may decide to comment. You can make it easier for people to comment by asking them a question or by telling them to reply with a yes or a no (or any other one-word answer). The more comments you get, the more likely it is that more people are going to see your post. This is why it’s important that you respond to any comments you receive!

Shares

This is when your post is shared to someone’s story or sent as a DM to another Instagram user. This is such an important interaction as it means that your content is being put in front of someone else’s audience and could result is hundreds (or thousands) more eyes on your post. So, that one interaction could potentially lead to a much larger reach with more likes and followers as a result.

Saves

When someone saves your post, they have found your content so valuable that they need to save it to look back on it in the future. This improves the longevity of your post and also points out what type of content your audience is finding the most valuable. Saves are also tipped to be the metric the algorithm is using to determine how much reach your post gets, and even if it should rank on the Explore page.

Which Instagram interaction is the most important to your business?

Only you can decide how to measure the success of your posts. It might be that actually post likes aren't a great representation of how well your content is engaging and converting your audience. When you are checking your analytics, try tracking one of these other interaction types instead of likes. Create content that makes your followers want to share your posts, check out your profile and save the information you share.