Audit your Instagram Profile in 1 Hour

You know how at the end of each year, we reflect on how the previous year went? What went right, what went wrong? What went according to what was planned, and what was unexpected. What habits and people contributed to our growth, and would we like to keep, and which would we like to let go of? Before starting the new year, we want to review where we’re headed, what we’re doing with our lives, and if our actions are aligned with our ultimate goals and dreams. It’s called a Life Audit.

Similarly, your Instagram needs a regular Audit too. Keep on reading to know the benefits of an Instagram Audit.

Why should you conduct an Instagram Audit?

1. Review the performance of your content

An Instagram Audit will tell you what kind of content is contributing to your goals, what kind of content is getting engagement for you, and what kind of content you should let go of. It helps you evaluate which content buckets are getting you the desired results. Regular audits will ensure that your content does not stray too far from your overall strategy, and stays aligned with your brand goals.

2. Maintain Consistency

While creating content, engaging with your audience, and doing campaigns, you will tend to stray off from your brand identity and voice. Once in a while, you will have to stop and look at your designs, your captions, and how you interact with your audience, to make sure all of it is in consonance with your brand image.

3. Stay Relevant

How do you make sure your content and language are keeping with your market and audience? You stay updated with your industry news, keep interacting with your audience, be aware of the latest trends on the platform, and then re-evaluate your content according to it. An Instagram Audit will help you with just that.

How often should you conduct an Instagram audit?

It is advised to do an Instagram Audit quarterly, or at least bi-annually to adjust your content strategy, stay updated with trends, and test your existing content strategy.

Step-by-Step Guide to Conducting an Instagram Audit

Step 1 — Revisit your Brand Goals

Ask yourself: what do I need my content to achieve this quarter? If you launched a new product, it could be product awareness. If it’s the holiday season and people are purchasing more, it could be more sales. If you have a new website, it could be sending more people to the website. You could have more than one goal too. You can base your content strategy for the quarter on these goals.

If you know your goals, then you can use Instagram Insights to assess the performance of your content in the previous quarter and accordingly ideate your posts for the coming quarter.

Step 2 — Analyse Instagram Insights

Dive into Instagram Insights to know whether your content strategy is working and whether your goals are being met. To measure the success of your content in the previous quarter, dive into Instagram Insights. Instagram Insights is a gold mine of data that tells you who your audience is and what they want to see. Based on Insights of your previous quarter, and your goals, you can determine your strategy for the coming quarter.

Step 3 — Review your Content Strategy

Here are some questions you should ask yourself while working on your content strategy for the new quarter:

• Are you updated with the latest trends?
• What are the frequently asked questions by my audience?
• What kind of posts are giving me the desired results?
• What kind of posts are giving me maximum engagement?
• What is new in my industry?
• Is the frequency of posting working for me?

Step 4 — Optimise your Profile

Your Instagram Profile is a direct reflection of your brand, it represents your business on that Platform. Revisit your Instagram bio to make sure it tells who you are and how you help your audience. Update your contact details in your profile, and add/subtract any links (Instagram now allows you to add 5 links in the bio.

One additional thing here that could help would be to go into your Instagram archives and see what important Instagram highlights you could populate. You might even come up with new highlight ideas!

Rethink your Top 3 pinned posts too. If you want to convert every visitor to your profile into a follower, make sure your Instagram profile is updated and optimised from time to time.

Step 5 — Assess your Branding and Aesthetic

Your audience should know the post is from you when it comes to their feed. An Instagram Audit gives you the chance to ensure your visuals and copy are in cohesion with your brand voice and identity. In the case of captions, pay attention to what you write and how you write it. It’s really easy to get caught up in the day-to-day maintenance of your Instagram account and lose track of your brand tone.

Don’t forget that your brand values are also a part of your brand identity and they reflect when you interact with your audience.

Step 6 — Evaluate Your Hashtag and Keyword Strategy

Instagram Hashtags and relevant keywords can actually increase your reach to your target audience and potential customers. Though there is a lot of noise around how you should use hashtags on Instagram, here are a few things you can keep in mind:

• Use only 3–5 hashtags, don’t spam your caption with 30 hashtags
• Use a mix of popular and niche hashtags relevant to your audience (that your audience searches for or follows)
• Don’t use the same set of hashtags in every post.

Don’t forget to add relevant keywords in your captions and your Instagram bio for SEO discoverability.

Step 7 — Remove Fake Followers

Fake followers don’t interact with your content, and listen to your account’s credibility. While it may seem counterintuitive, having a smaller, more engaged audience is more valuable than a large, inactive one.

Here is how you can identify a fake follower:

• They have an incomplete profile.
• They are not consistently active.
• They leave spammy comments.

TL;DR: Here’s how you can Audit your Instagram in 1-hour:

1. Revisit your brand goals to ensure that your content strategy is aligned with them.
2. Dive into Instagram Insights to make data-driven decisions for the content for your next quarter.
3. Keeping your brand goals and Instagram analytics in mind, devise your content strategy for the next quarter.
4. Update your Instagram bio and highlights.
5. Ensure your content and engagement is in alignment with your brand identity and values.
6. Evaluate the hashtags and keywords you use to maximise discoverability.
7. Remove fake followers to maintain credibility and quality engagement on your profile.

Time to schedule that 1 Hour to audit your Instagram business account before March ends!

Comment below if you want a Checklist for your Instagram Audit to help you with all of your future audits.