What's the importance of the "reach" metric over the "impressions" metric for Instagram? How does this apply to growing a podcast audience?

In this episode of The Circle Sessions, host Brett Johnson is joined by Tonnisha English-Amamoo, a member of the Circle of Experts and founder of TJE Communications. Together, they explore essential Instagram metrics that can significantly enhance your social media presence and grow your podcast audience.

The conversation kicks off with a discussion about the dominance of Instagram in today's digital landscape. Tonnisha identifies 12 important metrics from an article by Sprout Social, but highlights three key ones: reach, engagement per followers, and content saves.

Reach measures how many unique users see your content, making it different from impressions, which simply count the number of views. Tonnisha explains the importance of focusing on reach to grow your platform and, by extension, your podcast audience.

Next, they discuss engagement per followers, an insightful metric that helps you understand how effectively your content engages your audience relative to your follower count. Tonnisha provides a formula to calculate your engagement rate and offers tips to boost this number through strategic content and calls to action.

The third metric, content saves, indicates the long-term value and relevance of your posts. Tonnisha shares personal anecdotes about saving recipes and tutorials, emphasizing the importance of creating valuable content that your audience will want to save for future reference.

Brett and Tonnisha also touch on the various types of engagement—likes, comments, shares, and saves—and their relative importance in the Instagram algorithm.

Top Takeaways

Understanding and focusing on key metrics such as reach, engagement per follower, and saves is crucial for optimizing your Instagram strategy.

Reach measures the number of unique accounts that see your content, whereas impressions measure the total number of times your content is viewed. Reach is a more valuable metric for growth.

Engagement per Follower - This metric helps assess the interaction level relative to your follower count. Aim to create content that require followers to engage and interact, such as comments and shares.

Content that is saved by users tends to have long-term value. Creating save-worthy content like recipes, tutorials, or valuable lists can enhance engagement and reach.

Creating engaging content that makes viewers stop scrolling and interact is key. Using calls to action and enticing posts can help achieve this.

Likes are considered the primary form of engagement on Instagram, followed by shares and comments. Creating content that encourages these actions can boost your visibility.

Podcasters can liken Instagram metrics to podcast metrics such as downloads and unique downloads when strategizing their social media approach.

Pulling compelling clips from podcast episodes and using them on Instagram can drive traffic back to the podcast. Highlighting "hot takes" or impactful moments can encourage content saves and engagement.

Focus on a few key metrics at a time and master those before adding more complex layers to your strategy. This incremental approach can prevent overwhelm and facilitate sustainable growth.

Memorable Moments

00:00 Reach measures individual viewers; impressions count views.

05:05 Instagram engagement rate healthy between 1-3%.

07:53 Saving content indicates user interest and utility.

10:16 Create save-worthy content to boost engagement.

13:19 Begin implementing gradually.

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Each week, one of The Circle of Experts talks about critical aspects of growing your podcast. We focus on marketing, social media, monetization, website design, and implementation of all of these to help you make the best podcast possible.

Have a question or an idea for one of our episodes? Send us an email at podcasts@circle270media.com.

The Circle of Experts are:

Yasmine Robles from Robles Designs

Tonnisha English-Amamoo of TJE Communications

Don The Idea Guy

Brett Johnson, My Podcast Guy, from Circle270Media Podcast Consultants

Copyright 2024 Brett Johnson, My Podcast Guy™

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Welcome to the circle sessions featuring the circle of experts. Each week, one of the circle of experts joins me to talk about some critical aspects of growing your podcast. We focus on marketing, social media, monetization, and website design to help you implement all of these together. The circle of experts are Yasmine Robles from Robles Designs, Tanisha English Amamu of TJE Communications, and Don The Idea Guy, I'm Brett Johnson from Circle 270 Media Podcast Consultants. This week, Tanisha is here from the circle of experts. Tanisha is on a mission to help small businesses level the playing field through digital marketing solutions. Tanisha, thanks for joining again today.

Yes. Thanks for having me. I wanna give you guys a a heads up. You can hear the banging in the background. Got the little one right at my feet today. It's not the it's not

the neighborhood band. Yeah.

Exactly. Right.

Oh, gosh. You know, Instagram is really starting, you know, to be a part of our lives. It it you know, it's it's now, a go to for a lot of different things. I'm act I haven't been on for my business that much, but I'm thinking in 2025, I probably will jump into it. I I just have to do some strategy pieces to it in my head about what I wanna do. So you the the the topic for this episode is really interesting about, metrics that we should care about. And and and let's get into this because you just recently found a really good article about talking about some metrics, and and we wanna highlight some stuff.

Yeah. Yeah. And I know that Instagram can be frustrating and intimidating for a lot of people. The way that the whole landscape of the platform works can be confusing. You know? Sometimes they say post more reels, post more stories. Like, nobody really knows what they should be doing anymore on the platform. But these 12 metrics, were caught out by Sprout Social, and there are 3 of them that I think are super important, and that we all should be doing or thinking about throughout, you know, our time on Instagram. And the first one is reach.

So reach is, a metric that measures how many people are seeing your content. So this is different from impressions where impressions focus on the amount of times your content has been seen. I look at impressions as, like, a vanity metric because it can be, like, a huge number. It looks really good to put into a report to say that we had, like, you know, a 1000000 impressions. But out of those million, how many individual people or individual accounts actually saw the content? And so to give you an example, you can have, a 100 impressions but reach 10 people. So that means between those 10 people, some way, somehow your content was viewed a 100 times. Not necessarily saying that that's a bad thing and that we shouldn't care about that, but I do think that if we're looking to grow our platforms, which will essentially help us grow our subscribers to our podcast and supporters of the work that we're doing, that we have to think about reaching more people. And so that is definitely the number one metric that I will call out for everybody just to just be thinking about as you are planning your 2025, you know, social media strategies, especially for Instagram.

Right. I think you can podcasters can liken that to downloads. Once you said the vanity number, downloads are vanity number. But if you dig into your dashboard and you look at statistics about downloads and unique downloads, and that the same thing that is the unique downloads, like, that's your true number. It's just it it the downloads will be a little bit more or could be equal to, because you had someone maybe download it a couple of times. They we listened to it in some fashion. It came down through an IP address a couple of times, to put it that way. So it same thing, the reach versus, you know, the the great impression number is that download versus unique download.

So I I think if we liken it to that, that's an easy grasp going, oh, that makes sense in in the podcasters world. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. For sure. I wholeheartedly agree. Something you won't hear me talk about today if you're anticipating it is followers, but I will talk about engagements per followers. So that's number 2. So engagement per followers tells you that, it measures the amount of engagement with your content relative to your follower count. And there's, like, a whole equation to figure that out. So, basically, you take the total number of engagements that you have, divide that by your follower count, and then multiply that by a 100, and that gives you your engagement rate.

And a good engagement rate on Instagram is generally between 1 3%. So not a huge number for it to be considered, you know, healthy. And so when we're thinking about engagement rate, you know, sometimes we can be creating content that doesn't necessarily require our followers to engage. So even understanding this number can help you to think about creating different types of content that would require people to comment, that would require people to send it to somebody or add it to their story. Like, what call to actions can you give people to help increase that engagement on a post? You know, I see a lot of people do, you know, drop a heart if you agree or, you know, drop a a 100 sign, and I'll DM you, you know, something. Things like that help to increase your engagements per followers.

I was just going to ask of that engage the term engagement, how difficult is that in regards to what do they, look at as the, the definition of engagement. And it can

be just as simple as that, then Yep. It's a like. It's a comment. It's somebody, you know, sharing your post or even saving it. All of those things are considered engagement. So if you're able to get people to do something because, I mean, we're all guilty of just, like, the doom scroll. Right? Like, we're scrolling. We're looking at things.

We might like something, but, like, I've had times where I'm too lazy. Like, the way I'm laying and holding my phone, for me to like this post would require, like, a repositioning, and I just don't wanna do that. So and I know I'm not alone. I know I'm not alone. So so what can we create content that requires people to want to engage in some way, shape, or form? And, of course, it's easier said than done. You know, myself as a marketer, it's something that I struggle with too, trying to get people to engage in content, but then also thinking about what content would, require someone to engage.

It's stopping that doom scroll, first of all.

Exactly. What's gonna stop the doom scroll? Right.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. No. No. That that'd be the next step that you can actually talk into your phone and tell the phone what to do on that Instagram post.

That'll be the ultimate post.

Exactly. To to your point of, like, oh, wait a minute. I I just am not gonna move my

arm. Right. Exactly. She agrees with that.

I think so. I think so. Exactly. Yeah. No.

So the third metric, I would say, to consider is people saving your content. And so I have a so when you save posts on Instagram, I actually have a folder that's titled cooking for my husband. And I actually created this before I had a husband manifesting it. Right? Thinking of seeing all these cool recipes, and it's like, I would do that, but I'm not gonna do that for just me, and I know my kids aren't gonna eat that. So it was literally a folder that I started where I say recipes. And so oftentimes when I'm trying to think about my grocery list and what I'm gonna cook for dinner, I'll go back to that folder and just look and see, like, okay. What recipes are in here that, you know, I can just go to the store and get a couple things. And, you know, I try to look for recipes that require some of the same ingredients so that I can just, like, buy a bunch of stuff and cook, like, 3 meals out of it.

And so when we're thinking about the long term value and relevance of content, what is gonna make someone save, you know, a piece of content? Is it gonna is it a recipe? Is it an infographic? Is it some sort of, you know, tutorial or or DIY that people can can take and save? Is it gonna be you know, I always think about, I always forget the name, and I'm subscribed. The fur the the fur, podcast, the guys that have the food store.

Oh, Fangs and Fur.

Fangs and Fur. Yes. So using them as an example. You know? Could it be, like, you know, the top, like, dog foods or something? Like, that people would be like, oh, yeah. Let me save that so next time I go to the store, I can look at this or, like, you know, ingredients to look for in pet food that may be dangerous. Can you create a list that people wanna save? So and a lot of people are, are doing more of that, like creating folders and saving content. I mean, I save, like, hair tutorials, cooking, workouts that I'll probably never do, all types of things.

You're manifesting it out. Yes. I'm gonna

eventually, it'll happen. But, yeah, just creating all these folders of saved content. So as you're creating content, think about what is what would make someone save this for a later day? Like, what kind of information can you give that maybe someone wouldn't comment right now, but maybe they'd save it, which also builds towards that the previous engagements per per followers. And, also, with Instagram, if they're seeing a lot of people share a piece of content or save it, that exposes you to reach potentially more people. So the 3 of these things, reach, engagement per followers, and saves, kinda go hand in hand when you're thinking about creating content. The more you do one of them, it can help in the other areas too.

Gotcha. Is there a a hierarchy for engagements that, yeah, maybe this does better than in regards to what Instagram likes?

Yeah. I mean, they'll never tell us that, but, I believe that it's definitely gonna be the likes.

K. Gotcha.

I I feel like that, you know, is is truly the core of Instagram is the likes. And now that a lot of people, are opting into hiding them, I've noticed that even if you hide your likes, people can see your shares and see how many people, you know, shared a post or sent it to another person. So maybe that's gonna be second best. I would I would maybe think between shares and comments that that would probably be a good number 2. Yeah. But I still think likes are are the number one thing for Instagram. They're looking for the likes even if they're hidden.

Yeah. Yeah. Because I because of of the 12 metrics, which we only talked about 3, those 3 play together very well. Yeah. At 12, I can imagine be a little bit overwhelming. He's like, okay. How can I do but if you do it I can see if you do it properly, and this is where talking to you for strategy would be the best for any listener, Is that, okay, pick 3, pick 4? How do we make those 4 work together that all of a sudden you're getting 4 for 1 or 3 for 1 scenario, that that, I think podcasters are in a very unique situation that that it can work for them.

Yeah. For sure. Yeah. And just remembering, that the podcast is the content for social. And so thinking about what sound bites, you know, can you pull that will maybe cause a little a little drama, maybe people you know? It it might be a hot take Right. That could reach more people, that can get some engagement, that could get people to save and be like, oh, yeah. I have to go listen to I mean, so many times, I'll see a clip, and I'm like, okay. Let me just save this because I need I need full context.

I need to see the whole episode before I can, like, form an opinion. So think about that too. You know? What what clips can you pull? And you're already editing the audio anyway. Can you just make a a time stamp? Like, you know, between this time, there was a really good conversation, so I'm gonna remember when I'm editing to go back and see what I can pull from that for content. And I think, you know, that's just a good rule of thumb with anything you're trying to implement, especially if you're fairly new to, social media marketing and Instagram marketing, is to start with a couple of things at a time. I mean, so many people are gonna give you there's probably a list of, like, 50 things out there, and, you know, you have to just figure out what's best for you. You know? Maybe you do care more about followers than reach or vice versa. Whatever that is Yeah.

Find that thing and really work it until you feel comfortable and, like, okay. I I got this. I'm good at this, so let me add another layer to it.

Right. Exact I was thinking that too, just kind of a tag. That that way you know you're doing it properly or if it's just if if you're if it just isn't going to work, tweak it or go to another one, and then maybe that'll affect all the other ones. That makes a lot of sense.

Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.

Yeah. If if, a listener wants to get a hold of you for some strategy to, you know, really break this down, how can they get a hold of you?

Yeah. You can go to my website, www.tjecommunications.com. Right there on the home page, there's a button that, allows you to schedule a free consultation. I do free consultations even, you know, whether it's talking through, ideas or if you wanna talk about what it looks like to work with me. Regardless, it's free. So definitely head over there and, you know, get a a free conversation, and we can talk about your Instagram or social media goals.

Exactly. Yeah. And we'll do the same thing for your podcast too. Go to my podcast guy.com. And, yeah, it's not just about the podcast. It's about what you do around it as well too. So if there's some social media piece to it that you contact me first and we need to talk about some social media, we'll bring Tanisha in on it as well down the road, you know, in regards to, you know, fine lining what you need to help with. But, yeah, that's great.

Thanks for joining me again, Anthea. I appreciate

it. Yeah. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.