5 Reasons to Track Instagram Mentions

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Concerns around user privacy have sent ripples throughout the marketing sector as it becomes ever clearer that consumers are now in control. The photos they share and the stories they tell now define a brand far more than anything that the brand says about themselves.

 

This is thanks to the phenomenon of social proof, in which we trust other people’s recommendations. It’s why we use sites like TripAdvisor and Amazon to check reviews, and it’s also why we’re more likely to go to a restaurant if a friend recommends it than if we just read about it in the local paper.

This means that it’s more important than ever for brands to keep track of what people are saying about them, and that includes on Instagram. That’s where this article comes in. We’ll be taking a look at how tools like Social Mention and Miappi can help you to monitor your mentions.

 

What is Social Mention?

 
Social Mention is a tool that offers real-time search across a number of social networking sites, blogs and news sites. It can be a great way to discover mentions that you weren’t previously aware of, but it doesn’t have the advanced features that a tool like Miappi has to offer.

 

Here at Miappi, we’re all about making the valuable, visible. Our tool helps you to discover, curate and display the best of your user-generated content, and that includes allowing you to track Instagram mentions and to see what other people are saying about you. We believe that being able to track mentions on Instagram is one thing and that being able to display that content where it can be the most effective is something else entirely.

5 Reasons to Track Mentions on Instagram

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves and that’s what the rest of this article is for. So without further ado, here are five reasons to track Instagram mentions in an ever-growing digital world that’s constantly changing and evolving.

 

1.    To Discover User-Generated Content (UGC)

 
Instagram’s mention is a brand’s best friend in an open plane that’s oversaturated with endless information. User-generated content, such as photos taken by content creators or regular consumers, are paramount to the growth of a contemporary brand. It also establishes that all-important social proof:  we trust what other people say about brands but remain suspicious of what brands say about themselves.

 

That’s why user-generated photos are five times more likely to convert customers than non-user generated photos, and it’s also why 47% of top-performing content marketing teams rely on UGC. It’s also why we check reviews, because we want to be reassured that we’ll have a comfortable stay at a hotel or that we’ll fit in at the bar we booked a table for. We form lucid opinions based on the experiences of people. We don’t like to be told what to think but we all like to fit in.

 
 

2. To Identify and Solve Customer Service Issues

 
If you’re not listening, you can’t learn. In this day and age, many of us turn to social media as the first port of call when trying to solve a customer service issue. We also turn to social media when we want to make complaints or to warn our friends away from a company after a negative experience.

 

Too many marketers use Instagram solely for marketing purposes and forget that customer service is just as important when it comes to social media. On top of that, failing to respond to someone who’s complaining about your product or service and then continuing to try to sell it is like rubbing salt in the wound. You risk turning existing customers into active detractors who go out of their way to complain about your brand.

 
 

3.    To Monitor Sentiment Towards The Brand

Tracking Instagram Mentions

 
When we talk about sentiment analysis, we’re talking about the art and science of assigning positive, neutral and negative sentiment to any post that mentions the brand. You can track the percentage of positive and negative comments that you receive and see how it changes over time as you address the feedback that you receive and continue to offer customer service.

 

Many sentiment analysis tools allow you to dig even deeper, comparing your metrics to industry benchmarks or using artificial intelligence to highlight areas that are repeatedly associated with either positive or negative sentiment. It depends whether you want to dig deep or whether you just want a surface level overview of what people are saying when they talk about you.

 
 

4.    To Increase Engagement

 
Tracking and responding to your Instagram mentions can invite a dialogue between your brand and the consumer. As well as increasing the visibility of the consumer, this helps them to feel as though they’re a part of something. They can provide feedback, ask questions or simply share a story about how the brand has been a part of their life.

 

A great example of this in action comes from fashion brand Lucy & Yak, which offers handmade, sustainable dungarees and which has a cult following amongst artists and creatives. On their Instagram profile, they monitor their mentions and then repost the best user-generated content they can find. This is one of the reasons why they have a much higher engagement rate than other brands in the industry. They don’t use models: they use real people.

 
 

5.    Because You Can

 
If you can track your Instagram mentions then why on earth wouldn’t you? As human beings, we now encounter and reshape the world through our smartphones, often without consciously realising it. We’re all used to checking our personal notifications, and yet brands too often look at it as an inconvenience – or it doesn’t even occur to them in the first place.

 

User generated content is very valuable for every business. Photos and videos with specific mentions and tags are much more likely to lead to eCommerce revenue than ads.

There are plenty of both free and paid tools out there with varying functionalities that make it easier than ever before to track and respond to your Instagram mentions, whether that’s by adding them to visual galleries on your website or whether it’s by solving customer service issues. Consumers already expect it of you. So why wouldn’t you want to live up to those expectations?

 
 

What’s next?

 
Back in April of this year, we learned that Facebook and Instagram will be making major changes to their APIs. This means that as of December, third-party tools will no longer be able to track hashtags, which potentially means that monitoring mentions will take the place of tracking hashtags and will change the way that we market ourselves on the social network.

 

In the meantime, you’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain by tracking your Instagram mentions. Other than the time it takes to check your feed and to take action, there’s no real resource or monetary cost to get started. So what are you waiting for? Start tracking your Instagram mentions today – and get in touch with us if you need a little help!
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