It seems it goodbye likes and Hello saves!
Instagram saves seem to be the hottest engagement metrics that most brands and influencers are tracking right now.
With Instagram testing the removal of likes in many countries’ success metrics for Instagram feed posts are moving away from the likes in favour of the saves metric Instead!!
Have you noticed recently when reading a post you are prompted to save it so you can come back to it at a later date?
Instagram saves are a key signal for how the Instagram algorithm works, because the more saves you get on a post, the more people it will be shown to in the algorithm!
So, if you want to grow your account you need to focus on how you are going to get people to save your posts!
As you know Instagram saves are not anything new, in fact they appeared about two years ago as a helpful way for us to collect and save our favourite posts. By tapping the “bookmark“icon in the bottom right hand corner of a post that post gets added to your saved folder making it really easy to find again!
Instagram saves are now more important than ever and the most saves your post gets the more likely the Instagram algorithm will position your post a lot higher in other people’s feeds and sometimes even on the Instagram explore page !
The Instagram algorithm uses 7 key factors to determine how they are going to rank a post in the feed, one being the engagement you get on a post. It reads that number of saves an Instagram post gets as an indicator of quality, as people saving your post is an indicator to Instagram that it is high-quality content so it will then show it to more people in the feed.
So now Instagram “save” is like as important as it gets because this allows it to be pushed to the top of the pile thanks to the new Instagram algorithm. So the more likes, comments and now saves a post gets the better, especially because most of that engagement comes quickly after posting!
You may be asking but why are Instagram saves are now suddenly so important???
With Instagram testing the removing post likes from certain countries it has now expanded to several more countries including Australia, Brazil, Ireland, Italy, Japan & New Zealand!!! So with this shift in mind the number of likes post gets is now becoming less valuable to brands when it comes to tracking how successful a post is. If likes can’t be seen by anyone except the account holder the focus will be more on engagement, including the number of comments and saves a post will get.
Time to Track your saves!!!
Many influencers working on collaboration projects with brands now could be measured in this way too because these saves have now become “Super Likes”.
Whilst we know a like is a way for user to tell a brand they have seen and enjoyed their post a save is an indicator that this is of more value to them and they do want to come back to this content at a later date.
Once you start to see which posts are receiving the most saves on your profile it will then help you understand what your audience is most connected with.
Now you may be asking yourself how do you get more Instagram saves? We believe you should be writing longer and richer captions because gone are the days of a caption just being a collection of emojis and a few words because when it comes to getting more saves on your post you need a caption reads almost like a mini blog. When you share a lot of valuable and great content in your captions your readers are more likely to save your post for a later date or return to it when they want a refresher of the information that you have shared.
With Instagram being a fast-paced world and the chances of your post being seen more than once by your followers is very slim considering the Instagram algorithm value is so timely. You need to create content that your audience will want to come back to time and time again……
A great way to get more Instagram saves would be to create Instagram quotes! Quotes a huge asset to your Instagram strategy especially if you want to get more saves on your posts. Why? Because people love having them to read back on, share with their friends, and to save them away in a collection for a later date.
Whether it’s inspirational quotes, funny quotes or motivational – they all work!
Lastly a great tip to get more Instagram saves would be to ask your audience to save your post! A call to action in your post caption can be a powerful thing when you use it correctly. So, if you’re going to use any of our tips above do not forget to add a call to action to save your post. It acts as a friendly reminder to your audience that your post is worth saving away for the future whilst also giving that signal to the algorithm that it’s a piece of quality content that’s worthy of the Instagram algorithm!!!
