It’s easy to take for granted how the marketing world is today. From almost nothing just a few years ago, Instagram marketing, including influencers, has become a multibillion-dollar industry. And when users pulled back from Facebook a few years ago after the Cambridge-Analytica Scandal, it was Instagram that saw a further uptick in advertising revenues.
Depending on who you talk to, Instagram may be the best of the major platforms for digital marketing. It’s definitely the right place if you’re targeting millennials. Way back before anybody knew any of this, the developers at Iconosquare started looking at Instagram analytics.
It’s now become a full-fledged social media marketing tool. That’s why over 70% of U.S. businesses use the platform. Iconosquare is designed to help companies make the most of the Instagram revolution. Learn about the app, its core features, and if it is a good choice for your social marketing needs in this review.
What Is Iconosquare?
Iconosquare is a social media analytics and engagement tool for both Instagram and recently added Facebook. Above all, it provides you with in-depth information about how well your social media accounts are performing.
It also includes other tools, including post scheduling, monitoring your competitors, and audience engagement. Best of all, you can do everything from within the Iconosquare dashboard, making all of this activity a breeze.
Iconosquare began in 2011 under the name Statigram. What sets it apart is this focus on Instagram from its inception. It currently has over 10 million members around the world who use their service. Businesses, digital agencies, individuals, and even celebrities use the app.
Getting Started With Iconosquare
Unlike other social media marketing tools, Iconosquare is super focused. It doesn’t connect to all the major platforms, and it’s not packed with thousands of features. This is actually a good thing. Iconosquare is simple to use, and the onboarding process is quick.
But that doesn’t mean their tools aren’t sophisticated and powerful enough to deliver powerful insights. Once you’ve set up your accounts, you’ll see the Analytics tab on the left panel. Here you’ll be able to track essential stats you need to monitor daily including:
- Impressions
- Total followers
- Average engagement rate per post
- Total followers
- Instagram/Facebook Story Analytics
- Most recent media and stores
- Best Times to Post
- Gained and lost followers
- Comments and likes count
- Hashtag tracking
- Influential profile spotting
- Reporting
Iconosquare has a large blog with all kinds of useful information on how to use it as well as general social media marketing tips. You can access all features of it either from your web browser or the iOS and Chrome apps.
Iconosquare Pricing
Iconosquare has three primary plans. All of them do include a free trial, so you can get started now and try out their great tools for yourself.
Here’s what each plan includes:
Starter | Pro | Advanced |
1 social profile | Everything in starter plus: | Everything in Pro plus: |
1 team member | 3 social profiles | 5 social profiles |
100k followers/fans limit | 2 team members | 3 team members |
Additional social profiles – $6.75 | Unlimited no. of followers/fans | Unlimited no. of followers/fans |
Additional team member(s) – $11.25 | Additional social profiles – $14.25 | Additional social profiles – $21.75 |
Analytics | Additional team member(s) – $11.25 | Additional team member(s) – $11.25 |
Comment tracker | Advanced search | Ad monitoring (coming soon) |
Email support | Chat support | |
Publishing | Comment export | |
Reports | Data & charts export | |
Search | Stories and advanced analytics | |
$7/month | $29/month | $59month |
*Iconosquare also has a customized agency plan that includes training and a dedicated customer success manager. Contact them directly to learn more about this option.
Iconosquare Features
Iconosquare has tons of amazing tools you can use to improve your Instagram and Facebook marketing. Here are some of the most useful:
Best Times To Post
We all know that social media feeds are infinite. It’s so easy for us to miss the things we actually want to see because so much content is posted at any given time.
To make sure your posts will be seen, Iconosquare has a Best Times to Post feature. It provides a breakdown of the best times for you to post according to your engagement rates.
We cannot overstate the importance of this. Since Instagram updated its algorithm in 2018, posts aren’t shown in chronological order but instead with the highest engagement.
Iconosquare shows you exactly when your audience is most engaged with your content and will show you on a graph in yellow circles when you should post (vs. dark circles indicating the time you usually post). You’ll even get the best date and time for your audience as well as provide specific engagement rates for every hour of the day.
Most Engaging Posts
It’s essential to know what works and what doesn’t. You can set Iconosquare to show you your most liked, commented, and engaged posts for any timeframe. This will help you see the types of posts that your followers like so you can better emulate them in the future.
Identify A Post Lifespan
The challenge of social media marketing is that even the best posts will lose engagement over time. Usually, a post will get the most engagement the first day or so it’s around before gradually dropping off.
But, with Iconosquare, you spot posts that have higher lifespans to better track patterns for what makes a post last longer.
Community Statistics
Iconosquare has everything you need to know about your followers, including location details, demographics, and everything else you’d expect.
The advanced features are what really set it apart, however. One useful tab is the “Rolling Month Analysis,” which will reveal your top 10 most engaged followers.
It also highlights what percentage of your followers are in the “influencer” category or those with a 40+ followers/following ratio. Identifying these users will help you identify potential influencer marketing partnership opportunities.
Gained And Lost Followers
If you’re reading this, then you likely know that on any social platform, user numbers can fluctuate. You lose some. You gain some. That’s how social media goes. You don’t need to waste time over a handful of lost followers.
But you do need to pay attention to trends, especially spikes in either positive or negative directions.
You’ll very likely notice one key trend. The more consistent your posting schedule is, the more your followers will grow. Use this tab to help you stay the course even if you can’t stomach even just one more post.
Competitor Benchmarks
We all can admit that there are some things our competitors do well. It doesn’t matter how big or successful you get; you can learn something from your competitors. Iconosquare makes it easy to see what’s going on in your industry. You select accounts you want to follow and can then compare vital metrics like followers, likes, and comments.
Iconosquare takes it even further with deep insights like:
- Posting habits
- Hashtag tracking
- Follower growth
- Top-performing media
- Best times to post
Knowing these strategies is the best way to help you reconfigure your approach to reach your target audience better.
Content Management
All the statistics Iconosquare provides are exceptional. But what good is all this information unless it’s organized and easy to digest?
With Iconosquare, you begin by creating customized feeds. For instance, you might separate hashtags, influencers, followers, and competitors.
From here, you can use the comments tracker to keep an eye on everything that comes in about your latest posts (really helpful if you have a large following). Then you can read, reply, and mark comments as read all from within Iconosquare.
Likewise, you can publish and schedule posts, save caption and hashtags for the future, and create a calendar.
The only downside is you can’t publish everything directly from within Iconosquare. You can only auto-post single images/videos, not carousels. But you can schedule everything from within the app, and Iconosquare will send you a reminder for anything it can post for you.
Who Is Iconosquare Best For?
If it isn’t clear from Iconosquare 10+ million followers, basically anybody who wants to grow their Instagram following, encourage engagement and get a leg up on the competition. While businesses and agencies have found great success from the tools, even influencers and other celebrities are now using the app to get an advantage over competitors.
Social media marketing is tough, and you can directly apply any lessons you’ve learned from one successful account to another. Iconosquare pulls unique insights straight from your social media to see exactly what’s working and what isn’t.
It’s also affordable. Few social media marketing tools start as inexpensively as Iconosquare. At $7 a month, you can give the basic plan a shot and feel out the features before committing to the more advanced/expensive options.
Pros
- Very affordable
- Great features
- Easy scheduling
- Some automated posting functionality
- Competitor analysis
- Best times to post
- Instagram focused
- Influencer index track useful connections
Cons
- Doesn’t have full auto-post functionality (other similar apps suffer from this too)
- Only supports Facebook and Instagram
Iconosquare Alternatives
Nowadays, many players are trying to get in on the lucrative Instagram market. Few have such a long and proven track record of success as Iconosquare.
Two of the most popular alternatives are Sprout Social and Soci.
What Is Sprout Social?
Sprout Social is a huge name in social media marketing. They not only include tools for Instagram and Facebook, but also Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and other platforms. Sprout Social is packed with tons of features, but it is a touch pricey. It also doesn’t have the same direct focus on Instagram. So, if Instagram is your priority, you may be better off with Iconosquare.
What Is Soci?
Soci isn’t as popular as Sprout Social, but it’s won acclaim for its powerful tools and focus on digital marketers. It’s built as a central-command tool for marketers. The one downside to Soci is that the onboarding process does take time. Unlike Iconosquare, you can’t really hit the ground running with it.
Iconosquare | Sprout Social | Soci |
Analytics | Analytics | Analytics |
Automated Publishing | Automated Publishing | Automated Publishing |
X | Contact Management | Contact Management |
Content Management | Content Management | Content Management |
X | Conversion Tracking | X |
X | Customer Targeting | X |
X | Keyword Filtering | Keyword Filtering |
Multi-Account Management | Multi-Account Management | Multi-Account Management |
Post Scheduling | Post Scheduling | Post Scheduling |
From $7/month | From 99/month per user | Custom price provided by the vendor |
Iconosquare: The Bottom Line
When it comes to getting deep and valuable insights, it’s hard to beat Iconosquare. It’s lightweight, easy to use, and packed with useful features.
Iconosquare truly helps you understand what’s going on with your accounts, find new opportunities, discover hashtags, and post better. If Instagram is your main platform or you want to break into it, it’s hard to beat Iconosquare.
Iconosquare Review
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Summary
Looking for a tool to help you with social media analytics? Maybe you’ve come across Iconosquare. Iconosquare is a social media analytics and engagement tool that works for both Instagram and Facebook. With features such as post scheduling, competitor monitoring, and more could this be the tool for you? Read our review of Iconosquare now and learn more.