Why should influencers retrieve their #BestNine?

Is that time of the year. Time to wrap up and evaluate. Time to take a look at our accomplishments and to start making new resolutions. 

In the world of social media, it's time to show off (even more), and time to retrieve your "best nine" pictures if you are an Instagram user. 

These are my 2016 Best Nine

Best Nine, is a trendy and simple online platform that allows you to share the best nine pictures you posted on your Instagram account, based on likes. 

After seeing a few shared by my friends, I decided to take a look at how it works since it wasn't clear to me and it was not just popping up on Insta for me to do it on a simple click. It's still very easy, but it takes a little more. To retrieve yours, you gotta go to 2016BestNine.com, and insert your insta username. After a few seconds, you'll have your grid with the nine pictures that your followers liked the most. 

What caught my attention, is that you have the option to request a "full version" of your Best Nine. And this full version offers a couple pieces of information that are good for influencers to show. 

You can see on my own 2016 Best Nine that I had 6, 661 likes to 314 posts that I shared in 2016. In mathematical terms, those numbers would represent an average of 21 likes per post, and I would dare to say that I could presume a reach of at least 40 people, if I speculate on those who watch and stalk without giving away a like or comment.

While in 2015, I had 5,055 likes to 222 posts, which means approximately 22.7 likes per post. And let's presume and average reach of 50 per post. 

Yes, I know, I've "relatively" decreased my reach and engagement in 2016. Did I expected it? Yes. 

In 2016, I shared a lot less selfies and a lot less personal captions. In the past couple years I felt that I was giving away too much of my personal life so I've shifted my approach a little. Besides, I shared more single pictures in a 6-grid format, which I like from an aesthetic perspective, but it means probably 5 less pictures for my fans to like, since people usually like just one picture on the grid after they see the full ensemble. 

And that's why I say my engagement decrease was "relative". Because it truly wasn't if it corresponds with my "strategy" and the results expected. 

Example of one of my grids. 

My point is that, simple tools like the Best Nine can give you a lot more information than  you think, but most importantly, I think upcoming bloggers are failing in taking data into account and only focusing on the content strategy without keeping an eye on metrics. I might say some have no strategy at all, especially in the Dominican Republic. 

So my humble advice is to start looking at what your fans' feedback is telling you, not only by their textual words, but by the metrics you are getting. Start with your Best Nine.