Instagram isn't the top social media marketing network, but it took one step closer to mass relevance by making a slew of new marketing metrics available.

Instagram is by no means the most popular social media marketing tool for most businesses, but a new suite of measurement tools could be the impetus that makes brands want to get in on the marketing action. The Business Suite will provide information similar to what marketers can access on Twitter and Facebook, including:

 Impressions: How many people saw an Instagram post, whether it was through the app itself, embedded in a website or shared via other channels like Twitter or Facebook.
 Reach: The total number of potential users a given post could conceivably reach, considering the amount of followers, followers of followers and other social connections an account has.
 Engagement: An estimate of the number of Likes, shares and Regrams a particular post has received.

Instagram marketers can also get a weekly summary of their last week’s performance in order to better understand how many new followers they’ve accumulated, as well as which posts resonated most with social followers.

Instagram: Low engagers need not apply

Part of what makes this channel such a social marketing superstar is that it produces incredibly high engagement rates. As Brafton reported, each Instagram post gets an average of 4.21 percent of an engagement interaction per follower, which blows Facebook (0.7 percent) and Twitter (0.3 percent) out of the water. The 17 percent of people who have adopted Instagram, according to the Pew Research Internet Project, are highly engaged and very loyal, making a successful strategy valuable in terms of ROI.

The problem marketers have had with Instagram is two-fold: A lack of integration and a dearth of data. A solution to the first half isn’t on the horizon any time soon: Instagram doesn’t seem intent on releasing an API that will allow for any kind of automation. But this new wealth of data can help brands do more than stab in the dark with this particular social media marketing tool. Now it’s possible to compare engagement for posts, repeat past successes and build a brand’s presence on one of the fastest-growing social channels.

Alex Butzbach is a Marketing Writer at Brafton. He studied Communications at Boston College, and after a brief stint teaching English in Japan, he entered the world of content marketing. When he isn't writing and researching, he can be found on a bike somewhere in Metro Boston.