Geeky Biz is where I share about starting or growing your creative business the Geeky Bobbin way.

The smell of peppermint mochas, the sound of top 100-countdown playlists, and the warmth of the fireside… the only thing that’s missing to complete your December experience is an Instagram feed full of year-of-color and Top-Nine posts.

Yes, these little retrospective wrap-ups can add some much needed Instagram filler content during a busy time of year for us creative entrepreneurs, when you’re either shipping out orders or rushing to make those final hand-made gifts. They can also be a good reminder to look through your Instagram insights and see what they can tell you about how your Instagram feed content performs.

Look through the various facets of your insights, and scroll through the whole year, not just the top. You may find some surprises!

Some patterns that I noticed looking at the insights for my business Instagram account:

• 2 of my top 3 posts by reach were mock-ups. Wow! Considering the relatively low effort to create a mock-up versus a whole quilt, that’s a pretty big revelation!
• Wide shots of finished, quilted quilts tend to perform very well. No surprise there!
• I don’t post pictures of myself as often as I should, but of those, the picture of myself that I HATE the most, because I look like a total dork, is one of my highest posts by comments. In fact, pictures of me did better on average than not. (There’s a nice little cluster of them in the top 1/3rd by likes.)

• My least liked posts were all graphics with text in them (the exception in this screenshot is a post that’s only about an hour old). Overall, graphics with text but no numerals did better than graphics with text that contains numerals.

A few caveats: These are patterns based on how my audience reacted to my content, so they don’t necessarily apply to yours. Check your insights for what worked and what didn’t work with your posts.

Also, there’s a lot more going on than just the images. A deeper analysis of the timing of posts, captions, hashtags, and phase of the moon might yield even more patterns, but Instagram doesn’t give us the ability to drill down on those facets of our content at a glance.

And finally, just like a fabric collection can’t be made up of all hero prints, not everything you post will be in your top 9. That doesn’t mean you should only make 9 posts a year! Focus on the interactions and relationships that you build, and the rest will follow.

Have you looked past your top nine? I’d love to know about the patterns you’ve found!