A Foolproof Guide to How To Get Instagram Data

Let's define how to get Instagram data and why it's important for any company. Why such information helps all types of businesses and what processes are described in social media listening. The first important thing to say is to look for mentions of the product, competitor, or brand in keywords related to the studied business. The second point is the analysis of the information received and its correct use. It could be a response to a satisfied customer or a repositioning of your company.

Why Scraping Instagram Data and the Benefits you could get from it

The main advantages of the data scraping process for businesses are the following:

Analyze the product based on comments, reviews, and other posts with people's opinions.

A large-scale info collection for data-driven decisions.

Obtaining data on user profiles to study the target audience, market, or competitors.

Understanding the desires of potential customers and adapting the product to their requirements.

Information will be useful in the development of various Antifraud systems.

A good way to conduct industry and competitive intelligence is to make a selling offer unique and relevant.

Monitoring the reputation of the client's business and its ranking among others.

Obtaining data about the "work" of the product and what points prevent it from being more relevant.

Identify opportunities for collaboration (who are the thought influencers in the analyzed area of business).

Companies can track the mention of their brands in reviews and comments to eliminate the weaknesses that prevent the business from becoming more productive. Collecting data on the Instagram audience on current trends and topics (taking into account information about influencers by tracking their content) is necessary to optimize a product and/or marketing campaigns to attract more potential customers.

Instagram data monitoring

There are many ways how to get data from Instagram. Each of them has its advantages and disadvantages. Let's look at the most popular methods:

Web scraping algorithm. This method is useful even if the page's HTML code has been changed. You can use the algorithm on all sites with a repetitive HTML structure. Scraper functions using textual structuring of words in HTML code, where the engine recognizes words or variable names. The principle of the algorithm is that the classification of the words surrounding the search data is performed on the assumption that the future HTML code of the site will be similar to the current HTML. It ensures reliable scraping.

Web scraper. It is the most simplified way to extract web data. Specify the parameters and click on the necessary elements. You don't need coding knowledge here. You can navigate through all sections of the site (categories, pagination, subcategories, etc.). The main advantages are full Javascript execution, waiting for requests (Ajax), a modular selector system, and scrolling down the page. The system allows creation of maps for different requests and adapting the extraction of information to different website structures. You could extract data in XLSX, CSV, and JSON formats; scrapers are managed via API.

API-based solutions. It is the fastest and easiest method if you look into how to get data from Instagram in detail. Various sites, such as Instagram and others, offer an API as a service with a high-level interface so that you can directly restore data from back-end databases or repositories. We may say that the API is a set of definite specifications, such as HTTP requests with the designation of the response messages construction. It usually could be done in XML or JSON formats.

Extracting data using the API is divided into 3 options:

Open API is a turnkey solution for extracting information, but there is a downside. Only the company provides technical support, customization, and maintenance services.

The Official Instagram API is a common choice, but the disadvantages here are a lot of restrictions. And you will have to work hard to get permission to use it.

Third-party APIs, like Data365, are complete solutions with customization, technical support, and maintenance assistance.

The third option is the most convenient for companies that want to know the opinion about their products, improve services, make the marketing strategy more efficient, and so on. Data365 will be useful for developing business dashboards, tracking KPIs in social networks, analyzing mood and experience, and getting different data about interacting with customers.

Scrapping data solutions

Let's understand how to find Instagram data using the Data365 API. Apply the ability to search posts by location and hashtags. For this feature to be accessible, you should get a list of hashtags and location IDs. As a result, you have a detailed list of the latest posts with the given parameters. But that's not all - Data365's product allows you to receive much more data which can later be used for in-depth analysis and development of a marketing policy:

Get Instagram Deeper Insights with Data365 Instagram API

With Data365, you can create various tasks for automatic or one-time data updates. To use the repeating task, use the following options: auto_update_interval or auto_update_expire_at. In the first one, you can set a specific time interval; the second option allows you to cancel information monitoring after the specified date.

Data365: What Kind of Data Can Be Scrapped?

If we consider how to find Instagram data using Data365, then we have already talked about getting information from profiles, posts, comments, followings/followers, and so on. But with the Data365 API, you can also scrape more useful data in the real-time format:

Instagram search:

Instagram profiles:

Instagram posts:

API features and limitations:

Instagram comments and replies:

Scrapping Instagram data

Gender and age according to the profile photo.

Fetch-tagged posts.

The details in the content of the post (language, text, and also a list of hashtags).

User biography with ID, name, photo, and business category.

The number of followers and posts.

Maximum number of posts to fetch.

The number of likes, video views, and comments.

Comments on a specific post (replies to them).

Search for posts by specified parameters: hashtags or locations.

Search for users and collect users posts for any period of time.

Profile language, account photo, business category.

ID, username, biography.

The number of followers and posts.

A detailed list and content of the latest posts.

Gender and age (approximately estimated based on the profile photo).

Get such types of data as Stories, Reels, Highlights, etc. for a particular profile.

Owner ID & location ID.

Content in posts: texts, languages, list of hashtags and tagged users.

Engagement info ("likes" count, video views count, comments count).

Download comments (it could be selected on a specific post) and answers to them, and receive info such as owner ID, text, and "likes" count.

URLs of attachments (videos, images).

The number of requests (such as GET and POST), it can't exceed 100 requests per second.

The size of a queue of one type should not exceed 50,000 tasks. If exceeded, the oldest tasks are deleted.

Filter comments by date and specific keywords.

Get the target comment's internal Instagram ID.

Creating a task for updating a post with the parameter - "load_comments".

In the website documentation you can find the query parameters that can be configured. Namely, whether you want to get solely profile information or you're also interested to get some number of recent posts, for instance within a specific data frames, or you need reels, stories, comments, followers, etc.

Here we have prepared an example to show what kind of requests and responses you can get with the Data365 Instagram API.

Our products are designed to get a clear idea of what people think about the brand or product. It is a real-time information analysis that collects data from reviews, posts, and opinions on specific parameters. The advantage of the Data365 tool is that you can collect data by location, hashtag, and other requests (including language settings). But we also have prepared a list of benefits of how to get data from Instagram using the Data365 API:

Data365 Key Benefits

Conclusion

14 days free trial period with any technical support provided (!)

Support and help are provided when any issues occur.

Full compliance with privacy regulations (GDPR).

Live help (assistance) with setup, customization, and integration.

Get access to 5 social networks from one vendor.

Help with the choice of the best solution with the opportunity to add customized options.

A complex product that is simple to use. All the necessary documentation to work with the API is provided.

Help in setting up the correct parameters of the queries, and so on.