Instagram provides a way for users to share photos and videos, but does not provide a way to extract data such as captions, hashtags, location, etc. from the photos and videos that users post.
For marketers and business owners who rely on data to make business decisions, this makes it difficult to gain context about the photos and videos that are posted on Instagram.
However, there are tools available that can help you extract data from Instagram posts and profiles. In this guide, we will show you how to extract data from Instagram using a web scraping software.
But first, let’s cover the basics:
What are the Benefits of Using an Instagram Scraper?
There are many benefits to using an Instagram scraper to extract data from Instagram.
- A scraper gives you the ability to access all of the data that is posted on Instagram.
This includes the images and videos themselves, as well as the data that is embedded in them. Also, the data can give you a great deal of information about the people who are posting on Instagram. This can include things like their location, interests, and even their social media accounts.
- Using a scraper can be a helpful way for researchers looking for specific information.
For example, if you were interested in studying how Instagram affects self-esteem, then using a scraper would allow you to access all of the posts that contain the word “self-esteem”.
Once you have the data extracted from Instagram, the next step is to use various methods in order to analyze it. Depending on what type of analysis you are looking for, different methods may be more appropriate than others. For instance, if you were looking for correlations between Instagram and other variables such as self-esteem or depression levels, then using regression analysis would be more appropriate than simply eyeballing the data.
- A scraper gives you the ability to scrape posts in chronological order.
This means that you can access all of the posts that have been made by the user over time.
It can be helpful to do this if you want to study a user’s behavior on Instagram over time. For instance, if you were looking for an indicator of how well a brand is doing on Instagram, it would be helpful to access all of the posts made by the brand over time in chronological order.
- A scraper makes it easy to find specific types of data.
Scrapers are a great way to quickly and easily find information about followers. For example, if you are looking for information about your followers’ bios, a scraper can help you find this information quickly and easily.
Additionally, scrapers can also help you find other important social media analytics data, such as posts made by your followers and reactions to them.
Features of Scrapfly
What is Scrapfly?
Scrapfly is a web scraping tool that makes it easy to collect data from websites. You can use the Scrapfly API to scrape data from third-party websites including Instagram. It has an easy-to-use interface and is a great option for users who want to explore data without having to use the Instagram app.
Scrapfly has several features including the following:
- Anti-scraping protection:
Scrapfly will protect your data from being scraped by other websites. This gives you peace of mind since you know your data is safe and secure.
- Data extraction:
Scrapfly has a simple and easy-to-use data extraction interface. This makes it easy to collect the data you need from a website or on a social media network like Instagram.
- Caching system:
Scrapfly’s caching system will help to speed up the data extraction process by storing pre-extracted data in a cache on the user’s computer. This will allow the user to extract data more quickly, reducing wait times and making the process more efficient.
- Real time dashboard:
With Scrapfly’s real time dashboard, you can keep track of the data extraction process in real time. This helps to ensure that the data is collected correctly and in a timely manner. - Webhooks:
Scrapfly also has webhooks that will allow you to send data extraction requests to other websites. This will help to automate the data extraction process. - Javascript rendering:
To make the data extraction process as easy as possible, Scrapfly also renders the data in Javascript. This makes it easy to understand and use the data. - Full customization:
If you want to make sure that the data extraction process is exactly the way you want it to be, then Scrapfly has full customization capabilities. This means that you can create your own data extraction scripts and use them with Scrapfly. - Ban detection:
Scrapfly also has ban detection capabilities. This will help you to ensure that the data extraction process is safe and secure.
How Do You Use Scrapfly to Extract Instagram Data?
Previously, the Instagram API allowed for a more comprehensive exploration of metadata attached to each post, including user profiles and interactions. However, the Instagram API now only allows access to your own comments and posts. This change was made in order to protect users’ privacy and limit the amount of data that is available to third-party developers.
Since changes to the API and the approval process in recent years have made it difficult to use the public Instagram API, developers have created private APIs to scrape Instagram profile data such as hashtags, photos, likes, locations, and comments.
One such tool that allows for Instagram data extraction is Scrapfly.
Scrapfly Setup
In this illustration, we’ll be using Python with the httpx library to scrape Instagram. This library makes it easy to interact with the Instagram API, so you can get the data you need from their servers. First, we’ll need to install httpx: $ pip install httpx
Note that ScrapFly is a Python library and so we will be working with JSON objects. It provides a simple and concise API, making it perfect for parsing and manipulating JSON data in your applications.
Extracting Instagram Data with Scrapfly
Once the setup is done, you can use various commands to extract profile and post data.
For example, to explore Instagram hashtags you can use the following command: /explore/tags. This will paginate through posts that have been tagged with a specific hashtag and show the user who created the post and its associated metadata.
We can also use /explore/locations REST endpoint to find posts by location. This will return a list of posts that have been tagged with a specific location and their associated metadata.
Finally, we can use the /explore/users endpoint to get a list of all posts by a specific user. This will include the username, profile picture, bio, and follower count.
Conclusion
Scrapfly is a great tool for users who want to explore data without having to use the Instagram app. The tool allows users to extract data such as likes, comments, and views from posts.
This can be helpful for researchers who are looking to study user behavior on the platform or for marketing professionals who want to track how their posts are performing.
