On Wednesday, Canvs, the emotion analytics company, announced its brand-new Instagram API integration which allows customers access to emotional measurement capabilities for that platform. Canvs customers are TV networks, production companies, brands, agencies and digital publishers that can all utilize this type of data on emotional responses to take more informed actions on content.(Jon Lafayette provides an in-depth take on the news over on Broadcasting & Cable -- we'd highly recommend that read)Canvs’s emotion measurement capabilities can contextualize the meaning behind emojis, deciphering more complex expressions like sarcasm. These can also be applied across media formats like images, videos, links and branded content. The company’s own social science studies have proven a direct correlation between Emotional Reactions (ERs) and “tune in” to future content.One study provided tangible proof of people hate-watching certain TV shows for specific storylines and/or characters.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHjNaXm2EO4Canvs’s announcement also included a new social content engagement metric, Emotional Tag Rate, giving Facebook and Instagram page owners percentages of fan emotions including at least one ‘@’ mention. The feature is critical for Instagram, in particular, since content is shared by way of username tagging, versus a Facebook-like direct-to-newsfeed feature.Said Canvs CEO and Founder Jared Feldman:

“Instagram analysis, in concert with our existing Twitter TV, Facebook and YouTube capabilities, is an essential next step in helping producers understand what’s resonating emotionally with consumers across social. Forming an emotional connection with your community across social is necessary, and using emotion-based insights to create an ongoing narrative fans are invested in is imperative.”

The new Instagram integration rounds out Canvs’s suite of social platform capabilities, complementing current Facebook, YouTube and Twitter TV offerings. Companies that use the Canvs platform receive valuable insights into optimizing future content production, programming and marketing. NBC recently adopted the strategy on Facebook to inform social marketing and programming decisions for hit show This Is Us.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ86ycli47wBrands are increasingly trying to connect with consumers across social platforms, which calls for more tailored content and messaging specific to each platform as well. Emojis are frequently used as a form of expression on Instagram, but not nearly as much on Twitter. A recent Canvs analysis of three beauty brands on Instagram showed that 50% of all comments contained an emoji of some sort.It’s critical for brands to understand what types of emotions those emojis are expressing around their content and messaging.Canvs’s emotion analytics can also use data gleaned from text and emoji responses to identify top-line trends across a brand’s entire Instagram page -- not just segmented to one post. This helps publishers adapt an ongoing narrative based on the evolving emotional traction on Instagram (just like it does for other platforms).