Instagram is one of the best social media platforms for brands who are looking to boost engagement and tap into visually-appealing media. Currently this ‘newer’ platform gets 15 times as much engagement as parent company Facebook and 40 times more engagement than Twitter.
It may be surprising to hear that over 90 percent of prestige brands are using Instagram and the platform has seen 80 percent growth in brand use between 2012 and 2013. Now touted as the fasted-growing social media network, it makes more sense than ever to diversify your social media strategy and jump onboard the train to Instagram land.
Here are a few more Instagram statistics and tips for brands looking to leverage this 200 million user-strong platform.
Instagram Complements Existing Social Media Platforms
Brands are learning that social media posts with pictures in them are the best way to get views and increase engagement. A great way to use pictures in your posts is through Instagram and the platform’s ability to work with other networks. Here are some numbers on how using Instagram pictures on other social media platforms increases engagement:
- 35 percent more Twitter retweets for picture links
- 73 percent more Facebook engagement
- 94 percent more Google +1’s
- 98 percent more LinkedIn engagement
Instagram pictures can also be reposted onto Pinterest and blogging site Tumblr as well. The advantages of Instagram pictures are that they are not limited to the network by itself; there are not too many other social media networks that have this type of cross compatibility.
6 Stats to Help You Boost Instagram Engagement
There is some science behind Instagram posting that your brand should be aware of. Here’s what you should know helps you to increase engagement.
- Brands that use images with faces get 38 percent more engagement and 32 percent more comments.
- When possible, brands should post pictures of real customers using products. Doing so results in as much as 30 percent more engagement.
- Interestingly enough, brands that take pictures with high background space rather than low background space get 29 percent more likes.
- On Instagram, photos get more engagement than videos.
- You can get a 24 percent spike in likes by using blue-dominant imagery over red-dominate imagery.
- Light images get more engagement than dark images.
Other Ways to Make Instagram work for You
Instagram works in ways that are commonly referenced for the other social media networks. You have likely heard us talk a lot about frequency, quality and additional ways to increase engagement. Just as the other social media networks work best when posts are consistent, Instagram works the same way. The majority of the world’s top brands post at least once per week and about a quarter of them five times a week.
When posting, try to match your posts to current events such as the World Cup, holidays or relevant industry happenings. To make these events even more searchable, utilize hashtags as many Instagram users use the networks internal search feature to check things out. Finally, let your followers on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and LinkedIn know about your Instagram account and mention it on your other marketing materials as well.
