This morning, SimplyMeasured published their latest Instagram study diving into how brands are performing on the mobile platform up to Q4 2014. With storied engagement numbers, brands have been leaping onto the platform in great numbers to see for themselves if this is true.
Now that 42 percent of Interbrand’s 100 is seeing over 100k followers looking to actively engage with branded content, we now have better insights on what is performing and from this can discern Instagram best practices.
“The ability to make an impact with a single piece of content is growing rapidly, and giving the visual network real, measurable value for brands,” says SimplyMeasured in the report.
We looked deeply into the report to pull out some of the actionable takeaways that marketers should look to be doing on the platform in order to get the most engagement out of the content they post.
Brands Are Finding It’s Not Enough Just To Have An Instagram Account
You have to be active on it, too. According to the study, active brands have almost doubled since O3 2012 and in that time, the posting frequency that brands have adopted is beginning to find its groove. Most brands are posting 10-20 times a month, but some brands are seeing the benefit of posting even more than that, with some saying they post even more than 50 times per month.
Engagement Is Up By 83% On Average Each Post
Instragram has 300 milion active monthly users now generating 70 million photos each day, but even more than posting, Instagram users love liking. They do it 2.5 billion times each day. Savvy brands are certainly not missing out on this. Of Interbrand’s 100 brands, SimplyMeasured saw 130 million total engagements.
“As brand adoption reaches its max, engagement is growing at a greater rate than new brands are adopting the network,” says SimplyMeasured.
It is clear users are becoming more used to branded content now as they elect more and more to have it appear in their feeds. The report also notes that photos continue to be more popular than video content on the platform, and users love engaging with brands with their own photos by tagging them. Looking for a well of UGC, anyone
Instagram Posts Have Longevity
If Twitter is like a flash in the pan and Facebook feels like having a protracted half-life, Instagram is proving to be a platform on which content has considerable longevity. The platform’s format lends itself well to enabling discovery, and it appears that is no different for branded content. In fact 10 percent of comments come in after a post has been around for 19 days which is pretty much eternity on the Internet. Just 50 percent of comments are posted within the first 10 hours, which goes up to 69 percent in 48 hours.
But not just any posts– good posts. “High-performing content on Instagram has a longer shelf life than lower performers. This is an important reason to focus on quality.”
It Doesn’t Matter How Long Your Post Is
It matters what’s in it. Caption length doesn’t have any correlation with engagement, although most brands tend to keep it within 141 characters. What’s most important is ensuring appropriate users and related accounts are @Mention’d appropriately. It’s a no-brainer, but reaching a wider audience will of course ramp up your engagement.
When it comes to hashtagging, brands tend to keep it well within Instagram’s cap of 30 tags. Hashtagging is chiefly important to ensuring your content is discovered by a relevent audience, so 86 percent of brand posts make sure to include at least one hashtag. A high 91 percent of top brand posts have seven hashtags or less, so perhaps therein lies Instagram’s magic engagement number.
On top of that, tagging location also proves to be an engagement booster. Not many posts do it, but those which do are rewarded with a 50 percent lift. Don’t miss out on that!
