Using Instagram to grow your brand awareness, showcase your products and interact with your customers is becoming more and more important for every business. If you are reading this blog post, the chances are you want to grow your Instagram page and use it much more effectively. The social media platform, which was founded in 2010, has become the fastest growing social media channel, with more people signing up daily.
Unlike other social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, it lets you humanise your brand and connect with your followers or customers on a more personal level. Buying habits have changed, and people like real reviews more so now than ever. On all other social media platforms, it is mainly about pushing content. Whereas on Instagram, you are showing how you build or develop your product/service and ‘behind the scenes’ footage of how it all comes together.
Instagram statistics that you need to remember
- 7 out of 10 hashtags are branded.
- Instagram posts with at least one hashtag have 12.6% more engagement than those without.
- Although you are allowed 30 hashtags, research on the topic suggests that the optimum number to use is 11.
- An estimated 71% of US businesses use Instagram.
25 million businesses on Instagram
- There are currently 25 million businesses on the popular social media site. Small business is currently making up the majority of advertisers and business profiles.
- 80% of users follow a business on Instagram.
- 60% of users said they heard about a product or service through the platform.
- As of March 2017, over 120 million Instagram users visited a website, got directions, called a business, emailed or direct messaged a business.
- At least 30% of Instagram users have purchased a product they first discovered on Instagram.
$7 billion in mobile ad revenueÂ
- Instagram mobile ad revenue to hit nearly $7 billion in 2018 – a $5 billion jump in just two years.
- 25% of Instagram ads are single videos.
- If your video is narrated, don’t forget to add captions. According to Digiday, 85% of videos are watched without sound.
- Instagram ads increased by 28% in the second half of 2017. According to data from Klear, there were 171,000 Instagram ads in December 2017, whereas there were just 134,000 six months previous.
- Posts with a location get 79% more engagement than those which don’t.
- 70% of posts don’t get seen. Instagram’s latest algorithm focuses on past page engagement when choosing what content people will see.
Weekdays Vs WeekendsÂ
- Users engage more on weekdays than at weekends.
- 80% of influencers prefer Instagram for brand collaborations.
- Photos generate 36% more engagement than videos.
- 65% of top-performing posts feature products.
- Product posts beat lifestyle content (43%) and images or videos from an influencer or celebrity at 29%.
- Photos with faces get 38% more likes.
- User-generated content has a 4.5% higher conversion rate. This increases to .6% if they interact with the photo.
- The most used Instagram filter is Clarendon. It’s the favourite filter in 119 countries worldwide.
The red heart is the most used emojiÂ
- 50% of captions and comments contain emojis. The single red heart is the most used emoji, followed by the love-heart smiley face, the kissing face and the crying-laughing face.
- 59% of 18-29-year olds use Instagram.
- 80% of users live outside of the US.
- More than 40 billion photos have been uploaded to the social media platform since it was founded in 2010.
These statistics are according to data released by Social Spout.
We’re pretty sure after reading these facts and figures, you’ll be ready to sign up to Instagram and start growing your business. If you want some more information on how you can use Instagram stories, read our complete guide here.
