The world's leading companies are becoming more active on Instagram, according to a new study by Simply Measured: Among the brands listed on the Interbrand Top 100, 40% now have an Instagram profile.
That penetration level is far behind that of Facebook (98%) and Twitter (94%), but it is still impressive considering Instagram is much newer and mobile-only, and it has no administrative or brand management features.
At the beginning of 2012, Instagram had roughly 15 million users, and it was available only via the iPhone OS. Seven months later, now also available to Google Android users, the platform's user base has swelled to 80 million.
Below, other findings from the Instagram study, which examines the performance of the Interbrand Top 100 on the social/mobile platform for the three months ended July 31, 2012.
Though Instagram's mass adoption has begun, it's still early in the game. Among all the top 100 brands, 37 have an active profile, 26 post more than one photo per week, 17 have more than 10,000 followers, and 8 have more than 100,000 followers:
Luxury brands are leading the charge on Instagram: Burberry, Tiffany & Co., Hermès, Gucci, and Armani are applying Instagram's visual format to drive engagement with their products, according to the study.
MTV and Starbucks are the two biggest individual standouts in terms of reach: Both are approaching 1 million followers, they post frequently, and they average over 3,000 likes per photo.
However, when ranked by engagement (as a percentage of followers), Nike and Audi are clear leaders:
Among the photos posted during the three-month period, 60% had Instagram's trademark filters applied to them. The most popular options were Lo-fi (14%), X-Pro II (14%), and Hudson (13%). However, the Valencia (7%) program had the highest engagement, the study found.
About the study: All data and analysis are from Simply Measured social analysis and reporting for the three months ended July 31, 2012.
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Instagram is a great tool for B2C brands (especially retail) to get in touch with their customers. Here are 2 great ways you can use Instagram to connect with your social media fans.
1. Enable and encourage some of your first-line employees to take images with Instagram and share them on your Facebook channel.
2. Encourage customers to take 'creative' photos of your any elements of your business (branding, store front, etc.), upload their creative images on Facebook, and share it on your wall. Award a small gift card or gift certificate to the most creative photo while virally advertising to their hundreds of friends.
For more social media tips and tricks, check out our social media cheat sheets at http://mdv.to/NmISj3
Anyone have any easy work arounds for companies that want to get on the instagram bandwagon as far as phone use is concerned...question is whether your social media/marketing people use their own phones and toggle between personal and company IG accounts, or their employers buy them a 2nd device to post to all the company social media sites.
It's becoming tedious to login/logout(remember passwords) for multiple platforms on the phone every day!
Hi Dan, it would make more sense to have separate devices for work use. For instance, employers can buy social employees a device for social media use - which they are required to carry during work hours. This way, the phone is always logged in to the right business account. Of course, this would work much better for first-line employees since they deal with customers. For more tips and tricks, check out our social media cheat sheets at http://mdv.to/NmISj3
I see Instagram more and more all the time. Particularly on Facebook pages and retailers/brands finding ways to get user interaction.
One of the best Instagram profiles I've seen recently is by sports media startup Sportstrib.
They did a fantastic job of presenting images during the London 2012 Olympic Games beyond simply the venue.
They doubled their subscribers in just a couple weeks.