Big biz, best bet
Let’s face it: it’s a social media jungle out there! Which media outlet brings in the most clicks, the most followers and the most feedback? Is it Facebook? LinkedIn? Pinterest?
According to Fortune Magazine’s Annual Fortune 500 List, Instagram stands head and shoulders among it’s competitors.
Highest engagement levels
In fact, they point out that “among B2B and B2C brands, Instagram is the social network with the highest average engagement levels.” Research shows that B2B brands see 20 times more engagement on Instagram than on LinkedIn.
That said, using Instagram to spearhead your marketing efforts brings its own set of challenges. If you can remember that far back, Instagram started out as a platform to post your photos. Marketers now need to understand when their brand’s audience is active on Instagram so that they can publish content when it’s most likely to be seen.
A lot of so-called market research is pretty narrow. A few weeks or a few months. The F5 followed Instagram usage for an entire year and focused on a plethora of companys’ posting strategies, benchmarks for follower growth and engagement, and more. It makes for intriguing and informative reading (you can download the entire report here).
Like or don’t like
What are some of the more significant takeaways from the F5 annual list?
For starters, Instagram isn’t so much a reactive/interactive community as much as a “Like/Dislike” platform. Statistics bear out that on Instagram, 98.9 percent of interactions with Fortune 500 brands come in the form of likes or “double-taps.” Comments account for for only 1.1 percent of interactions with the Fortune 500 on Instagram.
Comments are rare but valuable.
While Facebook now offers a variety of ways to react to a post, Instagram keeps it simple: like or comment. “The vast majority of interactions (98.9 percent) are likes, which suggests that getting followers to chime in can be pretty difficult. But the payoff can be big, since these comments very often come in the form of users tagging their friends.”
Timing is everything
Repeat after me: “The weekend is your friend.” Interesting to note that the majority of Fortune 500 brands put up nearly double as many posts on the average weekday than on the average Saturday or Sunday.
That said, weekend posts average 3 percent more audience engagement than ones posted on weekdays.
With less competition, your weekend posts might be more likely to be seen by more eyes.
Something to think about.
Sleep is so overrated
Instagram posts made between 9pm and 3am get between six and nine percent more engagement than average. Certainly, that doesn’t mean daytime hours are to be avoided, but posting at a less competitive time can be an effective strategy. In the end, knowing your audience and performing your own analysis is the best way to understand what’s really connecting with your followers.
The appetite for Instagram is far from being satiated. That’s a good thing for you and your brand.
