With its growing popularity, Instagram is attracting more companies to its platform, but this has created an increasingly competitive environment. Being successful on Instagram has become more difficult, so HubSpot and Mention have decided to conduct a study to show companies what they can do to succeed on Instagram.
The study analyzed over 48 million Instagram posts from more than 300,000 popular users. It analyzed which content is popular, what effect hashtags and tags have on engagement and what the average number of likes and comments is.
1. Video content has 2x higher engagement on Instagram
According to the results, video posts receive more comments than other content types. HubSpot and Mention recommend that businesses create videos that have a story and show potential customers how their products or services are created, what the business’s background is and what clients’ experiences with the product are like. This is to show users what benefit the product or service may have for them. Videos should have a context, be creative and use your unique style.
2. Hashtags are not about quantity but about relevance
The report shows that using more hashtags reduces the average engagement rate. HubSpot and Mention recommend following the advice of the study:
- Instagram allows you to add up to 30 hashtags to a post, but that does not mean that all 30 have to be used. It’s about relevance, not about quantity. The average number of hashtags was 4-5 hashtags per post for the analyzed companies.
- You should also use the hashtags of your business brand or some hashtag you typically use. If you do not have one or there isn’t one you usually use, then create one. Statistics show that 7 out of 10 hashtags have been created and developed by companies themselves on Instagram.
- When you create a story with your company’s hashtags, or some other campaign’s hashtag, and promote it well, it is increasingly likely that users will start following your hashtag directly.
- Select hashtags that will express your story and that fit the context of the post.
- Don’t just use hashtags in posts, but also in your Stories.
- The 20 most-used hashtags are connected with food, lifestyle, fashion and beauty.
3. Tagging users you collaborate with will help increase engagement and can affect community growth
The third item of the study examined the tagging of other profiles in posts. You should tag only the users and profiles that have something in common with the post.
If you created a video in collaboration with other companies, cameramen, actors or musicians, tag all the collaborators on your creation. Or, if you want to post content about your business partners, do not forget to tag them. By tagging additional Instagram profiles, you increase the likelihood that your fellow collaborators will share your post, and this will help to increase your engagement.
But the study shows that it is not good to tag more than 5 accounts in one post. It is necessary to work with this function carefully and deliberately, just as with hashtags. 40% of posts did not contain any tags.
4. Other interesting statistics from the study
- The average post from the analyzed sample had 5,963 likes. However, this result is distorted by the profiles of influencers.
- The average likes per post was around 100 likes.
- The average post on Instagram received around 100 comments, with video posts receiving around 150 comments. This result is distorted by viral videos.
- The average number of comments on the video was 4, which means that more than 50% of all users receive less than 4 comments per video.
- 46.6% of users had fewer than 1,000 followers.
- 33.5% of users had between 1,000 and 10,000 followers.
- Only 9.8% of users had 10,000-50,000 followers, and 2.7% had 50,000-100,000 followers.
Find the complete report of study at the following link.
