In an era where digital presence can make or break a business, Instagram is a dynamic and indispensable platform for companies across the globe. It’s no longer just a hub for sharing selfies and scenic landscapes – it’s a powerhouse for businesses to showcase their products, build their brand, and connect with a vast and diverse audience. In fact, 25% of marketers declare Instagram as the social media platform with the biggest ROI.
Engagement on the platform is rife, with users able to comment on and share posts, as well as directly message brands. This level of engagement allows businesses to interact with consumers, answer questions and gather feedback. Hashtags give businesses the opportunity to increase reach, visibility and discoverability, and the range of targeted advertising options with detailed insights and analytics make the basis of a strong paid strategy too.
When making a social media strategy for any platform, it’s important to have a basic understanding of how the platform works and how consumers use it. Here’s some information and statistics to help you get started.
Who uses Instagram?
Instagram is a powerful tool due to its incredibly large user base and worldwide reach, with 2.3 billion active worldwide users every month and 1.3 billion active users daily. The most prevalent age range on Instagram is 18-24, making up 32% of the total user base, with ages 25-34 following at 15.3% of all users. The full age and gender breakdown of Instagram users is as follows:
13-17: Female 4.1% | Male 4.1%
18-24: Female 15.3% | Male 16.7%
25-34: Female 7.9% | Male 7.4%
45-54: Female 4.6% | Male 3.6%
55-64: Female 2.5% | Male 1.7%
65+: Female 1.5% | Male 1.2%
When do people use Instagram?
Although there are active users on the platform at all times of the day, it’s been found that the highest levels of engagement are at 8 p.m., with a rate of 7.33%. In contrast, the lowest time of day is 8 a.m., with an average engagement rate of 5.53%. Research shows that Sundays are the best day of the week for engagement on the platform, with a rate of 6.47%.
These statistics represent the average across all Instagram users. Although they can act as a starting guide, it’s important to experiment on the platform to work out what days and times your followers are most engaged to get the most out of your Instagram efforts.
On average, a user will spend 8:16 minutes on every visit to the app. 34.7% of users will only view one single page during each visit, but the average across all users is 11.02 pages per visit.
How do users engage with Instagram content?
90% of all users actively follow business accounts, and 24% of users claim that their primary reason for using the platform is to keep up with brands, which equates to 312,000,000 daily users. Consumers are heavily present on the app, making the volume and quality of content that brands produce vital for success.
A range of visual content types are available on the platform, such as single-image posts, carousels, videos and stories. Instagram is the ideal place for businesses to showcase their products and services in a visually appealing way, whilst building a strong brand image.
Photo posts get an average engagement rate of 0.59%, but video posts get an average of 3x more engagement than single images. Carousel posts, a type of post with multiple images and/or videos that users can swipe between, get much higher engagement than single images, with an average rate of 1.26%. As for Instagram Stories, 90% of users will tap through and view all of the uploads if there are over four frames, so it’s worth putting some effort into producing a good amount of quality content for your Story.
This isn’t to say that continuously posting carousel posts and lengthy Stories on Instagram is the surefire way to rake in engagement. Your content should be varied, covering multiple forms. Certain types of posts may suit your business more than others, so it makes sense to prioritise those. If you’re just starting out with your social media strategy, test multiple forms over an extended period of time to determine what works best for you. On average, business accounts with less than 10,000 followers have an impressive engagement rate of 0.98%, showing that a smaller audience size has little negative impact if you have an active follower base and post relevant and valuable content.
Instagram shouldn’t be overlooked by any brand. Even those who don’t sell products or services that are traditionally visually appealing can benefit from producing content on the platform.
All statistics are sourced from Viralyft’s 2023 Instagram statistics round-up.
