40% of Leading Brands Use Instagram

Four in 10 of the Interbrand Top 100 brands are now on Instagram, according to a new study by Simply Measured.

The mobile-only photo sharing app began 2012 with just 15 million users and was only available via iPhone; now, Instagram is also available via Android, and the press that came with Facebook’s acquisition of the app saw numbers swell to 80 million.

Interbrand Top 100 By Social Network via Simply MeasuredWhile Instagram’s 40% pales in comparison to the 98% of Interbrand Top 100 brands that are on Facebook (94% on Twitter), Instagram’s rise in popularity among brands has been impressive, especially considering the platform’s lack of administrative or brand management features (Marketing Profs).

How active are these top brands on Instagram?

  • 37 have an active profile
  • 26 post more than one photo per week
  • 17 have more than 10,000 followers
  • 8 have more than 100,000 followers

MTV and Starbucks are the biggest stars on the platform with over 750,000 followers each, regular posts, and around 3,500 likes per photo.

 Instagram Brand Adoption Study via Simply Measured

But overall, luxury brands are the real leaders on Instagram – Burberry, Tiffany & Co. Hermès, Audi, Gucci, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Armani are all seeing solid engagement, and are listed among the top 15.  Audi averages 1,423 “likes” and 34 comments per photo – and the brand generally posts one photo per day.  Nike saw the most “likes” per post – 6,399 – despite having less than half the follower numbers of MTV or Starbucks.

The study is based on Simply Measured’s new Instagram analytics and reporting, which examined the performance of the Interbrand Top 100 on Instagram for the three months ending in July 31, 2012.