We’ve discussed before how visual content is an effective way for brands to engage people. Now, a new report by analytics provider SumAll, which reviewed all brands with over 25 fans on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Google+, has declared Instagram the ‘clear winner for 2013’.
Performance was assessed in terms of increases in fan/follower engagement. SumAll found that Instagram delivered the most new followers for brands throughout the year, with increases nearly three times that of all the other channels. Indeed, brands on Instagram saw an average of 7 per cent growth in both followers and engagement.
“If a company has a visual product to sell and it’s currently not on Instagram, that company is missing out on significant brand awareness and revenue,” said SumAll CEO Dan Atkinson.
The study findings also suggest the growing importance of social commerce to the overall marketing mix, with Instagram beginning to generate measurable revenue for brands with a visual story to tell. This uplift was quite significant for UK brands, which reported up to a 3.6 per cent increase in revenue which could be attributed to Instagram activity. If that percentage sounds minimal, bear in mind that it’s a slice of revenue stemming from one single mobile social channel.
In a report on Venturebeat, social media marketing expert Eric Dahan, CEO of Instabrand, agrees that Instagram is “the best platform for brands”. Citing examples of customers whose followers have grown from zero to 30,000 from campaigns coming in under $5,000, Dahan also recommends Instagram for driving engagement. To illustrate, bicycle manufacturer Pure Fix Cycles estimates that each Instagram post it publishes is worth around $100 in revenue.
While the image-sharing network doesn’t allow for measurement of impressions, it is possible to track engagement. “If you have 200,000 followers, we’ll see 3,000 to 15,000 likes for a post, for a 2 percent to 10 percent engagement rate. Sometimes that jumps to 20 percent,” explains Dahan.
Of course, Instagram is not the only channel through which to connect with audiences visually. Pinterest and Tumblr are also important image-based environments, while Vine, YouTube and of course now Instagram are key video destinations. In fact, had Pinterest been included as one of the channels surveyed in this study, the results may have been quite differently skewed.
So where does that leave Twitter and Facebook, the two channels that are still, for many brands, integral to any social content marketing efforts?
Twitter remains crucial for text-based content and is the natural habitat for sharing links to articles, headlines and other text-based content. Facebook, meanwhile, is becoming slightly more tricky territory for brands. Where consumers are intimately connecting with friends and family, they are becoming perhaps more selective about accepting brands into their social experience. That said, a well tended Facebook page is still a critical part of the social media toolkit.
Regardless of platform, the key to engagement remains the voice of the brand’s account. It must act as an ambassador to build an interactive community, encouraging participation at a grassroots level without actively soliciting it.
Image: Matt Nazario-Miller
