Instagram is one of the most effective social channels for driving engagement – according to TrackMaven the channel generates 20 times more engagement than LinkedIn for B2B brands.
Now the company has released a report that identifies how leading Fortune 500 brands are leveraging Instagram, giving B2B marketers valuable insight on the best times to post and components of top performing posts, as well as solid benchmark data.
The report, which analyzed more than 40,000 unique Instagram posts over a year long period from both B2B and B2C companies, found that 98.9% of interactions with Fortune 500 brands come in the form of likes or “double-taps.” In contrast, comments account for a mere 1.1% of interactions.
“This finding indicates that, for America’s biggest brands, Instagram is a sheer engagement game, not a reactive, community platform,” the report said.
Fortune 500 marketers typically post during the East Coast nine-to-five workday, but interestingly, the most engagement occurs on Sunday. Probably because, according to TrackMaven, there is less competition for space in the Instagram feed that day.
“Posts published on Sundays see a slight advantage, with 1.1 times more engagement that the average post,” the report said, adding, “Fortune 500 brands publish half as many posts on Sundays as they do on Thursdays and Fridays. The impact of Fortune 500 Instagram posts dips to its lowest levels on Thursdays and Fridays, when there is the most competition.”
Fortune 500 Instagram posts published between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. (EST) get the most engagement, with 6.15%-8.78% more engagement than average. The worst time to publish is between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. (EST), with 4.18%-6.58% less engagement than average.
“Marketers 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,” TrackMaven said.
The report also found that Instagram posts that include hashtags or question marks see a little bit of a boost in engagement over those without either. However, leave exclamation points out.
“Including an exclamation point detracts from engagement by 0.22%,” the report said.
The data also revealed that 89.03% of Instagram posts from Fortune 500 brands have no filter, even though posts with filters are more successful.
“Mayfair is the eighth most popular filter among Fortune 500 brands, and is used in only 0.49% of posts. However, posts using the Mayfair filter see the most engagement on average, with an impact score – or engagement relative to the average Fortune 500 Instagram post – of 1.06. The Normal, or no filter, option is used most often by Fortune 500 brands. However, Normal is the 13th most effective filter for the Fortune 500, with an impact score of 0.98.”
