Social listening and media monitoring platform Mention launches its fourth annual Instagram Engagement Report. In collaboration with leading growth platform, Hubspot to identify changes in trends and insights for businesses’ to action amidst the current global pandemic. Mention has collected data from 100 million public posts across 1 million users to determine insights for marketers to reach and engage audiences.
Social distancing has put pressure on small businesses to pivot business models and adopt online strategies fast in order to survive, as 46% of business owners reported a decrease in revenue the last 12 months (Wells Fargo, 2020). While lockdowns around the world continue to take place into 2021, it’s likely that the initial surge in Instagram usage has sped up the launch of numerous e-commerce features such as Instagram shops, Instagram Guides, and IGTV advertising.
“Our annual Instagram Engagement Report is designed to be a free resource that is accessible for businesses of all sizes to improve their Instagram marketing activity. We are in a unique position to be able to pull in millions of data points to ensure that we can offer the most complete, up-to-date report available in 2021.” — Francesca Chong, Head of Content, Mention
This year’s report shows changes across the most engaging post types, top geotagged locations, and hashtag use compared to last year. Additionally, the report shows a decrease in engagement rates overall, compared to 2020 findings (2.26%), which causes concern for increased competition on the platform to engage audiences.
It’s evident that the current global crisis has made a significant impact on the use of Instagram (Later, 2020). Small businesses today say they’ve been doing more business via online marketing and communication as a result of the pandemic (Wells Fargo, 2020), making it more important than ever to ensure your Instagram profile and its content stand out among audiences. Among the findings of the analysis, the report shares best practices and key takeaways for marketers looking to adjust their current strategy on Instagram.
Report Findings :
- Carousel posts overtook both single image and video posts as the most engaging type of post this year, with 62 likes and 5 comments as the norm
- The average engagement rate of any kind of post overall decreased by 0.84% in 2021 to 1.42%
- The majority of users (53.6%) have less than 1,000 followers increasing 1.25% since 2020
- The best caption length overall for most engagement in the 1,000-2,000 character range, meaning that championing story-telling can help drive more engagement and display authenticity on posts.
- The most influential brands on Instagram are Lamborghini, Netflix Brasil, Anastasia Beverly Hills and Givenchy Official, from the Top 50 profile list
- The gender ratio of most influential personalities on Instagram is 40% female and 60% female, from the Top 50 profile list
- Beauty and cosmetic industry related accounts received the most engagement
- Smaller Instagram accounts are seeing steady growth and finding new ways to reach audiences, as the majority of accounts have less than 1,000 followers (53.6%), a slight decrease compared to 2020 results (52.35%)
- Beverly Hills, California comes in first in the Top 50 cities for engagement globally
Methodology:
The data used in the 2021 Instagram report was collected based on analyzing 100 million Instagram posts shared across 1 million users. Inclusive of these numbers, 2 million posts tagged with geo-locations were analyzed for a portion of the report. Additional data can be found in the report Appendix.
For more information please contact
Meghan DuCille, International Communications Manager
meghan@mention.com
+33 7 66 87 06 23
About Hubspot
HubSpot is a leading growth platform. Over 56,500 total customers in over 100 countries use HubSpot’s award-winning software, services, and support to transform the way they attract, engage, and delight customers.
About Mention
Mention is a social listening and media monitoring platform designed to ensure businesses and brands can easily track the most important conversations across social media and the web. Founded in 2012, Mention’s customer base exceeds 750,000 users in over 125 countries, with over 4,000 company clients. Since September 2018, Mention has joined the NHST Media Group.
