New Report Shows What 'Grammers Like, Loath & Love About Marketing 

Instagram, alongside LinkedIn, probably offers the easiest organic (unpaid) social media marketing opportunities for communicators in 2019.

With one billion plus users globally, and around 11 million locally, it is a robust media channel.

Unlike LinkedIn, Instagram’s daily active usage levels are very high, with time-spent daily estimated at around 45 minutes per person per day. Not far off Facebook’s level.

According to a new research paper released by Facebook IQ, 57% of Insta users say they use Instagram more than they did a year ago, and 44% say they will use it even more in the coming year.

Facebook IQ attributes this growth to a range of factors, but most notably Instagram Stories, an increase in direct messaging and the launch of new products like IGTV.

How and why do people use Instagram?

The IQ study draws on both quantitative and qualitative insights from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, France, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States.

Unsurprisingly there are regional variances as to how and why users turn to the beautiful people’s social network. For example, in the US, the top response people gave was that Instagram allows interaction with family and friends, while in Japan it was to keep up to date on trends.

As noted previously, Instagram has become a very sticky platform within the past 24 months, especially since it became Snapchat 2.0. Daily active usage (DAU), which is the gold standard of online media measurement, has blossomed.

Daily Instagram usage by generation:

• Age 18 – 24 = 67%
• Age 25 – 34 = 60%
• Age 35 – 44 = 49%
• Age 45 – 54 = 43%
• Age 55+ = 31%

Do Instagrammers really hate TV?

Now, don’t let Think TV, Russel Howcroft or dusty marketing academics hear this, but the research boffins at Facebook IQ have come out swinging for the big square box in the living room…

‘Marketers who only advertise on television are missing the opportunity to reach large, valuable audiences. Nearly half of the Instagrammers we surveyed say they don’t watch TV on a weekly basis, but 64% of them say they are open to seeing brands that generally advertise on TV communicate on Instagram. This means there’s an opportunity for advertisers to not only reinforce their messaging with Instagram but also extend their reach.’

Yikes!

I'd perhaps take this with a small pinch of salt. 

However, since Insta's demo does skew younger this isn't totally outlandish, TV consumption habits do vary quite a bit by age group.

It probably makes sense to view TV and social as complementary, rather than being all or nothing. That said, rehashing content between mediums is to be avoided.

Even aside from this study, it is well known that rehashed TV ads rarely perform well as social media ads. Even high-quality made-for-TV content (not salesy ads) doesn’t normally do great in social media organically, ask the cool kids at the TV networks.

BTW – I have asked, and that’s what they told me. So save yourself some LinkedIn stalking.

Why? It’s not made for the interface.

According to the IQ study, Instagrammers say they want to see the following types of communications from brands that usually advertise on television:

• Video lengths

  • Less than 15 seconds = 36%
  • 15 – 30 seconds = 36%
  • 30 – 60 seconds = 24%

• Relevancy

  • Ads that relate to them = 31%
  • Ads suited for Instagram Feed = 31%
  • Ads suited for Instagram Stories = 29%

In other words, keep it short and relevant.