Can you believe it’s already 2019?! In October, Instagram will turn 9 years old! So, let’s just check out some of its accomplishments thus far. On the first day of launch, Instagram gained 25,000 users. By the end of 2018, Instagram has now over 1 billion active users every month. Notice “active”. That only tells us that there could be another billion users out there, some place deep in the “non-active” part of Instagram’s statistics. Of those 1 billion active users, over half of those users are active every single day. Over the course of a day, Instagram users post about 95 million photo!. That’s approximately a tenth of the total users posting a picture every single day. Instagram is a highly global application. In fact, only about 20% of Instagram’s overall users are in the United States. Some fun facts about Instagram is that Selena Gomez has the most followers at 124 million while Beyonce has the most liked photo at 11 million likes. At 40 billion videos and photos, posts have surpassed Instagram’s active users by 40 times! You may be thinking, “That’s just everyone posting 40 times. That’s not that many.” Yeah, just try receiving only 40 emails from just over 1 billion people, then talk to us about “not that many”. Okay, enough with the fun facts. Let’s get into the real stuff!

Now, What You’re Truly Wondering: As A Business, How Can I Benefit From Using Instagram?

The answer? Exposure! Businesses with Instagram accounts can get tons of exposure. In fact, there are 200+ million Instagram users that visit a business profile daily! Not only that, 60% of users say that they have discovered at least one product on Instagram. With 80% of Instagram users following a business on Instagram, there’s only a 20% chance that that business is not your business.

In 2017, through advertisements and other tools, Instagram created 20% of revenue for its parent company; Facebook. Not only is this a large number of account for any revenue, it just goes to show that Instagram advertising works! There are tons of success stories from L’Oreal to Legos, Instagram has successfully allowed several businesses to accomplish whatever goals they set out, in terms of advertising of course. Instagram marketing has led companies to be able to increase both in-store and online sales to brand awareness to even just generating more leads! There is a reason 25M+ businesses utilize Instagram to promote their brands.

IG is also great for cross-channel marketing. This means that if you have quality Instagram photos on your business page, there is a high chance that users will follow that page to your business website, increasing your conversion rate. Who wouldn’t want this?! Due to the fact that Instagram is a user-generated platform, you can easily use this to your advantage! Using both hashtags and shoutouts to promote your brand and products from the users themselves can be a fantastic way to advertise as well!

Still Don’t Believe Us? Check Out Some Statistics For Yourself!

As stated earlier, only 20% of users are actually in the United States. Some of the places with the most users outside of the US include India, Brazil, and Indonesia.

As of January 2019, statistics show there is basically a 50/50 split between females and males Instagram users, although, females still have the slight lead. Be careful, ladies. Men are finding other things that look aesthetically pleasing, not just their coffees.

It is no surprise that IG is most popular among the 18-29 year olds. This demographic will make up about 60% of the user base on Instagram. While the younger demographic monopolize the #2 social media platform, older demographics aged 30-49 make up around 33% and 50+ make up the remaining 26%!

Fun Fact: Instagram users are almost evenly spread about between incomes. Between the 3 income classes (lower, middle, and upper) there is almost an even distribution of 33% amongst all of the users. This suggests that there is no financial requirement to be able to use Instagram – which tends to be ideal for most businesses because they have an expansive number of people to work with!

Statistics on specific demographics not only helps business really hone in on their target audiences, but there is another type of metric that should be considered when measuring the validity of content and, ultimately, your Brand…

The brain is a powerful muscle that we still don’t know a whole lot about. That being said, we do know about a hormone called “dopamine”. This hormone is located in the brain’s reward center and is released when we sense a feeling of pleasure. Okay, great, but how does this connect to Instagram? Well, social media is addicting for this particular reason. Every time you get a notification of a like or comment on your post, your brain releases a ton dopamine! This is the sole reason people can spend endless hours on Instagram. That’s A LOT of time to be spending staring at your phone, flicking your thumb, double-tapping, and commenting on various content. In fact, depending on who you talk to, there are some surprising figures on how much time a person will spend on Instagram a day!

According to Recode.net, Instagram users who are on Android spend approximately 55 minutes a day on Instagram. Not only is this a large amount of time to be scrolling through photos and videos, but it is only about five minutes less than Facebook usage. Remember, this is only Android users; a platform Instagram previously could not be support on.

In 2017, the Instagram team released a statement that informed us all that with their recent release of Instagram Stories, time spent on the application has increased. While those under 25 spend more than 32 minutes on Instagram and those over 24 spend more than 24 minutes, Instagram doesn’t want to leave it up to them to tell you the overall statistics. Within the Instagram settings, you can actually see how much time you’ve spent on the app over the last week. For myself, I’ve spent an average of 15 minutes a day on Instagram. It just goes to show that Instagram isn’t opposed to telling you how much time you’ve spent on their app!

As A Business, Which Metrics Are The Best To Measure And Keep Track Of And How?

Well, first and foremost, it is important to check the comments received on your posts. This metric is one of the most important because it tells you have engaging your posts are to your followers. Although likes show that your followers see and enjoy your posts, those who put in a bit more action tend to be more involved in your posts and your brand.

Follower count would probably be a very close second to comment engagement. This one seems a bit more self-explanatory than the last: the more followers you have, the better engagement you can have and the better off you will be. Simple enough, right?

Third would be the hashtags! Why hashtags? Hashtags create a sort of filter on your posts that allow followers, and others interested in the hashtag, to be able to find your photos! It’s important to track this because it is proven that photos with hashtags can increase photo engagement by up to 13% than a photo without one! It shouldn’t be just any hashtag. For example, if your post is about coffee, you shouldn’t put #vote4Pedro. Those things would have NOTHING in common and therefore, you wouldn’t get as much engagement as you would if you added something more relevant like #morningcoffeebestcoffee. Focus your hashtags to your specific niche! Not only will you find the right audience, but you’ll gain a community of devoted brand advocates!

Now that we’ve established some metrics to check, the next question is…how? Well wonder no more, friends. Instagram makes this hassle free with Instagram Insights! This allows you to track your followers, content, and the activity with a variety of statistics you can use to your advantage, including the ones mentioned above.

Hootsuite Analytics is another fantastic tool to help you track a bunch of your Instagram metrics. Graphs, charts, and other amazing tools are available to you via this tracking tool. Why would you want to weave your way through 3 different tools when you can have them all in one convenient place?

Instagram has insane statistics in terms the benefits businesses receive from using this platform. The crazy thing is, it’s only getting BIGGER! Instagram is a huge success; not only when it comes to leisure user times, but it has become such a huge asset to business revenues that more and more businesses are starting to use Instagram for their brand! So, what are YOU waiting for?! Start using Instagram for your marketing strategies, today! We promise, you will not be disappointed!