instagram study q1 2016

Instagram Study Q1 2016

quintly analyzed 13,000 Instagram profiles during the first quarter of 2016

In this study quintly reveals important developments on Instagram during the first quarter of 2016.

Instagram own posts increasing moderately Brands ramp up Facebook post frequency in Q1 ’16

During 2015 Instagram own posts increased slightly. This trend seems to continue further for the average profile in 2016.

Facebook surprises here with a by far stronger increasing post frequency. This shows that brands further increase their investment in Facebook.

Chart: Daily own posts on Facebook and Instagram in Q1 2016.

Data Source: quintly analyzed 13k Instagram profiles and 140k Facebook pages. Data Period: First quarter of 2016

JAN FEB MAR

Own Posts

Own Posts

2.5

2

1.5

1

0.5

0

Profile Size

1-1k Fans 0.23 0.23

1k-10k Fans 0.65 0.7

10k-100k Fans 1.63 1.41

100k-1m Fans 4.36 2.31

1m-10m Fans 9.32 2.76

10m+ Fans 9.46 2.13

As shown in the table on the right, analyzed profiles posted with a significant higher frequency on Facebook than on Instagram.

Especially once pages reach over 100k fans the post frequency on Facebook goes up. Brands and other pages analyzed seem to rely on Facebook in Q1 ’16.

Table: Average daily own posts in Q1 2016.

Data Source: quintly analyzed 13k Instagram profiles and 140k Facebook pages. Data Period: Jan - Dec 2015

Lower post frequency on Instagram than on Facebook The average brand tends to post 3x more on Facebook

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The decreasing interaction rate on Instagram is driven mainly by two factors:

On the one hand this trend shows that people interact less in increasingly crowded timelines. On the other hand this phenomenon is reinforced by the massive increase in followers, which results in a decreasing rate.

Chart: Average interaction rate; all interactions divided by posts and followers.

Data Source: quintly analyzed 13k Instagram profiles and 140k Facebook pages. Data Period: First quarter of 2016

Instagram interaction rate decreases in Q1 Interaction rate remains stable on Facebook

Interaction rate

Interaction rate

3.00

2.50

2.00

1.50

1.00

0

JAN FEB MAR

0.50

15.6%

84.4%

Businesses active on Instagram increasingly invest in video content. The possibility of 15 seconds emotional content seems to give brands great ways to get creative.

Compared to the analysis we published for Q1 in 2015 the share of video posts increased by 10 percent points.

Chart: Share of video posts on Instagram timelines of the analyzes profiles.

Data Source: quintly analyzed 13k Instagram profiles. Data Period: First quarter of 2016

Video content further on the rise Increased 10% points since Q1 2015

Share of video / image posts

Due to the increase in own posts of Instagram profiles during 2015 and the first quarter of 2016 timelines get increasingly crowded.

The table on the right shows that crowded timelines do not lead necessarily to more interactions. Compared to Q2 2015 we can report a distinct drop in interactions.

Table: Comparison of video and image post interactions in March 2016.

Data Source: quintly analyzed 13k Instagram profiles. Data Period: First quarter of 2016

Images receive higher interactions than videos Image post interactions dropped by 66% since Q2 2015; video post interactions by 39%

Profile Size

1-1k Fans 25 20

1k-10k Fans 87 80

10k-100k Fans 535 474

100k-1m Fans 4,083 3,844

1m-10m Fans 36,297 29,190

10m+ Fans 407,042 221,223

Profile Size MAR ’15 MAR ’16 MAR ’15 MAR ’16

1-1k Followers 25 25 0 23 20

1k-10k Followers 114 87 124 80

10k-100k Followers 747 535 685 474

100k-1m Followers 6,414 4,083 6,309 3,844

1m-10m Followers 59,916 36,297 63,119 29,190

10m+ Followers 612,672 407,042 584,432 221,223

-36%

-34%

-39%

-39%

-54%

-62%

VideosImages

-29%

-24%

-31%

-35%

-13%

-27% -39%

In the following pages we clustered our findings in different sized groups of Instagram profiles. With these tables you are able to compare your own performance with the average profile in your profile size.

For each cluster there are two slides of information, analyzing six differently sized groups in total. Here we analyzed the same metrics as in the first part.

Own Posts

Jan 6

Feb 7

Mar 8

Own Posts, Growth Rate, Interaction Rate, Own Posts / Average Interactions per Post comparison in 2015

Profiles with 1 - 1k followers

Data Source: quintly analyzed 13k Instagram profiles. Data Period: First quarter 2016

Growth Rate

Jan 1.18

Feb 1.18

Mar 1.19

Interaction Rate

Jan 7.12

Feb 6.57

Mar 6.92

Image Posts

Video Posts

Jan 6 0

Feb 6 0

Mar 8 1

Image Interactions

Video Interactions

Jan 25 30

Feb 23 23

Mar 25 20


Profiles with 1k - 10k followers


Own Posts

Jan 19

Feb 19

Mar 21

Growth Rate

Jan 1.17

Feb 1.17

Mar 1.16

Interaction Rate

Jan 2.47

Feb 2.27

Mar 2.20

Image Posts

Video Posts

Jan 19 1

Feb 19 2

Mar 21 2

Image Interactions

Video Interactions

Jan 90 90

Feb 91 65

Mar 87 80


Profiles with 10k - 100k followers


Own Posts

Jan 41

Feb 42

Mar 45

Growth Rate

Jan 1.15

Feb 1.14

Mar 1.15

Interaction Rate

Jan 1.70

Feb 1.55

Mar 1.46

Image Posts

Video Posts

Jan 38 3

Feb 38 4

Mar 40 4

Image Interactions

Video Interactions

Jan 622 622

Feb 566 517

Mar 535 474


Profiles with 100k - 1m followers


Own Posts

Jan 68

Feb 69

Mar 73

Growth Rate

Jan 1.15

Feb 1.1

Mar 1.11

Interaction Rate

Jan 1.54

Feb 1.31

Mar 1.23

Image Posts

Video Posts

Jan 61 7

Feb 62 7

Mar 65 8

Image Interactions

Video Interactions

Jan 5,103 5,644

Feb 4,384 4,249

Mar 4,083 3,844


Profiles with 1m - 10m followers


Own Posts

Jan 78

Feb 85

Mar 88

Growth Rate

Jan 1.11

Feb 1.09

Mar 1.08

Interaction Rate

Jan 1.58

Feb 1.38

Mar 1.30

Image Posts

Video Posts

Jan 68 10

Feb 73 13

Mar 74 14

Image Interactions

Video Interactions

Jan 44,967 37,878

Feb 39,911 32,481

Mar 36,297 29,190


Profiles with 10m+ followers


Own Posts

Jan 90

Feb 84

Mar 84

Growth Rate

Jan 1.09

Feb 1.08

Mar 1.07

Interaction Rate

Jan 1.37

Feb 1.19

Mar 1.14

Image Posts

Video Posts

Jan 69 21

Feb 64 20

Mar 63 21

Image Interactions

Video Interactions

Jan 475,769 308,438

Feb 425,002 252,838

Mar 407,042 221,223

instagram study q1 2016

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