Instagram delivers the most value for marketers: Forrester
Instagram delivers better value for marketers than Facebook or Twitter, according to a new report by Forrester Research.
The research firm recently looked at more than 2,500 brand posts on the three social networks, comparing how often consumers interacted with each. It found 4% of followers interacted with brand posts on Instagram, compared to less than 1% of those on Facebook or Twitter.
On Facebook (which owns Instagram), an average of just .07% of fans interacted with posts. Twitter posts led to even less interaction, registering just .03% on average.
Overall, Forrester says brands on Instagram see 58 times more engagement per follower than Facebook, and 120 times more engagement per follower than Twitter.
Nate Elliot, vice-president and principal analyst at Forrester, compared a recent post published by Red Bull on both Facebook and Instagram to demonstrate the difference. On Facebook, where Red Bull has 43 million fans, the post received 2,600 thousand likes (a 0.006% likes-per-fan rate). On Instagram, where Red Bull has far fewer followers – 1.2 million – the same content received 36,000 likes (a 3% likes-per-follower rate) – almost 14 times as many.
In a blog post, Elliot said Forrester found similar results across different types of brands, even those that skew older.
“Instagram doesn’t only work for youth-focused brands like Red Bull; we’ve also seen great engagement for more pedestrian brands like Ford Fiesta and General Electric,” he wrote.
“If your brand is looking for social engagement — and if you’re not finding it on Facebook, Twitter, or other social networks — you should start using Instagram today.”
The new cost of social marketing
When social media first registered on the radar of brand marketers, most looked at it as a free – or at the very least cheap – tool. Years later, the social networks are grown up and putting the squeeze on brands. In Marketing‘s May 2014 issue, we survey the industry on the rising price of social media and how much brands should earmark to ensure their social posts are seen.
Read more here.
More From Marketing
• Two Canadian campaigns win medals in Facebook Studio Awards
• Internet advertising is a Ponzi scheme (Column)
• Facebook’s Q1 soars to surpass expectations, CFO to step down
• Facebook aims for enhancing privacy and convenience for mobile users
• Twitter Q1 beats analysts’ expectations thanks to ad revenue
The Numbers
SEO reseller HubShout asked 425 people about native advertising, the de facto unit of socially-driven publishers like Mashable and Buzzfeed. Here are the results:
67.5%
Respondents who said they’d seen a “sponsored” or “promoted” article online
62%
Respondents who didn’t remember what the last native ad they saw was about or which brand sponsored it
21%
Respondents who expect more value from a native ad than regular editorial
20%
Respondents who said sponsored content can built their trust with a brand
45%
Respondents who said native ads are a type of marketing that’s more relevant to them
