Instagram Analytics: 9 Actionable Insights

Research shows that:

• Visual posts produce 650% higher engagement than text only posts.
• Instagram has 1bn monthly users (and over 60% of them log in daily) – it’s the second most active network after Facebook.
• Instagram actually drives sales. 54% of people surveyed by Facebook said they made a purchase either in the moment, or after seeing a product or service on Instagram.

All this plays into Instagram’s incredible commercial success. In 2019, eMarketer estimated that Instagram ad revenue was a whopping $9.45bn, and predicted the platform to hit nearly $14bn in 2020, owing to in-app shopping.

So there’s a lot that brands can get from Instagram, but how can they best capture consumers’ attention on an increasingly saturated platform?

To give you an idea of the kinds of things you can learn from Instagram data, we’ve delved into the worlds of travel and fashion to pull out nine fresh, actionable insights

Investigating travel trends

Travel is one of the most popular topics on Instagram, and rightly so. Content from exciting locations the world over can be accessed by anyone anywhere, and it can inspire us to book trips and broaden our world views.

Here are some of the top trends we found looking at a year’s worth of travel-related Instagram data.

Insight: Mumbai in India is the most ‘grammed destination right now

Action: Strike while the iron’s hot and target travel fans with deals for trending locations

Using Brandwatch Consumer Research, from 1 January 2019 to Jan 31 2020, we found 2020’s hottest travel destinations on Instagram.

Using our topic cloud, we were able to quickly sift through hundreds of millions of posts to find the most shared locations on Insta.

We found that India is the most ‘grammed location name these days, ahead of London, and France:

But we can go even further than that.

When we looked at conversation around India, we found the most tagged places in the country on Instagram.

Mumbai is the most popular, with Delhi following just behind it.

Insight: Say cheese! We found the top spots for selfies and holiday pics within cities

Action: By looking at trending photo locations, you can tailor content to visitors looking to ‘see the sights’ – for example, a selfie map or ‘10 best photo opportunities in x city’ content for those embarking on a trip could prove very useful

Using Image Insights in Consumer Research, we were able to find the most popular selfie spots.

Image analysis is an extension of text analysis features applied to visual content. Our versatile dev team programmed it to identify faces within photos to determine sentiment, gender, age, and even selfies.

It’s so good it can recognize multiple elements within a photo at the same time, including logos, faces, activities, objects, and scenes. You can find out more here.

For example:

In London, the most popular destinations for vacation pictures were:

1. Tower Bridge
2. London Eye
3. Hyde Park

In Paris, the top selfie spots were:

1. Disneyland
2. Arc de Triomphe
3. Notre Dame

Insight: Image analysis reveals the kinds of activities and trips people love to share photos of when they’re traveling

Action: Tailor your marketing materials and ads to show people what they’ll be seeing and doing. Extra points if you target those ads at audiences you know are interested in those kinds of locations (e.g. mountain vacationers)

Focusing on India’s top destination Mumbai and using Image Insights, we can see the most common scenes found in photos tagging the city. Landmarks appear in 9% of Mumbai-related images, with 39% of these relating to architecture, 33% relating to ancient history, and 29% relating to temples.

When we used Consumer Research’s Image Insights to find the top trends in travel, we found what people like to share most while they’re away (regardless of location). For 2019, snaps of mountains were included in 9% of travel-related posts, beaches were in 12% of them,  and the sea appeared in 15%. If you’re marketing a destination with a picturesque seaside, make sure to keep that front and centre in your promotional materials.

Insight: Not all travel-related hashtags are created equal

Action: Stop using random hashtags, and get to know the what’s popular to increase exposure to your posts

By using the topic cloud in Brandwatch Consumer Research and filtering for hashtags only, we’re able to see the most used hashtags around #travel.

Here are the hashtags that blend well together and will help bring your travel content one step closer to global domination.

Top hashtags: 

1. #travel
2. #photography
3. #travelphotography
4. #photooftheday
5. #nature
6. #love
7. #Instagood
8. #picoftheday
9. #beautiful
10. #travelgram

Hashtagging things on Instagram means that people searching for or following that interest will be more likely to spot your posts.

Insight: There are peaks and valleys in travelgram posting throughout the year

Action: Be ready to stand out in peak season by staying on top of trends. And think out of the box in off-season – there are opportunities out there to net potential holidaymakers with the right offerings.

Travel, like many industries, is cyclical. It peaks between April and October, with a slight resurgence in December for Christmas breaks.

#Travel and #travelinfluencers peak during the traveling months and stagnate during the winter months. But quiet months don’t mean that all hope of engagement is lost.

While many people use Instagram to share vacation pics, it’s worth remembering to look outside of the platform, too. Consumers will talk about craving a vacation on other platforms outside of peak travel seasons, so there are plenty of opportunities to net prospective customers all year round.

Investigating fashion trends

#Fashion is another hugely popular hashtag on Insta. And it’s only grown since the platform introduced in-app purchasing in March 2019 and appointed Eva Chen as head of Fashion Partnerships.

Insight: Fashion show attendees can get more conversation than designers, models, and clothes

Action: Fashion brands can capitalize on this by making sure attendee lists for any kind of fashion event are brimming with big names. And behind-the-scenes content could help brands connect better to audiences craving new windows into the fashion world.

From the stars walking the runway, to the stars in the front row, using Brandwatch we can see which celebs attract the most attention on social during big events.

Let’s take the Tom Ford show at the most recent New York Fashion week (using #NYFW) as an example.

Predictably, Bella and Gigi Hadid blew up online conversation as they hit the catwalk during the show.

But the celebs on the sidelines also got plenty of people talking.

American Singer Ciara Wilson and her partner Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson rocked the #NYFW mentions on Instagram, with people loving their attendance at Tom Ford’s show. Later that night, Ciara posted a funny Instagram Story video of Russell cutting her out of her dress, showing it’s not all glitz and glam. This behind the scenes look at the fashion world is a new way fashion brands can generate engagement – people want more than official photos, and little stories like this are a great way to connect.

Insight: Streetwear is set to have another great year

Action: Make sure the shelves are well stocked – there is widespread consumer interest in the following items!

To find the fall and winter trends for men’s fashion in 2020, we looked at #LFW conversation between 11 – 12 January 2020.

We found that street style was huge – think oversized jackets and sweaters especially – and that denim will likely have another renaissance.

By looking at what sparks consumer attention in events like these, it’s possible to start predicting what will be a hit or a flop in clothing stores.

Insight: Yellow and pink are trending colors

Action: Test incorporating these into store displays or Instagram posts to see if footfall/engagement improves.

Using image analysis across lots of images, we can get a closer look at 2020’s winter/fall trends. And we wanted to look specifically at colors.

We found that the top colors within the images we studied were yellow and pink.

Fashion brands can experiment with these both in store and in promotional materials, where appropriate. Subtle changes like these are well worth trying – sometimes just changing the color of a button can drastically improve conversion rates.