Is your business using Instagram to attract leads? Are you unhappy with the engagement you’re seeing on your posts? If so, you’ll probably want to know the latest statistics on IG Engagement and what to focus on for the next quarter.
This report by Jumper Media outlines the latest data on engagement (likes and comments) and gives you an idea of what you should strive for based on your industry. The report reveals which industries are seeing the most success, but also, the ugly truth of plummeting engagement rates and what that will mean for small businesses.
Jumper Media collected data from 10,000 business accounts:
All accounts are from the United States and Canada.
From each account, they took an average of their last 20 posts.
They didn’t include accounts with less than 100 followers, because they didn’t think those should count. (Lots of outliers and abandoned accounts)
The data was collected at the end of January 2019.
They analyzed data from over 174,568 Instagram posts, and over 400 industries. Below are my key takeaways.
Key Takeaways from the 2019 IG Engagement Report by Jumper Media
Average Instagram engagement rates have tanked over the last three years.
In March of 2016, average Instagram engagement was 4.3% (10x Facebook). It is now 1.2%
1.2% is still better than Facebook and Twitter.
Why is organic reach and engagement so low? ADS - plain and simple. They want you spending $$$ in order to get any results from your content efforts
Athletes, Comedians, and Real Estate are some of the best performing industries for engagement
The number of followers was not correlated with average engagement
Story reach is between 4% and 12%
Posts still get better reach than stories (if this seems odd, remember, we’re comparing engagement not views - stories may get more views but not more actions taken)
Videos are more engaging than carousels and carousels are more engaging than images
Weekends are better for engagement
More tags equals more likes
How to Get More Engagement on Instagram
Start conversations by posting engaging content and asking questions in your captions.
Continue conversations by responding to comments, and replying to DMs.
Host a giveaway for your current followers where you enter them to win a prize if they like and comment on the photo.
Read the full report here.
But Meg, is it Really Worth It?
Before your heart starts beating too fast and you feel overwhelmed with your content strategy and to-do list items for the day, take a step back and see the bigger picture. This perspective might just save you from spending hours creating content that STILL doesn’t increase your engagement. Consider this:
We Don’t Own Our Social Media Accounts
Yes, we own the content we post, but we are really just renting space on the internet that could be sold, converted, or demolished at the click of a button by our friend Mark Zuckerberg.
Instagram Could Be Gone Tomorrow. (It Won’t Be…But It Could!)
If Mark was to delete Instagram tomorrow, what would happen to your business? You’d probably lose a ton of leads. Because although you spent time creating engaging content and capturing viewers, you weren’t giving them anything that compelled them to visit your website and more importantly, SUBSCRIBE TO YOUR EMAIL LIST.
Invest Your Time in Optimizing Your Website and Building Your Email List
An email list is something you DO have control over, it’s yours, you own it. Everyone who signs up for your email list has given you permission to contact them. So why aren’y you focusing on that? Who cares about views and likes, yes they are indications that more people might visit your site…but if your energy is on engagement, there is a good chance your energy is not on your email list.
So let’s talk more about taking conversations off Instagram and onto your website and email list.
Get in touch if you’re ready to put your energy in the right place 🙌🙌🙌