“Instagram resembles a modern day bazaar – one that I visit on my phone when I have a free moment.” Jenna Wortham wrote in The New York Times. “A huge part of the appeal is that the goods I’m perusing are sandwiched in my Instagram feed between my friends; selfies and pictures of snow covered spots where they’ve stopped during the day. Stumbling across an unexpected and gorgeous find … on a special app like Instagram brings with it the excitement of discovery not unlike the titillating thrill you get when coming across a rare find at a flea market.”
Photos and fifteen second videos are the coin of the realm. Pictures communicate fundamental ideas and emotions without a need for translation Instagram might be the absolute proof that a picture is worth a thousand words.
Now my favorite data geek, Dan Zarella, studied 1.49 million photos from 538,000 users on Instagram to distill what he calls “The Science of Instagram.” These data-derived insights can be used to master this evolving medium. Consider these five selected observations.
More Tags Equal More Likes. The easier you are to find; the more people find you. With up to 30 tagging options per image, marketers should swing for the fences or for the long tail in tagging their posts. Images with 15-30 tags per post had significantly higher likes and comments, which probably also adds to virility.
Forget the Filters. Plain vanilla, or the normal no-filter, setting had the highest likes per follower. This is a case of users loving options but picking a known quantity. It’s a strategy that’s kept Baskin-Robbins going for years.
Direct the Action. Posts with words that serve as a call-to-action drive engagement. Posts with the word “like” in the caption saw an 89 percent increase in likes-per-follower. Captions with the word “comment” saw a whopping 2194% increase over the average number of likes-per follower. I wonder how many actual comments it produced?
People Buy People. Posts with faces attracted 35 percent more likes per follower than the average post. This digitally validates the old saw that people buy people; then goods and services get transacted. It also speaks to our primal limbic brains that sort friend from foe in a nanosecond. Similarly brighter photos, where its easier to see the content, especially on a mobile device, had a 592 percent more likes per post.
Cool is Cool. Surprisingly cool shades of grey; blue and green drew more likes than warmer or hotter colors. This could reflect the arm’s length, voyeuristic faux relationship people have to each other online or it might signal a fashion trend.
Instagram continues to capture the imagination of millions. Using these data-driven insights might make your brand a bit smarter and drive more engagement.
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