Summer lull or signs of saturation? A study conducted by Locowise found that overall engagement on Instagram was down 19 percent in July, and that follower growth was down 77 percent. Another recent Pew study noted that Instagram has doubled its community since 2012. But could it be that Instagram's rapid growth is slowing down?
The study looked at 2,500 profiles and their progress last month. Among the major findings:
Average Follower Growth
- Average follower growth was down to 0.34 percent in July. In May, it was 1.48 percent.
- This still beats the 0.21 organic percent page like growth Facebook averaged, but still could mean that Instagram is becoming saturated
Overall Engagement
- Engagement declined to 2.12 percent in July, down from 2.8 percent in April, 2.61 in May, and 2.14 in June.
- Still better than Facebook's 0.52 percent of total page likes or 0.15 engagement with all tweets.
A few other interesting stats:
- Profiles with the most followers (the "largest") are the most active, with an average of 5.45 posts per day, compared to smaller profiles posting 1.69 posts per day.
- Photos engaged 2.16 percent of followers on average, while videos engaged 1.58 percent
- As many as 24 million Instagram accounts are bot accounts. These spam accounts post 6 images on average and have a follower-to-following ratio of 1:41.
As for tips for coping with such a decline? Locowise offers a few:
1. Make sure you have high quality standards and only post great content that resonates with your audience. Look into what is popular on Instagram, look into what your competitors are doing and identify what has worked well on your own profile in the past.
2. Be sure to post content on the optimal days and times of the week when the majority of your audience is online and is engaging. Locowise reports can help you with that. Take a look at our trial.
3. Tag your photos, include location when relevant, include trending hashtags that are relevant and tag people that are in the photo. All this can get your content in front of more people.