This whole month we are blogging about Instagram. In the next few weeks we will talk about stories, reels, and more. However, do you even really need an Instagram account for your business? Let’s look at the stats.

Instagram by the Numbers

Instagram has over a billion monthly active users which is huge. There are 500 million daily stories users. That’s more than many platforms see in a month. A lot of companies omit stories in their marketing plan so maybe consider adding them if you haven’t already. 7 out of 10 companies are using Instagram. 

71% of the audience is under the age of 35 so it’s a bit of a younger audience than on Facebook. It’s the second most-preferred app for teenagers so if you’re marketing to a younger audience, this is the place to be. The largest group on Instagram is 18 to 24 year olds. 

6 out of 10 Instagram users log in every single day. It is the 2nd most logged into daily platform, second only to Facebook. It has the highest interaction rate of any other platform, which is tremendous. If you’re going to spend the time and energy to create a content schedule, craft an email, come up with awesome captions, and research those hashtags you want people to see it so Instagram is the place to be for that interaction. If you really want interaction, stories is the place to be. 

The time users spend on the site has increased almost 14% since last year. This is really incredible when you think about it because many people were trapped at home last year due to Covid. It’s increased from that. 83% of people use Instagram to discover new products or services. 81% will use it to research new products or services. 80% will use it to determine whether or not to purchase that new product or service. This includes larger purchases too. Lots of wedding vendors have gained traction on Instagram. After seeing a new product or service, 79% of users will research it further. 37% visited the retail store and 46% of those people actually made a purchase.

Only 5% of accounts post once per day. Those who did have seen tremendous follower growth. If you’re only posting once or twice per week you aren’t going to see a lot of organic follower growth. If you really want to grow you need to be posting once daily. Take one day off, so do that 6 days per week. That’s a lot of content but it really improves your organic follower growth. 95% of your Instagram audience also watches YouTube. The biggest 3 platforms are Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube and it’s fascinating that Instagram and YouTube particularly share a lot of the same audience. 

So do you really need to be on Instagram? 

The short answer is yes, absolutely. Instagram is becoming what Facebook is but for a younger audience. If you have a business but don’t have a Facebook page, you don’t really exist online. People won’t take you seriously. Many times if people can’t find you they’ll just go to the next vendor. Instagram is now serving that purpose for a younger audience. Younger than 35, that is. Say you’re a wedding vendor and your target audience is in their 20s, you cannot afford to not be on Instagram. 

Does it work for older folks too? Yes, because the engagement for ads is so high. You also have a lot of crossover audience from Facebook to Instagram. Instagram is rapidly becoming a baseline staple. It’s one of those foundation platforms you need to have a presence on. 90% of people follow businesses online and 83% engage with at least 1 business on the regular. It will tremendously benefit your company if you’re on Instagram in the right way.