2018 was a huge year for Instagram.

The social media juggernaut said goodbye to its founding leadership, unveiled a suite of new engagement offerings, and even added a long-form video publishing platform with the launch of IGTV.  But if you think Instagram’s best year is behind them, we’re here to tell you that’s simply not accurate. We’re only a couple weeks into 2019 and Instagram is already working hard to exceed its 2018 growth.

We wrote this post way back in early 2019. Since then, Instagram has grown into the media-driving juggernaut we all knew it was destined to become with over a BILLION users. Bottom line, if you’re looking to drive sales and engage your audience in 2022, your brand needs to double-down, neigh, TRIPLE-DOWN on their Instagram efforts in 2022.

To help you on your quest to maximize your Return on Instagram, we’ve added a few new reasons for why you should focus on your Instagram presence. These new updates are below. 

3 Reasons to Double-down on Instagram in 2019

Whether your brand is an already established Instagram powerhouse or you’re a newbie to the world of Instagram, here are three reasons to double-down on your Instagram efforts in 2019.

1) Audience Growth

Whereas certain social media platform audiences (not naming names but it rhymes with Schmacebook) may have stagnated in size over the past couple of years, Instagram continues to grow its user base hitting 1 billion monthly users last month.

Two key items to keep in mind about this 1 billion figure:

• There’s only a handful of platforms with audiences of this size available to the average marketer, alongside big brother Facebook and sister app Messenger, as well as YouTube and WhatsApp
• Instagram still has plenty of growth opportunity

The current and potential future size of Instagram’s audience provides a multitude of opportunities for brands to grow their visibility, increase their market awareness, and drive sales from new customers.

2) Engagement Continues to Increase

Not only is Instagram’s user base growing, so too is the level of engagement of that audience. It may only be mid-January, but Instagram has officially seen its most popular post to date.

The @World_Record_Egg has received over 43 million likes on the photo-sharing program. This hauntingly beautiful oval has surpassed Kylie Jenner’s previous record and proves that the floor (and not the ceiling) has been set for potential audience engagement.

For marketers that wonder what an egg has anything to do with supporting their revenue goals, keep in mind that 80% of users follow and engage with at least one of the 25 million-plus brands on Instagram. For brands, engagement on Instagram is 10x greater than Facebook, 54x greater than Pinterest, and 84x greater than Twitter.

As Instagram rolls out more engagement-driving resources (Stories, polls, questions), expect the volume of audience engagements with brands to continue to rise in 2019.

3) Invest in Instagram Because Instagram is Investing in Instagram

That’s a mouthful of a title, but the key reason to increase your Instagram investment in 2019?

Instagram continues to invest in itself, growing the offerings and opportunities of the platform. The Instagram that you see at the end of December 2019 is going to be an even more robust version of the platform you’re using today.

2018 was also a big year for brands on Instagram. Not only did the platform grant them the ability to produce more fun and creative story posts and long-form video, but they also rolled out a direct revenue driving opportunity for brands in the form of shoppable posts.

These new tools represent an immediate opportunity for brands to compound their ROI on the social media platform. What’s more, they provide a foundation for further enhancement and improvements to the brand. The brands that succeed on Instagram in 2019 are the ones that embrace the current suite of offerings and are building an audience and engagement foundation to capitalize on future opportunities as they are rolled out by Instagram.

3 More Reasons to Double-Down on Instagram in 2022

4) More Ways To Engage With Your Audience  

Posts. Stories. Reels. Instagram continues to roll out innovative content options for brands and influencers to use to engage with their audience. The result of all of this new content support? The time users spent on the app jumped nearly 14% from 2019 and 2020, to average out at 30 minutes per day. In 2021, it’s increased even further.

These additional content options have also helped to drive more users to the platform. We already mentioned how Instagram has surpassed over 1 Billion users worldwide, but here in the US, it’s amassed a significant audience. Over 40% of U.S. adults say they’ve used Instagram – a percentage larger than Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube. In fact, the only two social media apps more popular than Instagram are Facebook and YouTube.  

Bottom line, Instagram continues to invest in new draws to their platform that will benefit the brands that also continue to invest in Instagram. 

5) It’s THE Platform to Reach Millennials and Gen-Z 

If your target audience falls within the Millennial or Gen-Z generations, then you need to have an invested presence on Instagram. 

Consider the following statistics:

• 71% of US adults that are between 18-29 use Instagram. In comparison, only 70% of this same age group uses Facebook.  
• 72% of teens are using Instagram with 57 million US teens saying that Instagram is their social media platform of choice.

You might be asking yourself, “Usage statistics are great SocialToaster, but can Instagram really impact my bottom line?”

The answer is absolutely…

6) Instagram Is A Sales-Driving Platform 

For most businesses, ROI comes down to one simple question – did the investment drive revenue?

So, can a strong presence on Instagram help a brand drive sales? The answer is an unequivocal yes. 

Consider the following

• Almost half of US Instagram users make over $75,000 annually 
• 70% of shoppers use Instagram to discover new products
• 90% of IG users follow at least one business or brand account
• 50% of users say they are more interested in a brand when they see ads for the brand on Instagram.
• Every month, 130 million Instagram users tap on shopping posts to learn more about the brand or product

No doubt about it, Instagram is a powerhouse platform for driving sales. That is, as long as you have the right strategy.

How to Grow your Business on Instagram in 2022

To be successful, you need to ensure your current Instagram strategy takes into account the current platform and its best practices and audience expectations. If your Instagram strategy is dated, your posting habits will also be dated and you’ll hamstring your engagement potential. 

Here are a couple of best practices to keep in mind:

• Connect With Your Audience, Authentically: No one is going to follow a brand that only publishes “buy my stuff” posts!  
• Be Consistent: Don’t post randomly throughout the month or year, create a schedule and stick to it. 
• Get Your Audience Involved: When it comes to promoting new content, leverage the social-sharing power of your biggest fans to publish your newest posts on their social media platforms. 

Curious about that last point? SocialToaster can help. Our award-winning platform was purposefully built to help brands turn their biggest fans into their loudest advocates.

Learn more about SocialToaster and see how we help brands like Avocados from Mexico, Marc Jacobs Beauty, and Little Remedies grow their brand through the power of fan activation.