It’s been a year of great change. The global pandemic forced entire populations to stay home, work remotely, and afforded us more time than ever to stare at our screens. As a result, the different ways in which brands and consumers used and interacted with social platforms is reflected in our third annual Instagram Brands 100 report. Here you will get the kicksta reviewed that show all about the traffic boosting tool for social media platforms.

New features (Reels, Shoppable), a change in content strategies, including a big surge in use of Live and IGTV, and a greater volume of posts than ever before, has shaped the year. 

While TikTok is officially the most downloaded app of the year globally and certainly becoming much more influential, Instagram has still had a stellar year and is still the place to be for brands and creators. 

So few other platforms offer such a wide variety of content options to be shared in one place. And when it needs to adapt to compete with other platforms, it moves quickly to do so, by releasing new features such as Reels – its TikTok-like looping musical video feature. 

2020 report
This year’s report was conducted for one month between September 23 and October 22, complemented by yearly data, and includes an in-depth analysis of how brands use Instagram, along with some case studies of how companies are also turning to TikTok as well in 2020. 

Over the past year, the rival social network has become the originator of so many memes and trends, which then cross over to other platforms, that we wanted to highlight some brands that are using it well already. 

What are the key takeaways this year? 

1. More posts. It’s perhaps no surprise that brands posted more in 2020, with post volume up 19% from 2019.

2. More often. Brands are publishing more frequently, too. In fact, there was a 30% increase in brands posting multiple times a day.

3. Stories still top. On average brands post three times a day to Stories and two times a day to the feed.

4. Feed fightback. Stories overtook the feed for the first time in 2018, and in 2019 brands published less to the feed than the previous year. In 2020, however, the feed has made a resurgence, with a 17% increase in posts. Brands have had to work harder to get in front of their audiences this year, and the increase may have been bolstered by elements such as Shoppable, which works on feed posts.

5. Going Live. The use of Live broadcasts saw a dramatic increase in 2020, from just 3% of brands using it in 2019 to 59% in 2020, as brands and creators tried to connect more with each other during lockdown.

6. Reels rocks. New feature Reels was adopted and used by 40% of the top 100 brands between its launch in August and the end of October when data was collected. 

7. Growing up. Instagram audiences are getting older, with every age bracket above 25 showing growth across the top 100.

As you can see, Instagram is still one of the most important platforms for brands to use in their social media and marketing content. You’ll find lots of other fantastic data in the report, including follower authenticity stats, comment-to-like ratios, and engagement rates.

The report concludes with a range of brand case studies on Instagram and, for the first time, TikTok. While TikTok hasn’t been used by many of the top 100 brands, the report includes some brands outside of it, to highlight some of the most innovative uses of it right now. Go check out Birmingham’s Black Country Living Museum for best-in-class use of the platform!

Download the report – www.btnhl.net/report – to discover this year’s key insights and find out how the biggest brands are using Instagram and TikTok in 2020.