With 2016 about to begin, social media marketers for B2C brands are looking back at their performance over the past year. What lessons can they learn from other B2C companies and apply to their 2016 social media strategy? Where do competitors get the most engagement? Which social channel should they invest more of their efforts in?
In our recent B2C social media impact report, we analyzed 213 B2C brands on 5 social channels across 10 industries to provide answers to these questions. The results are clear: Instagram is the must-have channel for B2C marketers looking to engage customers and fans in 2016.
Instagram is the engagement winner
The graph below displays the engagement ratio — measured as the average number of interactions per post per 1,000 followers — on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn from January through October in 2015. In other words, the bigger the bubble, the more engagement a brand in the industry gets on that social network. As seen in this graph, all of the B2C industries we examined see massive engagement on Instagram. In fact, with the exception of the consumer products and telecommunication and cable industries, the highest engagement ratios for B2C brands were on Instagram.
Insurance and automaker brands are standout performers on Instagram
Both insurance brands and automakers are standout performers when it comes to marketing on Instagram, but their most engaging posts differ in terms of approach, tone, and subject matter.
Automaker brands have an average of 40.68 interactions per post per 1,000 followers, and tend to see the highest engagement for Instagram posts with clean, professional shots of new car models, like Lincoln’s photo of its Continental Concept above. Another, less common, subject that receives high engagement is vintage car models, such as Volkswagen’s 1975 Mk1 Polo.
Insurance brands have an average of 48.6 interactions per post per 1,000 followers. A few different approaches drive success for the insurance industry on Instagram. Posts for campaigns such as Nationwide’s #BandTogether (below) and Allianz’s #BeatNeuer saw high engagement ratios in 2015.
A more behind-the-scenes approach to posts also worked well for insurance companies, providing audiences with sneak peaks into video production, conferences, and company culture, as seen in Northwestern Mutual’s photo of interns visiting its headquarters.
Top performing Instagram posts from two companies from these industries with large audiences employed user-generated content featuring their brand or product, which has been reposted on company accounts.
Progressive reposted the above photo of a drawing of their spokesperson “Flo” from an Instagram user, and Mercedes Benz reposts photos that customers take of their cars.
Conclusion: Instagram is the channel to invest in for B2C brands
For B2C marketers looking to improve their audience engagement on social media in 2016, Instagram is the channel to invest in. Marketers in these industries have strategies for creating engaging content on Instagram that have proven to be impactful, and they now have an opportunity to capitalize on that success by concentrating efforts on expanding their reach on Instagram.
