Dive Brief:
- In less than ten months Instagram added 100 million monthly users to reach the 400 million benchmark.
- Seventy-five percent of Instagram’s monthly user base is located outside of the U.S. with more than half of the most recent 100 million users coming from Europe and Asia.
- Instagram’s newly opened API allows all marketers access to its audience and also offers the same targeting capabilities marketers have on Facebook.
Dive Insight:
Instagram is growing, and more pointedly, growing internationally. The social media platform reached the 400 million monthly user benchmark after adding 100 million of those users since December of last year. Half of that final 100 million came from Europe and Asia pushing Instagram’s geographic breakdown to 75% of users coming from outside the U.S. market. Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012, and marketers are reaping some of the benefits of that deal now that Instagram opened its API to all marketers because those ads now have all the targeting capabilities available to marketers on Facebook.
Devising when is the best time to post on social media is notoriously tricky. Mavrck analyzed 1.3 million Instagram posts and found more posts went up in the afternoon and evening, and suggested marketers looking for engagement might want to take advantage of the morning hours before noon. During this time users still monitored their feeds but weren’t actively posting themselves.
