As more brands are turning to social media to connect with consumers, it’s no surprise that marketers are working to utilize the many features on Instagram. Earlier this year, Social Media Today and the team from SEMrush published a survey of over 800 digital marketers in the State of Instagram Marketing 2019 report, sharing insights into what markers are doing on Instagram, what they're seeing success with and where they see future potential.  

In a post summarizing its latest report (“The State of Instagram Marketing 2019 - Part 3: Future Marketing Opportunities on Instagram”), Social Media Today’s Andrew Hutchinson narrowed in on three key topics covered by the survey:

  • the importance of Instagram in regard to their broader strategy;
  • how likely Instagram will become an essential platform for their business in the future; and 
  • the Instagram tools marketers think have the most potential for their business. 

To help set a baseline, all respondents were asked the question, “Are you currently using Instagram for marketing purposes?” More than 90% indicated they were. 

According to the report marketers see Instagram as a social media platform that will be with them for the long haul. Sixty-four percent of respondents indicated that Instagram is either extremely or very important to their broader social media marketing strategy. Almost 72% of respondents indicated that it’s very likely that Instagram will become an essential platform for their business in the future. 

When looking at the features the platform offers, Instagram Stories came out in the lead with marketers reporting it as having the most potential in their business. Seventy-seven percent of respondents indicated that they plan to use Instagram Stories more in the future. The Instagram features covered within this study include: Instagram Stories, ads, Stories Highlights, IGTV, Shopping Tags and Instagram Live. 

“Clearly, businesses are paying attention to the trends, and are keen to get involved – and with so many planning to use Instagram more in the future, you can bet that competition for attention on the platform is also going to increase,” says Hutchinson. Moving forward, marketers will be focusing on developing a presence, determining which features to target and narrowing in on measuring success on Instagram.

Ever-changing nature 

According to the report, marketers see a lot of potential in Instagram but, as it currently stands, there are many opportunities for boosting online presence or providing additional brand scope that are not being maximized. The ever-changing nature of social may be a reason for this gap. Platforms are constantly developing new features – such as Instagram’s recent rollout of AI-powered tech aimed at fighting online bullying – and taking away old, keeping marketers (and those in MR and insights) on their toes. 

One example presented itself in April when news hit that Instagram was considering changing the way users view and interact with “likes.” Viewing it from a marketing research (or really, lack of traditional MR) perspective, the possibility for change caused many to pause and question the current approach to utilizing Instagram influencers and reliance on vanity metrics for reaching consumers and measuring social media impact. As Doug Pruden and Terry Vavra, Customer Experience Partners, wrote in a June article:

“How will brands and the influencers they seek prove their online clout without on-screen headcounts? And, where will the ‘validation’ of a poster’s recommendations come from without the on-screen count of likes? 

“… The ultimate consequence may be to redirect marketers to more appropriate measures of social media impact other than visitors’ quick tagging of likes on Instagram sites. Likes have become a crutch; a readily available (though likely imperfect) measure of effectiveness.”

Speaking of measures of effectiveness, Social Media Today’s report did touch on strategic planning and metrics briefly, looking at marketers’ views of Instagram’s analytics. When asked, “How useful do you find Instagram’s native analytics data for your strategic planning?” the majority of respondents (44%) indicated that they’re only somewhat useful for their purposes. All of this combined makes one wonder what the future holds for marketing research and social marketing partnerships.  

Social Media Today’s Instagram Marketing Survey was conducted in April 2019, with a total of 854 participants. Of those respondents, 50% work for a B2C organization, 50% were employed by a B2B company and the remainder selected other as their company type.