The 2023 Instagram Engagement report released by HubSpot and Mention should be read by all Indian Instagram users. The report, which analysed 37 million posts from 2022, offers some truly great insights.
Let’s start with the most commonly asked question. Who are the top ten Indian Instagrammers? No surprises here: the most-followed accounts are all celebrities: one cricketer, one politician and eight film stars.
1. Virat Kohli
2. Priyanka Chopra
3. Shradda Kapoor
4. Neha Kakkar
5. Alia Bhatt
6. Narendra Modi
7. Deepika Padukone
8. Katrina Kaif
9. Jacqueline Fernandez
10. Akshay Kumar
What’s missing are brands. There are no brands in the top 50 most followed accounts in India. Another difference is the absence of musicians in the top ten. Indians love their cinema stars more than musicians though musicians have a greater following in the rest of the world.
The report answers some of the most frequently asked questions as to what works, and what does not work, on Instagram. The findings may pertain to the year gone by but they have lessons for the current year also.
Importantly, the report provides insights as to what worked for Indian Instagrammers – tips you should keep in mind if you want to be catapulted as an Indian influencer on Instagram this year.
# 1. Video was the king
Asia-Pacific, and especially India, lapped up video. From Reels to Stories to streaming live, video got three times more engagement than single images. It also performed significantly better than carousels.You can’t be faulted if you ask what’s earth shattering here?
Afterall, Instagram itself is heavily pushing video, especially Reels. It is the gap that catches your breath. The report found that videos in this part of the world fetched 800 likes more than the global average.
Carousel posts came next after video, both by volume of comments and volume of likes.
Lesson: If you want to do well on Instagram focus on videos.
# 2. How important were captions
The captions that drew most engagement were less than 20 characters. Anything over that, and the engagement levels dropped. Posts without captions too failed to get engagement.
However, captions that went past the 2,000-character mark did well too. Evidently, they became the story.
Interestingly, the captions that drew the maximum traction in Asia-Pacific ranged between 100 and 1,000 characters.
Lesson: Either keep your caption smart and short or pull out all the stops and race past the 2000-character mark.
# 3. How useful are Emojis
Emojis, according to the report, had only a marginal impact on engagement. Even here, posts that benefitted used less than ten emojis; anything over ten did not bring any noticeable change. Instead, they ate into the caption space.
As many as 40% posts did not use emojis at all. This is a huge number and indicates that emojis are minor players.
Lesson: Use emojis sparingly. If you do use them, position them to break or start sentences.
# 4. How many hashtags should you use?
The jury is still out on hashtags though there is no denying that hashtags continued to be important engagement drivers during 2022.
Instagram users used an average of 7 hashtags per post in 2022 as compared to 8 in 2021. Interestingly, Instagram recommends five hashtags which is less than the 2022 average.
But who won the race? According to the study, Instagram posts that used over 11 hashtags did the best, followed by those that used four.
The top ten hashtags by popularity were:
#photography
#love
#art
#fashion
#music
#instagood
#photooftheday
#reels
#travel
#model
Not surprisingly, the most engaging were the reels-related hashtags – with tags like #ReelsTrending,
#FunnyVideos, and #FunnyReels making to the top of the charts.
So, what should your strategy be when it comes to hashtags?
Strategy 1: The best way to catch eyeballs is to use categories. These can be locations such as #NewDelhi or #Mumbai; descriptive such as #redlipstick or #yewllowtops; or communities such as #mubaiindians or #GujaratTitans.
Strategy 2: Avoid the top trending hashtags. The possibility is that your posts will drown in that sea. Prefer mid-sized trends – hashtags used in posts whose viewership ranges between 10,000 to 200,000. There is a greater chance of standing out and getting noticed.
Strategy 3: Tag other users, especially the ones who have a reasonable following in your domain. Your post will show on their profile, and your following may start going up.
Strategy 4: You must include geotagging in your strategy. Please remember that geotagged posts pop up when users search for a city, country, or region.
# 5. When should you post on Instagram?
The study found the best time to post was around 8 pm. Engagement went up marginally on weekends when a post was made around 8 pm. Also, there was more late-night engagement. The highest engagement rate was recorded at 8 p.m. and the lowest at 8 am barring the Asia-Pacific region.
In the Asia-Pacific region the study found that Tuesday, not the weekend, was the most engaging time to post; Saturday was slightly behind. Content shared at this time got a 12.8% engagement rate, which was 7% higher than the lowest of 5.8% at 5 am.
Asia-Pacific region also saw a slight spike at lunch time. So, if you live in the Asia=-Pacific region make sure you post on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
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