Report: How Tourism DMOs Are Using Instagram
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The document analyzes the Instagram engagement and posting strategies of nine state tourism DMOs, revealing that Instagram has significantly higher engagement rates (5.48%) compared to Facebook (0.39%) and Twitter (0.04%). Notably, Pure Michigan's Instagram generated more engagement than its Facebook despite having far fewer followers, with their successful campaign utilizing community-generated content. The report highlights the importance of engaging audiences outside of work hours and suggests that brands reconsider their efforts on Twitter due to its low engagement relative to posting volume.
Report: How Tourism DMOs Are Using Instagram
- 1. How Tourism DMOs Are Using Instagram Analysis of the posting calendars, engagement levels and campaign themes of 9 state tourism DMOs. October 2014 © 2014 Zuum
- 2. Executive Summary ❖ Brand post engagement rate averages on Instagram are 5.48% compared to .39% on Facebook, and . 04% on Twitter ❖ Instagram pages on average are growing followers at over 8% for the month of October, compared to . 62% for Facebook pages. ❖ Between Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, Twitter gets the most posting volume, but the least engagement. ❖ Pure Michigan’s Instagram page generated more engagements than their Facebook page, despite having less than 20% as many followers. ❖ Pure Michigan’s top campaign theme #upperpeninsula featured community-generated content. ❖ Reporting period is for the entire month of October, 2014 ❖ State DMOs in the report: Alaska Travel News, Explore Georgia, Go Hawaii, I Love New York, Pure Michigan, Texas Tourism, Visit California, Visit Colorado and Visit Florida.
- 3. DMOs are engaging on Instagram Chart: Global Engagement Rate Leaderboard 1: Like many industries, tourism brands are getting the best social media engagement on Instagram.
- 4. Total engagement on Instagram is approaching Facebook Chart: Global Engagement Leaderboard 1: Pure Michigan page is already generating more engagement on Instagram than on Facebook. In a previous report, Zuum highlighted 7 major consumer brands generating more engagement on Instagram than on Facebook. View Report
- 5. A big difference between Facebook and Instagram Chart: Global Fan Leaderboard 1: On Facebook, brands have fans but are having trouble engaging them. On Instagram, engagement is high, but in this case it’s the 5th highest network in terms of average fan count.
- 6. Facebook fan growth rates seem to be stalling Chart: Facebook Leaderboard 1: Facebook pages averaged only .62% fan growth for the month of October. None of the 9 DMOs has over 1.24% growth for the month.
- 7. Instagram pages are experiencing explosive growth Chart: Instagram Leaderboard 1: The average growth in fans for the month was 8.45%. The lowest page, Visit California, at 3.41%, is still over 2.5 times greater than the fastest growing Facebook page.
- 8. Twitter posting volume isn’t producing engagement levels Chart: Content Analyzer 1: Twitter gets the bulk of posting activity, 2: while generating only a sliver of engagement relative to Facebook and Instagram. Brands may need to reconsider how much effort is going to Twitter, relative to it’s impact.
- 9. Network performance comparison for Pure Michigan Charts: Posts by Day and Engagement by Day 1: While Pure Michigan is putting only a small percent of their posting into Instagram, 2: engagement on Instagram shadows both Twitter and Facebook.
- 10. Instagram posting volume averages 1 post per day Chart: Posting Volume - Instagram 1: The average posting volume for all brands is 31 times for the month of October. 2: Visit Colorado posted 67 times, and still maintained near average engagement rates.
- 11. Posting times and engaging times are out of sync Chart: Posting Times - Instagram 1: The most engaging times are early and late in the day. 2: The most engaging days are weekends and near weekend days. Brands are pushing content during work hours, but people are engaging during non-work periods. Note: All brands charted on the same GMT-6 time zone
- 12. Instagram-leader Pure Michigan Chart: Posting Times - Instagram 1: The most impacting brand on Instagram in this report, Pure Michigan shows similar trend for higher engagement during non-work hours, although they’re also getting good engagement throughout the day. Note: All brands charted on the same GMT-6 time zone
- 13. Campaign themes for October Chart: Campaign Explorer - Instagram DMOs frequently employ hashtags for various campaign initiatives.
- 14. Pure Michigan’s #upperpeninsula campaign Chart: Campaign Analyzer - Instagram 1: A strong-performing campaign, #upperpeninsula had an average per-post engagements-to-fan-count ratio of almost 9%.
- 15. Getting the community involved Chart: Top Brand Posts - Instagram 1: Utilizing fan photos is a great way to build community, while also selling the region’s natural beauty.
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