Simply Measured today announced that brands are seeing strong success engaging with consumers on Instagram and are increasingly incorporating it into their social media mix. The company’s study of global companies on Instagram shows that the top 10 brands are seeing 96 percent engagement, with MTV, Burberry and Starbucks leading the way.

“As a mobile-only, photo-sharing-only platform, the fact that Instagram has seen such strong adoption from both consumers and brands is remarkable”

Today, 40 percent of Interbrand 100 companies are using Instagram effectively, engaging and growing their audiences. Luxury brands dominate the list of early adopters, including Audi, Tiffany & Co., Hermès, Gucci, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Armani, all utilizing the visual site to draw consumers’ attention to their products. In addition, a majority of brands are using Instagram independently, rather than simply using it as an app to cross-post to Facebook and Twitter.

“As a mobile-only, photo-sharing-only platform, the fact that Instagram has seen such strong adoption from both consumers and brands is remarkable,” said Adam Schoenfeld, CEO at Simply Measured. “Brands are clearly recognizing that Instagram is a viable network for marketing, and are now looking for ways to better understand the data behind the platform. We’re hearing from clients daily who want to use analytics and measurement to integrate it more deeply into the mix.”

The Simply Measured Instagram study evaluates brands and verticals included in the Interbrand 100, identifying key trends and strategies companies use to engage with consumers through social media. Key findings include:

Instagram Adoption is Strong – With 80 million users and 40 percent of the Interbrand 100, Instagram is becoming a dominant force in a brand’s social media mix. This will only continue as new administrative features become available that enable brands to control their accounts and drive deeper engagement and business value.

Early Adopters are Reaping Benefits – Top ranking brands on Instagram lead in number of followers, photos, likes, and comments. MTV and Starbucks boast more than 750,000 followers, while 15 additional brands have developed audiences in excess of 10,000. As might be expected, there is a strong correlation between number of followers and engagement per photo.

Luxury Brands Lead the Way – Luxury brands take full advantage of the visual network to draw attention to their products, with Audi, Tiffany & Co., Hermès, Gucci, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Armani playing a lead role in Instagram adoption.

Filters are Fun, But Not a Cure-All – Sixty percent of photos posted include a filter, with Lo-fi as the most commonly used filter and Valencia driving a slight uptick in engagement. Overall, neither the use of filters nor the actual filter chosen has a significant impact on engagement.

Cross-Posting is Popular, But Impact is Limited – 45 percent of all photos are cross-posted, however engagement through Facebook and Twitter accounts for less than one percent of total engagement. This shows that despite the acquisition by Facebook, brands are using Instagram as an independent network, possibly due to its limited "share" functions.

Understanding the data behind a brand’s Instagram channel is a key step in developing a successful strategy. To help brands do this, Simply Measured today released Instagram analytics and reporting capabilities. Simply Measured is now the only enterprise social measurement platform to integrate Instagram analytics with engagement data for Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and YouTube. The new report allows brands to track Instagram engagement in context with other social media campaigns, including most engaging photos, most engaging filters, most engaging locations, cross-posting, keyword analysis and more.

Simply Measured helps brands glean actionable insights from their social media efforts, closing the gap between casual conversations and measurable outcomes. The company’s enterprise solution allows organizations to closely track and analyze engagement across the most popular social channels, delivering a comprehensive view of their social media presence. From these reports, brands can measure the success of social media campaigns, analyze their competitive position and target messages appropriately based on a variety of data points.