Instagram to become the platform of choice for marketers as Twitter use plateaus
Research shows that brands are set to take their social marketing beyond the established mediums in 2016.
Marketers are rapidly embracing Instagram, with use of the platform set to double in the next year according to eMarketer’s latest forecast.
The study, which focused on US companies, revealed that 32.3 per cent of firms with 100 or more employees currently use the Facebook-owned photo sharing site for promotional activities.
The forecast predicted that this number will increase to 48.8 per cent in 2016 and that by 2017 over 70 per cent of US businesses will use the platform, edging out Twitter for the first time.
According to eMarketer’s principal analyst, Debra Aho Williamson, the research demonstrates how brands are looking to diversify their social media marketing beyond the more established mediums.
"Now that Instagram is opening up advertising to all businesses, it's not surprising that marketer usage will grow rapidly,” said Williamson, “its close ties to Facebook are a key advantage."
However, data indicated that this migration could come at a cost for Twitter. Though the microblogging site will continue to see growth, it will come at a much slower rate with penetration increasing by only 1.4 per cent from 2015 to 2016.
Facebook use among marketers is also set to advance at a slower rate over the next couple of years. The mature social network is already used by close to 85 per cent of organisations, but statistics showed that this figure should rise to 85.3 per cent in 2016 then 85.8 per cent in 2017.
The research said that over 88 per cent of US companies are using at least one of the major social sites at present.