The key to effective marketing and messaging, whether it’s on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, is knowing who your audience is. We’ve known for a while that certain social networks skew towards one gender (Pinterest and Facebook have always been more popular with female users), but what about newer networks like Instagram? Our friends at Nitrogram have done some digging and uncovered some interesting statistics about users, gender and Instagram. Here are some of the highlights.
- Women make up the majority of the Instagram community in Southeast Asia and Russia
- Men outnumber women in the Instagram community in the Middle East and India
- North America is pretty evenly split in terms of male and female users (~50-55% men vs ~45-50% women)
- The top 50 brands on Instagram have a following that slightly skews female (53% women vs 47% men)
- Energy drinks and sports-related brands have the largest male following
- Cosmetics and fashion brands have the largest female following
Although some of these stats aren’t surprising, they can still give us valuable insight. With these stats in mind, we have a couple of suggestions for your Instagram-loving brand to consider.
Evaluate your Instagram audience’s gender.
Using an Instagram tool like Nitrogram, determine your audience’s gender breakdown. Not only is this important for brands in countries that tend to skew heavily in one direction or another, it’s also important for brands in more evenly split countries. Even though your Facebook audience breakdown skews towards one gender, your Instagram following might be the opposite. Find out for sure by taking the time to evaluate it.
Create content that keeps that gender split in mind.
Once you’ve determined the gender split of your followers, plan content around this information. If you find that your audience is pretty evenly split, you might not need to change much. If, however, you find that it skews male, when you assumed it skewed female, you need to reexamine your content strategy. It may even require you to create a separate content calendar from the one you use for your other social interactions. Regardless, be mindful of your audience when planning future content.
Looking for more Instagram tips? Check out our highlights from Nitrogram’s Instagram report.
