Instagram's popularity seems never ending, and every time a new feature is released the opportunities for brands to reach audiences keep growing. In the last year, Instagram has introduced us to Stories, Instagram Live, Stickers, Mulitple photos and video in one post and much more. While the top followed accounts are dominated by celebrity accounts with Selena Gomez leading the way (if you discount the official Instagram account) top B2C/retail brands have been able to capitalise on this too.
If you are new to Instagram or even if you're not The Rock's account is a personal favourite, it really shows how a personality has used the platform to promote himself as a brand.
In todays chart of the day, I ranked the 10 most followed brands on Instagram excluding celebrities.
At the top of the pile is the national geographic with over 70 million followers. It is like Instagram was made for them as the perfect platform from the to share some of the most amazing photos from around the world.
National Geographic are closing followed by Nike, who use a good mix of video and images to share the stories featured their latest ad campaign starring top sports personalities from around the world.
'The End' is just something they put on movies. #justdoit
A post shared by nike (@nike) on
As of today, the top 10 is dominated by sports brands with the outstanding accounts from NASA & National Geographic but two retail brands have managed to make a rather big name for themselves on Instagram. Victorias Secret and H&M have used the power of the images to showcase their products to their followers without being overly salesy. I'd encourage all retailers to look at these accounts see if you could do something similar.
| Position | Brand | Followers |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | natgeo | 72,438,192 |
| 2 | nike | 70,010,229 |
| 3 | victoriassecret | 52,545,510 |
| 4 | fcbarcelona | 47,560,137 |
| 5 | realmadrid | 46,306,200 |
| 6 | 9gag | 37,882,026 |
| 7 | nikefootball | 26,675,492 |
| 8 | nba | 26,675,492 |
| 9 | nasa | 20,646,681 |
| 10 | hm | 19,233,123 |
By Patrick Kelly
I have spent many years working with both B2B and B2C brands to implement data-driven marketing strategies covering paid search, SEO, Social media and marketing automation. You will also find me catching up on the latest Marvel releases or playing the latest RPG.
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