With 400 million monthly active users, Instagram is currently one of the most interesting social platforms to analyze, giving insight on the marketing behavior of multiple companies and their follower base. Blogmeter surveyed the performance of fashion brands, which are among Instagram’s first adopters and in addition the sector known to make the most of all the photo sharing platform has to offer. While Facebook is the social network chosen by 99% of the 200 brands considered, Instagram comes in second position with 96% of the brands and Twitter with 89%.

Thanks to Blogmeter’s new Instagram Analytics tool, it was possible to analyze 182 profiles from June 1 to September 20, 2015. During the analysis period the brand that comes out on top in almost all rankings is Victoria’s Secret, with over 82 million interactions and more than 22 million followers. Its success is thanks to a strong content strategy, publishing evocative photos of Victoria’s angels with the hashtag, #TheNewestAngels.

At first glace the map reveals that brands in the retail sector are among the most engaging:
Brandy Melville, Aeropostale and H&M. Their success is primarily due to frequently publishing content with a consistent creativity and the involvement of celebrities.

Retail brands triumph in the engagement ranking. In fact the only luxury brand in the industry found among the top players is Valentino that won the highest number of interactions in July thanks to Nicky Hilton’s Valentino wedding dress and the opening of a new store in Rome. Victoria’s Secret gained the largest follower-base, but the runner ups are primarily Luxury brands. In second place is Dior whose follower base increased especially during the Paris Fashion Week, followed by other luxury brands such as Armani and Fendi.

The hashtag that generated the greatest number of interactions does not belong to the leader, Victoria’s Secret, but to Brandy Melville #BrandyUSA. Coming in second place for engagement is #regram. Brands frequently use this hashtag to repost other content, proving to be a great way to interact with their community. In general the most common hashtags contain the name of a brand, such as #HM, #Primark and #TopShop.

The retail brand that scored the highest number of interactions during the analysis period is clearly Victoria’s Secret, while Michael Kors who primarily posts photos of accessories, triumphs for luxury. Photos featuring celebrities are also very popular. Luxury brands stand out thanks to the partnership with testimonials, such as Chanel with Kristen Stewart and Dior with Johnny Depp. Where as retail brands are more commonly associated with fashion bloggers.

In this analysis we were also able to determine that instead of using Instagram filters to customize their photos, Fashion brands rely on professional photo-editing. In addition they are much more likely to publish photos instead of videos.

For a more detailed analysis you can purchase the full report. It contains over 30 slides with extended charts covering several metrics (followers, engagement, unique authors, frequency of posting, etc.) and strategic insight including the top 200 most engaging content published on Instagram by brands.