Analysis of the posting calendars, engagement levels and campaign themes of 9 state tourism DMOs. State DMOs in the report: Alaska Travel News, Explore Georgia, Go Hawaii, I Love New York, Pure Michigan, Texas Tourism, Visit California, Visit Colorado and Visit Florida.

1. How Tourism
DMOs Are Using
Instagram
Analysis of the posting
calendars, engagement levels
and campaign themes of 9 state
tourism DMOs.
October 2014
© 2014 Zuum

2. Executive Summary
❖ Brand post engagement rate averages on Instagram are 5.48% compared to .39% on Facebook, and .
04% on Twitter
❖ Instagram pages on average are growing followers at over 8% for the month of October, compared to .
62% for Facebook pages.
❖ Between Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, Twitter gets the most posting volume, but the least
engagement.
❖ Pure Michigan’s Instagram page generated more engagements than their Facebook page, despite
having less than 20% as many followers.
❖ Pure Michigan’s top campaign theme #upperpeninsula featured community-generated content.
❖ Reporting period is for the entire month of October, 2014
❖ State DMOs in the report: Alaska Travel News, Explore Georgia, Go Hawaii, I Love New York, Pure
Michigan, Texas Tourism, Visit California, Visit Colorado and Visit Florida.

3. DMOs are engaging on Instagram
Chart: Global Engagement Rate
Leaderboard
1: Like many industries,
tourism brands are getting the
best social media engagement
on Instagram.

4. Total engagement on Instagram is approaching Facebook
Chart: Global Engagement
Leaderboard
1: Pure Michigan page is
already generating more
engagement on Instagram than
on Facebook.
In a previous report, Zuum
highlighted 7 major consumer
brands generating more
engagement on Instagram than
on Facebook.
View Report

5. A big difference between Facebook and Instagram
Chart: Global Fan Leaderboard
1: On Facebook, brands have
fans but are having trouble
engaging them. On Instagram,
engagement is high, but in this
case it’s the 5th highest
network in terms of average
fan count.

6. Facebook fan growth rates seem to be stalling
Chart: Facebook Leaderboard
1: Facebook pages averaged
only .62% fan growth for the
month of October. None of the
9 DMOs has over 1.24%
growth for the month.

7. Instagram pages are experiencing explosive growth
Chart: Instagram Leaderboard
1: The average growth in fans
for the month was 8.45%. The
lowest page, Visit California, at
3.41%, is still over 2.5 times
greater than the fastest
growing Facebook page.

8. Twitter posting volume isn’t producing engagement levels
Chart: Content Analyzer
1: Twitter gets the bulk of
posting activity,
2: while generating only a sliver
of engagement relative to
Facebook and Instagram.
Brands may need to reconsider
how much effort is going to
Twitter, relative to it’s impact.

9. Network performance comparison for Pure Michigan
Charts: Posts by Day and Engagement
by Day
1: While Pure Michigan is
putting only a small percent of
their posting into Instagram,
2: engagement on Instagram
shadows both Twitter and
Facebook.

10. Instagram posting volume averages 1 post per day
Chart: Posting Volume - Instagram
1: The average posting volume
for all brands is 31 times for
the month of October.
2: Visit Colorado posted 67
times, and still maintained near
average engagement rates.

11. Posting times and engaging times are out of sync
Chart: Posting Times - Instagram
1: The most engaging times
are early and late in the day.
2: The most engaging days are
weekends and near weekend
days.
Brands are pushing content
during work hours, but people
are engaging during non-work
periods.
Note: All brands charted on the same GMT-6 time zone

12. Instagram-leader Pure Michigan
Chart: Posting Times - Instagram
1: The most impacting brand
on Instagram in this report,
Pure Michigan shows similar
trend for higher engagement
during non-work hours,
although they’re also getting
good engagement throughout
the day.
Note: All brands charted on the same GMT-6 time zone

13. Campaign themes for October
Chart: Campaign Explorer - Instagram
DMOs frequently employ
hashtags for various campaign
initiatives.

14. Pure Michigan’s #upperpeninsula campaign
Chart: Campaign Analyzer - Instagram
1: A strong-performing
campaign, #upperpeninsula
had an average per-post
engagements-to-fan-count
ratio of almost 9%.

15. Getting the community involved
Chart: Top Brand Posts - Instagram
1: Utilizing fan photos is a
great way to build community,
while also selling the region’s
natural beauty.

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© 2014 Zuum