1.
An overview of social media community and
engagement for beauty brands, and how they’re
leveraging Instagram.
Report: Beauty Brands and Instagram
Reporting for April 1-30, 2014

2.
Executive Summary
As our recent report “7 Brands Generating More Engagement on Instagram than Facebook” highlighted, brands are definitely
connecting with their audience on platforms outside Facebook.
This reports delves into the beauty category. Looking at how activity compares between Facebook and Instagram, and what brands
are doing to success on Instagram. The report compares ten top beauty brands across 6 social networks: Facebook, Twitter,
YouTube, Google+, Instagram, and Pinterest.
Data highlights and key takeaways:
● Facebook is the dominant social network in terms of fan count: Average of 72% of all communities reported on
● Instagram is only the 4th largest community based on industry average.
● Industry-wide, 77% of all social content engagements are happening on Instagram. Facebook garners 27%.
● NYX, the brand with the smallest overall fan count, has the most overall engagements (97% of those engagements
happened on Instagram.)
● Engagement rates for the top industries are: Facebook = .13%, Twitter = .019%, Instagram = 3.14%
Brands analyzed: Chanel, Clinique, Covergirl, Dior, Estee Lauder, L’Oreal Paris, Mac Cosmetics, Maybelline NY, NARS Cosmetics,
NYX Cosmetics. Those ten brands were selected from a larger pool based on their overall social media community size.
All data in report for the period April 1-30, 2014.

3.
On average, Facebook has 72% of total audience
Global Network
Leaderboard
After Facebook, it’s Twitter,
Google+ and then Instagram.
Relatively small audiences on
YouTube and Pinterest,
although YouTube content is
typically distributed and
viewed outside the brand’s
YouTube channel.
Zuum publishes a monthly
report “Where The Fans Are”,
featuring this chart for 100s
of brands across numerous
industries.
[ Click to subscribe ]

4.
Brand with lowest fan count has most engagements
Global Engagements
Leaderboard
NYX not only has the
smallest overall fan count,
but also the smallest
Facebook size, yet has a
dominant lead over the rest
of the industry in total
engagements with content.
97% of NYX engagements
happen on Instagram.
Zuum publishes a monthly
report “Where Engagement
Happens”, featuring this
chart for 100s of brands
across numerous industries.
[ Click to subscribe ]

5.
Industry-wide strong engagement rates on Instagram
Instagram Leaderboard
Industry average
engagement rates for:
Facebook: .13%
Twitter: .019%
Instagram: 3.14%
Engagement rates calculated
as the ratio of total
engagements to total fans.

6.
Rapid fan growth rate on Instagram
Instagram Leaderboard
Industry average community
growth rates for:
Facebook: 1.78%
Twitter: 3.73%
Instagram: 14.74%
Brands are not only adding
fans at a rapid pace, but
engaging them in the
process.

7.
Where Engagement Happens
Instagram “Share Of”
MAC, with an already strong
lead, continues accelerating
on Instagram.
Dior, already a large
community on Instagram,
grew at over 26%.
NYX is posting with heavy
volume, and generating 33%
of all Instagram engagements
for this group.

8.
Average posting volume of once per day
“Posts by Day” and
“Engagements by Day” -
Instagram
Industry average is 31 posts
per day, with brands rarely
going over 4 posts per day.
NYX leads posting volume
with 56.

9.
Weekends showing strong engagement but less posting
Day and Time Posting
Analysis - Instagram
Weekend engagement could
be due to Instagram and
photography being a more
leisure activity.

10.
3 most engaging posts on Instagram
Brand Posts by Most
Engagements
Instagram’s photo-centric
platform suites the beauty
category well.
Interesting number of Twitter
handle references in posts.

11.
Most of social impact is content engagement
Community Impact
Leaderboard
Despite relatively large
communities on Facebook
and Twitter, the majority of
total impact on those
communities is due to
content engagement. There’s
little brand endorsement
beyond direct content
interactions.

12.
Notes
The comparison between Facebook and Instagram could extend along a number of different lines. Some additional
things worth considering in light of this report include:
❖ Facebook owns Instagram.
❖ Facebook has a more advanced paid advertising platform. That gives brands more options for marketing.
❖ Some Facebook posts are probably promoted, further increasing the overall engagement levels for the network.
❖ Instagram is a mobile experience. This could likely affect engagement rates.
❖ Instagram is a photo app. That focus on content creation could increase engagement.
❖ Instagram doesn’t have a native way to share. While this is likely a temporary situation, Facebook post
engagements can get a considerable lift from sharing.
❖ Facebook and Instagram have different feed approaches. Facebook’s is a filtered feed whereas Instagram’s feed
shows content in the sequence it’s posted.

13.
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pricing, please contact sales@zuumsocial.com
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