Simply Measured's Instagram Influencer Report

Simply Measured 2015 Instagram Influencer Report 2
Introduction
Instagram is one of the fastest-growing social networks
in history. The mobile photo-sharing app, which
launched in October of 2010, now boasts 300 million
monthly active users, 70 million photos posted each day,
and 2.5 billion Likes per day.
This incredible growth has shaken up the way social
marketers think about visual content and marketing to
mobile audiences, and opened up entirely new avenues
of connection between celebrities, traditional brands,
and Instagram users.
Some influencers like @vegas_nay and @nashgrier have
built their brands from the ground up on social, while
other influencers like @kimkardashian and @mileycyrus
grew popular elsewhere and then cultivated their
presences on the social network.
As a brand marketer, there’s a massive opportunity to
identify the influencers that are already engaging your
target audience.
This report showcases the most followed influencers
in the world based on a recent, and how they use
Instagram to build their brand, engage audiences, and
promote their wares while identifying the successful (and
unsuccessful) tactics that these brands are using.
300 million
2.5 billion
Likes per day
monthly active users
photos per day
70 million

Methodology
The Simply Measured 2015 Instagram Influencer Report looks
at the Instagram activity of the 77 most followed people on
Instagram as reported by Business Insider and Socialblade.
This list was chosen because it excludes traditional brands and
focuses on “people as brands”-- influencers. This list provides
a massive opportunity for brands, large and small, to leverage
partnerships and reach huge audiences on the network.
Statistics cited in this study are based on data from January
1, 2015 - July 28, 2015. All data was analyzed using Simply
Measured’s industry-leading social analytics platform.
77 influencers
181,533,642 comments
7,440,886,054 Likes
THIS REPORT ENCOMPASSES:

THE LIST
Top Instagram Influencers by EngagementColumn1 Column2 Column3 Column4 Column5
Ranking Influencer Likes Comments Engagement
1 kimkardashian 443,413,766 5,613,461 449,027,227
2 kyliejenner 383,667,470 33,235,937 416,903,407
3 mileycyrus 379,865,123 5,594,090 385,459,213
4 arianagrande 349,941,016 5,353,575 355,294,591
5 justinbieber 302,037,886 8,909,224 310,947,110
6 nickiminaj 301,564,363 4,707,143 306,271,506
7 khloekardashian 286,570,015 3,478,218 290,048,233
8 neymarjr 266,899,059 19,902,550 286,801,609
9 taylorswift 239,644,922 3,364,992 243,009,914
10 selenagomez 230,039,262 3,435,666 233,474,928
11 kendalljenner 204,652,939 16,839,864 221,492,803
12 shaym 199,553,542 1,448,923 201,002,465
13 beyonce 186,255,254 2,115,039 188,370,293
14 badgalriri 169,982,087 2,218,563 172,200,650
15 caradelevingne 169,756,125 1,707,703 171,463,828
16 kourtneykardash 149,280,907 1,422,762 150,703,669
17 ddlovato 147,630,257 1,999,510 149,629,767
18 therock 138,280,522 1,815,171 140,095,693
19 itsashbenzo 137,953,484 885,742 138,839,226
20 ninadobrev 127,581,918 1,353,822 128,935,740
21 niallhoran 113,655,063 3,352,975 117,008,038
22 snoopdogg 111,676,255 4,321,582 115,997,837
23 kevinhart4real 111,293,266 1,875,395 113,168,661
24 chrisbrownofficial 109,389,884 1,711,287 111,101,171
25 vanessahudgens 89,014,759 467,066 89,481,825
26 lucyhale 87,503,741 663,363 88,167,104
27 ladygaga 85,901,815 1,258,772 87,160,587
28 jlo 84,710,731 1,020,959 85,731,690
29 bethanynoelm 84,652,793 1,055,762 85,708,555
30 champagnepapi 83,020,554 1,844,490 84,865,044
Column1 Column2 Column3 Column4 Column5
26 lucyhale 87,503,741 663,363 88,167,104
27 ladygaga 85,901,815 1,258,772 87,160,587
28 jlo 84,710,731 1,020,959 85,731,690
29 bethanynoelm 84,652,793 1,055,762 85,708,555
30 champagnepapi 83,020,554 1,844,490 84,865,044
31 nashgrier 81,874,391 1,729,018 83,603,409
32 sleepinthegardn 80,203,482 445,732 80,649,214
33 vegas_nay 76,243,313 1,736,262 77,979,575
34 camerondallas 65,845,091 1,604,514 67,449,605
35 elliegoulding 65,046,935 504,672 65,551,607
36 cristiano 63,032,487 1,276,354 64,308,841
37 krisjenner 56,342,235 580,856 56,923,091
38 amberrose 53,209,352 2,875,599 56,084,951
39 mistercap 54,735,106 844,579 55,579,685
40 ritaora 54,793,
078 403,835 55,196,913
41 snookinic 53,691,555 417,033 54,108,588
42 katyperry 53,025,782 904,828 53,930,610
43 austinmahone 49,542,163 1,038,434 50,580,597
44 danbilzerian 48,740,186 1,798,064 50,538,250
45 vindiesel 48,966,188 554,616 49,520,804
46 anitta 41,016,019 6,745,253 47,761,272
47 davidbeckham 46,616,560 431,373 47,047,933
48 angelcandices 43,521,244 436,886 43,958,130
49 leomessi 40,210,740 917,753 41,128,493
50 davidluiz_4 39,617,721 581,779 40,199,500
51 ciara 39,060,687 497,103 39,557,790
52 brumarquezine 36,841,030 1,997,736 38,838,766
53 jamesrodriguez10 38,182,854 481,987 38,664,841
54 marinaruybarbosa 32,082,127 360,320 32,442,447
55 kinggoldchains 30,856,538 612,129 31,468,667

THE LIST (CONTINUED)
Top Instagram Influencers by Engagement
Musicians Top the Chart
29 people on this list of 77 influencers are musicians, with actors
and actresses coming in second.
Column1 Column2 Column3 Column4 Column5
51 ciara 39,060,687 497,103 39,557,790
52 brumarquezine 36,841,030 1,997,736 38,838,766
53 jamesrodriguez10 38,182,854 481,987 38,664,841
54 marinaruybarbosa 32,082,127 360,320 32,442,447
55 kinggoldchains 30,856,538 612,129 31,468,667
56 danid2ois 30,484,001 315,629 30,799,630
57 tatawerneck 30,047,216 474,589 30,521,805
58 jenselter 25,841,718 688,632 26,530,350
59 victoriabeckham 24,771,426 227,056 24,998,482
60 ronaldinhooficial 23,247,589 249,058 23,496,647
61 harrystyles 21,771,368 1,380,665 23,152,033
62 ivetesangalo 22,201,459 464,363 22,665,822
63 kingjames 21,679,673 497,603 22,177,276
64 mirandakerr 21,961,617 211,392 22,173,009
65 gisele 19,171,417 231,453 19,402,870
66 claudialeitte 18,752,806 392,567 19,145,373
67 fakeliampayne 18,116,948 821,691 18,938,639
68 marcelotwelve 16,711,264 125,213 16,836,477
69 iamzlatanibrahimovic 16,400,942 225,351 16,626,293
70 thiagosilva_33 16,344,162 190,572 16,534,734
71 shakira 15,896,253 231,929 16,128,182
72 jessicaalba 15,702,967 120,564 15,823,531
73 justintimberlake 15,101,285 328,844 15,430,129
74 zacefron 15,240,533 178,192 15,418,725
75 garethbale11 14,005,311 180,833 14,186,144
76 channingtatum 12,898,707 374,969 13,273,676
77 floydmayweather 10,644,828 872,156 11,516,984
Grand
Total 604,016,726 12,732,596 616,749,322

THE TOPICS
Top 25 Hashtags by Engagement
The most used hashtags by influencers have a lot to tell us about
which post types generate the most excitement and conversation
for them. These hashtags generally fall into three categories.
Locations and Events
Hashtags like #vegas or #Oscars are included in this category.
Posts that build off of popular locations and events have the
added benefit of higher reach from Instagram’s Discover feature.
Projects
This category includes all of the commercial endeavors
influencers are a part of, from movies (The Rock’s #SanAndreas),
to music tours (Nicki Minaj’s #ThePinkPrintTOUR), to skincare
(Demi Lovato’s #DevonnebyDemi). Posts which use these
hashtags benefit from a high volume of people who are
interested in a project and channel that energy into engagement
on Instagram.
Universal
These are the hashtags we all use: #TBT, #repost, #love, #fbf, etc.
Stars, they’re just like us!
Column1 Column2 Column3 Column4
Hashtag Comments
Likes
Total
Engagement
vegas 1456209 70029355 71485564
TBT 667209 47129014 47796223
Repost 947478 40495441 41442919
SanAndreas 398123 35556507 35954630
HustleHart 409982 31735208 32145190
love 449559 31348764 31798323
ThePinkprintTOUR 526081 31223609 31749690
ComedicRockstarShit 291461 26713090 27004551
fbf 315850 24792176 25108026
BadBloodMusicVideo 432654 24457632 24890286
BALLERS 243354 23744744 23988098
DopePic 177751 22929843 23107594
Selfish 231862 19368170 19600032
proudmama 144321 19029545 19173866
WhatNowTour 193471 18801446 18994917
CentralIntelligence 358600 17230597 17589197
DevonneByDemi 247619 16397082 16644701
regram 189577 15749010 15938587
DEMIWORLDTOUR 149239 15519083 15668322
HalaMadrid 161872 15217224 15379096
happyhippiepresents 139314 15054831 15194145
GetHard 332252 14820290 15152542
mycalvins 856404 14284778 15141182
blessed 253145 13799330 14052475
TVDfamily 224501 13433029 13657530

INFLUENCER CATEGORY BREAKDOWN
Reality TV Stars
Six Kardashians (Kim, Kylie, Khloe, Kendall, Kourtney, and
legendary momager Kris, in that order) made the list, along
with one Kardashian paramour, Scott Disick (or ex-paramour,
depending upon where you’re doing your “research”). That’s a
9% Kardashian saturation rate on the top Instagram influencers in
2015 so far.
In fact, the only other reality TV star on the top influencer list
was Snooki, who generated over 54 million in total engagement
between the beginning of this year and July 28.
• The Reality TV category drove 1.64 billion in total
engagement
• Kim Kardashian West drove the most engagement within
the Reality TV category, racking up 449,027,227 in total
engagement during the study time period

INFLUENCER CATEGORY BREAKDOWN - REALITY TV STARS
Tactics That Work
Showing Skin
Kim Kardashian West has not been shy about nudity on
Instagram whether it’s scantily clad pregnancy selfies or revealing
cleavage, all in the name of celebrating the female form and her
baby-on-board.
Family First
All members of the Kardashian clan understand that, for
them, family is more than blood--it’s brand. By squadding up
and taking lots of selfies together, they generate buzz for all
their business enterprises.

INFLUENCER CATEGORY BREAKDOWN - REALITY TV STARS
Tactics That Work
Cross-Promote
Kylie and Khloe often post playful DubSmash videos on
Instagram. Kylie has been known to Instagram a Snapchat video
(she also has a lively presence on that network). Whether Kylie or
Khloe has an official business relationship with either DubSmash
or Snapchat is unknown, but the tactic works.
Be “Real”
What the reality stars on this list have in common is how well
they broadcast an image of being “real” to their Instagram
followers, making people feel like they’re a part of the inner
circle. Whether gym shots or pre-work selfies, it’s obviously
working.

Musicians
38% of the names on this list are musicians, making it the largest
category represented here and showing us that this entertainer
type holds a lot of klout on Instagram. Of the musicians who
made the list, Miley Cyrus, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber,
and Nicki Minaj were the top contenders when it came to
engagement.
• The Musicians category drove 3.46 billion total engagements;
more than double that of the Reality TV category
• Miley Cyrus drove the most engagement within the Musicians
category, racking up 385,459,213 in total engagement during
the study time period

Simply Measured Q4 2014 Instagram Study 11
INFLUENCER CATEGORY BREAKDOWN - MUSICIANS
Tactics That Work
Go Off-Kilter
Miley Cyrus’s posts are always a bit..um...eccentric, and her
followers love her for it. Whether it’s psychedelic pajama shots or
intimate videos, she’s just being Miley.
Go Global
By amassing a global following and shouting out the
countries she visits and people she meets on her world tour,
Ariana Grande is able to touch a lot more people than she
otherwise would, and generate engagement from them.

Tactics That Work
Go for the Long-Term Build
Justin Bieber has built the opposite of a “surprise release” for his
new upcoming single, “What Do You Mean?” on Instagram. In
the month leading up to the release, he got a multitude of stars,
from Ryan Seacrest to Mariah Carey to Ashley Benson, to hold
up signs saying how many days were left until the release of the
single. This kind of long-term campaign is a great way to get an
already-activated follower base to know the exact release date of
your product.

Tactics That Work
Mobilize Your Fans
Musicians like Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift make sure to thank
their fans and post frequent updates from their tours, both on-
and off-stage. This keeps followers engaged, especially when
they’re feeling hometown pride, and also encourages curiosity
about where these musicians are performing next -- eventually
leading to ticket purchases.

Athletes
18% of the names on this list are athletes. Of those athletes, 85%
are soccer players. These athletes generate more engagement
than any other sport because of their massive worldwide fan
bases. The only two non-soccer players on this list are Lebron
James and Floyd Mayweather.
• The Athletes category drove 670.3 million in total
engagement
• Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior drove the most engagement
within the athlete category, racking up 286,801,609 in total
engagement during the study time period-- 43% of all
engagement within this category

INFLUENCER CATEGORY BREAKDOWN - ATHLETES
Tactics That Work
Offer Exclusive Training Footage
Athletes like Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior post videos of
training and photos of behind-the-scenes interactions with
fellow players. This insight into the guts behind the glory keeps
Instagram followers engaging away.
Give Health and Fitness Tips
Athletes like Cristiano are widely revered by their fans
as gods among men, so it makes sense that posts which
reference their health and fitness secrets and regimens are
uber successful on Instagram.

INFLUENCER CATEGORY BREAKDOWN - ATHLETES
Tactics That Work
Show off Charity Work
Many athletes on Instagram are involved with charity work, and
post photos and videos of the sick people they visit. These
posts are often shared with expressions of gratitude and wonder
at the resilience of those afflicted, and inspire admiration and
engagement from Instagram followers.
Give Props
Athletes like Lebron James give props to fellow high-
performing athletes on Instagram, and these posts
consistently do well, since followers so admire this
gentlemanly behavior.

Actors and Actresses
19% of the names on this list are actors and actresses. 64%
of those Instagram accounts belonged to actresses, and
36% belonged to actors, meaning that the gender split was
weighted towards women with massive worldwide fan bases and
engagement levels.
• The Actors and Actresses category drove 1.17 billion in total
engagement
• Shay Mitchell drove the most engagement within the Actors
and Actresses category, racking up 201,002,465 in total

INFLUENCER CATEGORY BREAKDOWN - ACTORS AND ACRTRESSES
Tactics That Work
Ask a QOTD (Question of the Day)
One smart, engagement-driving Instagram tactic is to get your
audience involved by asking a Question of the Day, like Shay
Mitchell does in this post, while also including a #wishiwerethere
image to catch follower attention as they scroll through their
feeds.
Write a Diary Entry
When actors and actresses give their Instagram audiences
a window into their everyday life with a long, descriptive
caption, they’re in effect writing a “mini blog post” which
connects with followers and often generates unusually high
engagement.

INFLUENCER CATEGORY BREAKDOWN - ACTORS AND ACRTRESSES
Tactics That Work
Put Fashion Forward
When actresses like Bruna Marquezine give their Instagram
audiences a taste of the glamorous, fashionable life, they tend to
experience a lot of engagement.
Stay Silly
This post says it all. One surefire engagement driver for
actors and actresses on Instagram is to not take yourself
too seriously. Followers seek actors and actresses out on
Instagram for the “they’re just like us” experience, so you’ll
see a lot of engagement by fostering this climate.

Fashion
7% of the names on this list are models or fashion designers.
100% of those Instagram accounts belong to women, and 5 out
of 6 are fashion models, with the one exception being Victoria
Beckham.
• The Fashion category drove 338 million in total engagement
• Cara Delevingne drove the most engagement within
the Fashion category, racking up 171,463,828 in total
• 66% of the influencers in this category are or have been
Victoria’s Secret Angels

INFLUENCER CATEGORY BREAKDOWN - FASHION
Tactics That Work
Couple with a Cultural Zeitgeist
Hop on board a fast-moving engagement train like Cara
Delevingne by using a big event hashtag like #Comiccon and
posting plenty of content from the event.
Take People Behind the Scenes
Famed Victoria’s Secret model Candice Swanepoel generates
especially good engagement by posting behind-the-scenes
shots from fashion shoots. These do even better than a lot of
the more “physical” photographs she posts on her account.

INFLUENCER CATEGORY BREAKDOWN - FASHION
Tactics That Work
Build Interest for Your Products and Partnerships
Spice Girl-turned-fashion designer Victoria Beckham generated
significant Instagram engagement by posting this screenshot
of her husband, David Beckham, on the My Eye app, while also
building interest in the app.
Do It for the Kids
Content which features the offspring of influencers in
the fashion industry always hits it out of the ballpark on
Instagram. The combination of a universal experience --
motherhood -- and an answer to the public’s curiosity about
what real life actually looks like for someone so beautiful is a
1-2 punch for winning engagement.

Conclusion
Instagram Is Ripe for Influencer Partnerships
These celebrities, athletes, musicians, and fashion icons have
larger audiences than almost any company, and their followers
are some of the most active and devoted around.
Throughout the first half of 2015, these 77 people have
generated 7,677,212,774 total engagements (Likes and
comments).
There are many lessons to be learned from the tactics being used
by the people on this list, but even more than that, there’s an
opportunity to identify the influencers that are already engaging
your target audience.
As Instagram grows, and more people use the network on a daily
basis, this opportunity will only get more impactful, and more
competitive.
Which person on this list should your brand be persuing a
partnership with?

About Simply Measured
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