Instagram Statistics in 2023

The annual study on Instagram by the Metricool agency answers the questions that all of us who work with social media and digital marketing have. Basically: do our strategies work?

The analysis was carried out during the month of June on 316,394 professional Instagram accounts, 2,518,408 posts, 9,419,426 stories, and 1,068,716 reels.

One of the uncertainties this year was regarding reels, a format copied from TikTok that arrived on Instagram in 2020. It recorded a growth of 282%, indicating that brands have embraced short videos. Although the reach of reels is still double that of feed posts, it did experience a reduction of up to 76% compared to the previous year.

The reason is related to the competition in this attention market. With a higher number of Reels, the reach is lower. It used to be easier to reach more people, but those with more reach remain the same.

Using all the content formats that this social network offers according to the goals you want to achieve is what's important.

How to use each format?

Reels allow you to reach a cold audience, meaning people who are not yet familiar with the account. Compared to the previous year, the number of feed posts has decreased, while the number of Reels has increased on all accounts of all sizes.

Slides help generate more interactions with the community, with a 17% greater reach than single images. However, out of every 10 posts published, 5.3 are individual images and 2.4 are carousels.

Stories are important for maintaining engagement with the most loyal followers and work even better on accounts with fewer followers.

One thing to keep in mind is that reach and interactions are correlated, as posts with greater reach also have more interactions. Furthermore, there is a clear trend: the more followers an account has, the higher the posting frequency in stories, reels, and feed posts.

The best days to publish are Monday and Thursday. As for the hours, 8 PM and 3 PM, including the weekend, are recommended. However, after 10 PM, connections decrease, and 5 AM would be the worst time to publish.