Kombucha on Instagram

Our recent post listed the Top 20 kombucha companies with active accounts on Twitter.

Twitter was a dominant force in the social media marketing world three years ago. But things have changed.

As of that June 2018, Instagram had reached 1 billion monthly active users, up from 800 million in September 2ß17. The app is one of the most popular social networks worldwide. This is over three times the 326 million monthly active users on Twitter.

The numbers for Kombucha brewers certainly support this.

Top 20 Instagram Accounts

Followers

It’s obvious that Instagram is a far more active platform for Kombucha companies than Twitter. Companies have at least ten times more followers on Instagram.

Some companies attract many times the number of followers for much less effort. Health-Ade has a mere 4,670 Twitter followers vs. 116,000 on Instagram. They’ve posted over 6,000 tweets, but only 2,000 Instagram pictures.

Market leader GTs achieved a stunning 136k followers with only 1,000+posts.

Winners and Losers

A dozen companies listed in the Twitter top 20 don’t make the cut when it comes to Instagram. There are 10 Instagramers who are not in the Twitter list. This might be the result of a deliberate decision. Or it might point to a mis-allocation of limited marketing resources into Twitter when they’d better focus on Instagram.

Take a look at Canadian Tonica Kombucha. They’ve posted over 8,000 tweets (more than any other company) to attract just under 4,000 followers. With just over 1,000 Instagram posts they attract just over twice the number of Twitter followers — not the 10x industry average. Compare this to Holy Kombucha with a similar number of posts and 10,000+ followers.

Advantages and Disadvantageous

Instagram allows you to create great content quickly and easily, You can share lots and lots of pics, it’s also having lots of interesting filters and settings that you may use to edit the pictures as to your requirements instantly. Instagram has the most engaged users of any social network. Instagram focuses on keeping users glued to the app while they’re browsing with little to no distractions. There are no clickable links in the captions or ads to external sites when scrolling through a feed. By excluding unnecessary features, Instagram is able to keep consumers focused on the content that’s being posted, which is a huge advantage for your company.

Twitter is great for engaging with your audience and even providing customer support. Latching onto trending topics gives your business a chance to be seen by Twitter users from around the world as key influencers RT your posts. However, Twitter is much more ‘noisy’ with links to videos, external web pages and so on. Twitter moves so quickly, the lifespan of your Tweets can drastically vary depending on how many other users your followers are following. The advantage of this is you can drive engagement outside of the social network by getting people to Tweet links to content on your website and other platforms.

The bottom line is that Instagram provides a simpler way to reach your consumers compared to Twitter.

#kombucha

What’s true for companies holds true for consumers. A report on the use of the hashtag #kombucha on the two platforms over the past 30 days shows that there’s just 10% of the activity on Twitter there is on Instagram.

Indeed, there’s well over a million posts on Instagram flagged #kombucha

Unfortunately there’s a long way to go before matching the 56 million on beer or 43 million on wine!

Customer interaction

It’s far easier to engage with customers on Instagram than either on Twitter or via Blogs.

GTs boost their #LivingInGratitude campaign with posts that attract hundreds of Likes and dozens of comments.

Health-Ade announce seasonal flavors with animated GIF posts. Again, customers are quick to comment.

Creative Instagram

I have to say, as with Twitter, there’s an awful lot of hackneyed pix of bright young things enjoying kombucha in all kinds of scenic settings. I’m reminded of the auto ads which seem to feature cars in the wilderness, rarely stuck in traffic. How many of us drink our booch on the beach, by the pool or on a mountain top as a matter of course?

However, it’s not all soft-focus babes in the woods.  Here’s some of the creative Instagram posts that caught my eye.

Jarr Kombucha showcase their brewery.

Over in Spain, Komvida shares the news that they are featured in a publication.

Meanwhile, in Québec, Rise Kombucha celebrate their role in supporting extreme sports.

Holy Kombucha took a picture at the Texas Veggie Fair.

Cove Kombucha kicks off a Halloween themed contest.

That’s all for Instagram. Next up, a review of Kombucha companies Facebook pages.