After the publication of our 2018 Instagram Rich List, the world was amazed to learn just how much money celebrities and influencers can make from sponsored posts and paid partnerships on Instagram.

Jack and Dani, the nation’s sweethearts, won the £50,000 prize money with a staggering 79.6% of the public votes, but are expected to make far more than that from their Instagram accounts alone now that they’re back on U.K soil.

Elle Cuthbert-Edkins, our Customer Success Manager here at Hopper HQ, was invited by the BBC to speak on Radio 5 Live and BBC Breakfast about the current state of influencer marketing on Instagram, and how this year’s islanders will be able to maximise the opportunities.

With 3.6 million people watching the Love Island final on Monday night, it’s safe to say this year’s season took the world by storm. This is why all the Islanders make for perfect Instagram influencers. As Elle said on BBC Breakfast, “we’ve been glued to our screens for two months watching these people, and we feel like we know them”. The beauty of influencer marketing is that it’s authentic. Finding brand ambassadors to genuinely recommend products that they would use themselves to their engaged followers is — as Elle puts it — “like getting your customers to sell to your customers”. It’s no wonder that brands as huge as H&M, BMW and American Express are utilising influencers with huge followings on Instagram.

The big question: ‘how much can the Love Islanders earn from 1 Instagram post?’ depends on a variety of factors. Firstly, how many followers the account has. Secondly, how engaged that following is. Elle explains that “typically we’re seeing brands work exclusively with influencers who have a 10-20% engagement rate”, ensuring that the followers are truly interested in what the influencer is posting.

Engagement rate = no. of likes and comments ÷ no. of followers

“More and more brands and agencies are charging by 100,000 followers”, Elle tells the BBC. This price per post figure also varies depending on industry, such as fashion, beauty and fitness. For example, the beauty industry charges on average £162 per 100,000 followers. When you bear in mind that Dani Dyer already has 2.4 million followers on her Instagram account (after winning the final 2 days ago), you can see she’s looking at earning thousands of pounds for a single post.

Influencer marketing has had its fair share of criticism in recent years. Consumers have felt misled as a result of being unaware influencers were getting paid to recommend certain products. This has led to a huge push for transparency among influencers. Hashtags such as #ad and #spon have become standard in a paid post caption, in order to distinguish the sponsorship deals from ‘genuine’ recommendations. Instagram also created their official ‘Paid partnership’ tag, which sits above a post to inform users that a brand is collaborating with that influencer.

At Hopper HQ we work with hundreds of influencers all over the world, and always encourage them to only accept partnerships with brands and products they truly like and would use themselves. False promotion eventually becomes obvious, meaning the influence the person actually has shrinks. Elle spoke to Steph McGovern about “ad blindness” – the fact that we click ‘Skip Ad’ on YouTube the second it becomes available, and even pay to not be sold to with services like Spotify Premium. As consumers we’re becoming more and more savvy when it comes to advertising, and it’s no different with influencers.

       
Montana Brown and Chris Hughes from Love Island 2017 are still making a huge amount of money from Instagram, having left the villa over a year ago. 

It’s a delicate fine line: keeping genuine interaction with followers and also making money from sponsored posts. This is why almost all of the 2018 Love Island contestants have already been snapped up by talent and influencer agencies, who will manage their campaigns and the relationships with brands. Many of the islanders were working as influencers before they entered the villa, having built up a loyal following on Instagram. However, for some, such as winner Jack Fincham, they’ve returned to a whole new life with no experience of monetising an Instagram account.

With Love Islanders from years gone by still partnering with brands and even launching their own lines of clothing and businesses, we can see that the Love Island effect does not wear off fast. We’re excited to see where this year’s contestants will go, with the influencer marketing space estimated to be worth $5 – $10 billion by 2020.

Who knows, Dani Dyer may make next year’s Instagram Rich List!

Watch the full interview on BBC Breakfast here:

What are your thoughts on the Love Island phenomenon and the amount of money the stars have the potential to make? Let us know in the comments!

The post How Much Can The 2018 Love Island Stars Make From Instagram? appeared first on Hopper HQ.

But just how much are some of the top Instagram stars making from these posts?

For the second year running, we have produced the official Instagram Rich List! Based on internal Hopper HQ data, influencer rate cards and public information, you can now find who’s raking in the most cash through Instagram.

We can confirm that the top 10 highest paid celebs and influencers on Instagram in 2018 are…

#1 Kylie Jenner

 110 million followers
 $1,000,000 per post

#2 Selena Gomez

 138 million followers
 $800,000 per post

#3 Cristiano Ronaldo

 133 million followers
 $750,000 per post

#4 Kim Kardashian

 113 million followers
 $720,000 per post

#5 Beyonce Knowles

 115 million followers
 $700,000 per post

#6 Dwayne Johnson

 109 million followers
 $650,000 per post

#7 Justin Bieber

 100 million followers
 $630,000 per post

#8 Neymar de Silva Santos Junior

 101 million followers
 $600,000 per post

#9 Lionel Messi

 95.3 million followers
 $500,000 per post

#10 Kendall Jenner

 92.4 million followers
 $500,000 per post

Simple Post, Story + Reel Scheduling

Visually plan your social content. Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn + Pinterest

Try Hopper HQ Now

Kylie has knocked Selena off the top spot since last year! When charging up to a million dollars per Instagram post, you can see why she was recently named in Forbes’ list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women.

Hopper HQ Co-Founder Mike Bandar commented:

“Social media marketing has grown so much within the last year, and a tool that continues to yield results for brands is celebrity and influencer social endorsements. It’s truly amazing what influence these professionals have over their audience, and in terms of sales and exposure many of their clients claim that they’re worth every penny.” 

“I’m not surprised that Kylie Jenner has topped this year’s list, as far as social media marketing goes, she has it down to a tee. Kylie was introduced to the public through her family’s reality show, but she has forged her own billion-dollar career and harnessed the power of Instagram to build a global, loyal, engaged following that brands are willing to pay top dollar for!”

We have now updated the Rich List with 2019’s data! Click here for the full 2019 Instagram Rich List.

The post The 2018 Instagram Rich List – Who Earns The Most From Social Media? appeared first on Hopper HQ.

Apple held their annual conference WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) this week, where all new iOS 12 features were displayed and unveiled to developers from across the world. Amongst the huge list of updates and developments for Apple users, 2 look like they will cause a stir in the social media world.

Back in September, Apple announced the arrival of animoji, a fun feature allowing your camera to read the muscles in your face and then animate your expressions on an emoji. These animated emojis are similar to the face lenses on Snapchat and Instagram, giving users an amusing way to share messages with friends.

Now this feature has been taken to the next level, with Tim Cook announcing the ability to make an emoji in your own likeness: a memoji.

The ability to edit facial features including skin tone, freckles, hair style, colour and so on lets users create their own avatars which will respond to their facial expressions. Due to the popularity of Bitmoji on Snapchat, memoji shows Apple stepping into this space to directly compete. These avatars will bridge the gap between static Bitmoji stickers and the facial filters we have all come to love.

A further new feature which will directly compete with Snapchat is the arrival of group Facetime. It was announced that group video calls of up to 32 people will be possible on Facetime in iOS 12. With Snapchat having recently launched a similar feature — albeit with only up to 16 people — this Apple update could rock the boat.

Finally, use of animoji and memoji will be possible during video calls on Facetime, allowing users to change their faces and speak through their own avatar, or one of the many animals available.

These updates mark an interesting move from Apple, who are continuing to incorporate big social media trends into their native iOS. Whether or not these additions will steer users from platforms like Snapchat and Instagram is unclear. As fun as the new features are, if they can’t be shared on social media, are they as valuable?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter @Hopper_HQ

You can watch the best bits of WWDC here:

The post Apple Step Up Their Game By Announcing Group Facetime And Memojis appeared first on Hopper HQ.

Allowing users to upload and publish content up to an hour long will open up the doors for creatives to introduce new types of content to the platform, and could see Instagram competing with the likes of YouTube for video content. This does’t come as much of a surprise as Instagram’s parent company Facebook have been making big pushes for video content in recent years.  Instagram have reportedly had discussions “in recent weeks” with video publishes and content creators regarding the potential of long video content on the platform.

Instagram are always trialling and beta testing new features, however many of don’t get released for all users, like the Grid Preview feature was was reportedly being beta tested. As The Wall Street Journal described plans for the feature are “tentative” and “subject to change”.

The post Instagram Considering Hour Long Video Posts appeared first on Hopper HQ.

Facebook have released a short film, ‘Facing Facts’, which offers a behind the scenes view into the challenges faced by the ‘News Feed Integrity’ team, and the actions they are taking to combat misinformation on the platform. With complex matters such as free speech, truth, subjectivity, bias and responsibility arising in this debate, it is clear why Facebook have made this documentary to communicate their thought processes to the world. You can watch the 12 minute film here.

Hegeman also announced their most recent ‘news literacy campaign’, which is a support tool appearing at the top of the News Feed to help Facebook users detect fake news. This campaign will also provide individuals with more information of Facebook’s actions to prevent misleading information spreading across the site.

The final update outlined in Hegeman’s announcement was the way in which they are measuring misinformation. With in depth research taking place by both humans and computers, Facebook are looking to truly understand the platform’s impact when it comes to current affairs, particularly politics. A peer review is therefore underway in order to measure ‘the volume and effects of misinformation on Facebook’.

Last week Facebook also announced that all political ads on the social network will forthwith be labelled as such. Facebook promised to make this change to avoid another situation like the one arising in the 2016 Presidential Elections, where fake Russian ads intended to divid US voters reached almost 150 million people. All future political posts and ads on Facebook will be thoroughly verified and then made clear to users who has paid to promote the content.

These updates demonstrate Facebook’s aim for transparency on the platform, and are timed well with privacy policy updates and a sterner eye than ever on what social media companies can do with their users’ data. After huge amounts of recent scrutiny, by allowing us an insight into their processes and giving us a glimpse of the humans behind the news feed, Facebook appear to be practising an ingenuous strategy going forward.

While this feels like a step in the right direction, the problem of fake news and human influence is a colossal one. Can Facebook possibly win their fight against misinformation?

The post Facebook Tightens Up On Fake News And Misleading Information appeared first on Hopper HQ.

While Instagram started out as a place to keep up with friends, Pinterest has always been more about finding lifestyle inspiration. This has resulted in their users going to the app to plan their future purchases. The very act of pinning things for an occasion or event — 30th Birthday Party, New Kitchen, First Child etc — means adverts can be well targeted to users with almost definite purchase intent. Pinterest carried out their own research on user shopping behaviour to confirm these assumptions, surveying over 4000 people who use the platform weekly. The results of this (displayed in the below infographic) show that Pinterest’s user-base are highly intent shoppers, with 90% saying they use the platform to make purchasing decisions.

Back in March Pinterest expanded their Shopping Ads to hundreds of new businesses, as well their in-app shoppable posts. This positioning creates huge opportunities for brands and users, and shifts Pinterest’s status from a social media mood board to a curated shopping basket.

One of their early Shopping Ad partners, Venus Fashion, said of the platform:

“We see Pinterest as both a source of inspiration for future buying decisions as well as a shopping trigger. It’s critical that we continuously balance the need to be an inspirational style guide to women, while making sure our brand is the first thing they see when their shopping intent is the strongest.”

This harmony between ‘inspiration’ and ‘sales’ sets Pinterest apart from similar platforms, giving them a unique stand-point in the ever-growing world of shoppable posts. With visual search features such as Pinterest Lens and ‘Shop The Look’, Pinterest make it incredibly easy for users to find things they are likely to want to buy. For example, when clicking on this photo of a living room layout on my Pinterest feed, I can highlight the leaf print on the bookshelf and the app will instantly show me the link to go and buy it:

Pinterest reported that users carry out more than 600 million visual searches every month using this Lens feature, and they only released it just over a year ago. This has huge potential to keep developing with modern technology, and it doesn’t look like the platform are slowing down with their new releases.

Though they might not have the reach numbers of the social media giants like Facebook and Instagram, it’s proven that when Pinterests users are on the app they are looking to buy. Their growth rates of users have also recently exceeded Twitter AND Snapchat, gaining 25m new users every 4 months. So when considering social media budget spend, Pinterest should certainly not be overlooked, particularly for those selling to consumers.

Do you include Pinterest in your social media strategy? Let us know in the comments!

The post Pinterest Sees Huge Growth As More Businesses Start Advertising On The Platform appeared first on Hopper HQ.

We’re all guilty of spending countless minutes endlessly scrolling through our Instagram feeds, well soon you’ll be able to monitor those minutes and see exactly how much time you’re spending in the app. Code hidden within the Instagram android APK revealed a new feature titled “Usage Insights” which will show users how much time they’re spending in the app.

The feature was discovered by @wongmjane and shared via Twitter

Instagram is testing “Usage Insights” to show the amount of time users have spent on the app

Be self-aware or be prepared to be ashamed for Instagram addiction pic.twitter.com/WzyRGWIOgZ

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) May 15, 2018

The new Instagram Insights feature was later confirmed by Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom via Twitter with the following words:

“We’re building tools that will help the IG community know more about the time they spend on Instagram – any time should be positive and intentional.”

The screenshot above discovered by Jane, also shows a new hamburger icon menu (yet to be confirmed), which also contains a users Saved & Archived posts, as well as a link to “Discover People”.

There has been much talk around the impact apps such as Instagram have on mental health, with several studies suggesting social media having an overall negative effect on mental health. Introduction of features such as Usage Insights could be a reaction from Instagram to help tackle concerns surrounding user behaviour and mental health on the platform. Interestingly last week Google also announced a similar new feature in their latest Android operating system update, which will allow android users to take control over which apps they spend the most time.

Image Credit: The Verge

No official date has been given for the release of the new Usage Insights feature, and we’re still unsure how the information will be presented. However chances are the update will roll out soon, considering it has been confirmed Kevin Systrom on Twitter.

The post Instagram To Introduce Usage Insights To Reveal Time Spent In App appeared first on Hopper HQ.

Just this week Instagram have launched a brand new feature into their app that will change your selfies forever! Instagram launched Focus mode this week, a new feature on the Instagram camera which imitates a bokeh style photo, similar to the Portrait mode found on the iPhone.  So now you can show off your selfies with a blurred background effect that all the professionals seem to have!

via GIPHY

How-To-Use Focus Mode

To access the new feature, swipe right from the home feed to open the camera, then continue swiping to find the Focus mode along the bottom. At the moment Focus mode seems to only appear with Faces and is only available on a few phones, including the latest iPhones and Android devices.

The post New Focus Mode On Instagram! appeared first on Hopper HQ.

We compared PR agencies using a number of different factors, including engagement rates and follower growth to determine which agency was performing the best on Instagram, and the results were quite astonishing. Most people within the PR and marketing sphere will know that Edelman is one of, if not the, biggest PR agency in the UK – however, surprisingly, our research put Purple PR and Exposure London at the top of the list, ahead of PR agency giants Edelman and Ketchum.

Purple PR had the highest number of followers by some margin, as well as gaining more than 7,277 likes over the last 30 days. Exposure London gained 2,572 likes during this period, whilst Edelman received just 437 likes. Ketchum, who sit at fourth on the list, received 1,143 likes in the last month.

Of the top five, W Communications came out on top in terms of engagement rate, with 2.45%, followed by Exposure London with 1.18% and Ketchum 0.64%. Purple PR was ranked fourth with a rate of 0.42%, and Edelman was surprisingly the lowest from the top five with an engagement rate of just 0.04%.

Getting hight engagement rates is increasingly important on social media, especially with Instagram’s frequent algorithm changes. Engagement rates give you a true measure of how your followers are reacting to your content. You could have thousands of followers, but if the content your posting isn’t right for them, you’ll lose favour. Engagement gives you an idea of the percentage of your followers who are actually switched on to the content you’re posting. Purple PR, for instance, has a very defined audience, posting regularly about fashion and celebrities, whereas Edelman tend to post solely about work related topics.

An important insight we can draw from our research, (and one that is off-repeated) is having a defined and pre-determined target audience, and created your content based around them is key to running a successful social media account – something which Purple PR have clearly been doing very well.

The research was conducted between the 24th December to the 23rd January using the Hopper HQ Instagram Analytics Tool, on 50 of the UK’s highest revenue PR agencies, using our new Instagram analytics tool, which is currently being rolled out across Hopper HQ!

Simple Post, Story + Reel Scheduling

Visually plan your social content. Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn + Pinterest

Try Hopper HQ Now

Here are the top 50 UK PR agencies on Instagram:

1) Purple PR
2) Exposure London
3) Edelman
4) Ketchum
5) W Communications
6) Weber Shandwick
7) Iris Worldwide
8) Burson-Marsteller
9) M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment
10) Hope & Glory
11) M&C Satchi PR
12) Pretty Green
13) 3 Monkeys Zeno
14) Instinctif Partners
15) TVC Group
16) MSL Group
17) Ogilvy UK
18) Golin
19) Hill+Knowlton Strategies
20) Frank
21) Good Relations
22) Porter Novelli
23) FleishmanHillard Fishburn
24) HSE Cake
25) Freuds
26) Hotwire
27) Pegasus
28) Team Spirit Group
29) PHA Media – Update: No Longer Active
30) APCO Worldwide
31) Brands2Life
32) Hanover
33) Finsbury Global
34) Text 100
35) Axon Communications
36) MHP Communications
37) Grayling RP
38) Smarts Communicate
39) City Press
40) Premier
41) Four Communications Group
42) Media Zoo
43) W20 Group
44) Teneo Blue Rubicon
45) Brunswick
46) Octopus Group
47) Cohn & Wolfe
48) Headland
49) Newgate Communications
50) Cicero

Hopper HQ co-founder, Mike Bandar, said,

“PR agencies pride themselves on their ability to get in front of an audience and their creative flair– so it’s interesting to see how they perform on Instagram, which shares many of the elements that make a PR agency great; creativity, reach, impressions etc.”

“Edelman is widely considered the biggest PR and social media agency in the UK and it was surprising to see that both Purple PR and Exposure London trumped them. I think the rise of Instagram over the last few years has forced PR pros to evolve with the social media terrain – however, it’s clear that in some cases, more time is spent on their client’s social feeds than their own.”

The post Top 50 PR Agencies On Instagram in 2024 appeared first on Hopper HQ.

High street fashion retailer H&M have come under fire for a product advertisement featuring a hoodie with the slogan “Coolest monkey in the jungle” modelled by a black child. The advert sparked huge backlash on social media, with many labelling the advert as racist, inappropriate and distasteful.

The social media outrage snowballed and caught headline news very quickly, garnering criticism from consumers, industry experts and celebrities, most notably chart topping musicians The Weeknd and G-Eazy expressed distaste towards the advertisement via social media, with both musicians cancelling their partnerships with the fashion brand.

Facing much pressure H&M issued a statement via their Instagram account-@hm apologising for the decision surrounding the product advertisement and accepting responsibility for the oversight, followed by another apology the following day, reiterating their stance on the issues, and apologising again. Since then, the product which originally appeared on their UK site, has been removed.

‘Lapse in judgement or obvious ignorance’

Besides the lapse in judgement or obvious ignorance from H&M, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen egalitarian consumers take to Twitter & Instagram to voice their dissent against a multinational company. We’re again reminded of a more broader theme; the power of social media as a vessel of influence.

Interestingly, rather than an official press release or press conference, H&M chose to address the issue and apologise via their Instagram account.  Their intent may have been to dilute the situation using the same channels that escalated the uproar, however after analysing the Instagram post using Hopper HQ’s analytics tool I discovered a rather interesting byproduct of this whole debacle.

Data from Hopper HQ’s analytics tool shows the original apology note posted by H&M on their Instagram account has amassed over 311k likes and 62k comments, giving the post the highest engagement across all of their posts with an official engagement rate of 1.55%, ranking it as the top post ever published to by H&M.

Engagement rate = (Likes+Comments/Followers)

(Data from Hopper HQ Analytics Tool)

The second apology note posted by H&M also got a significant amount of likes and comments (229k likes and 41k comments), again ranking it with H&Ms all time top posts with an engagement rate of 1.12%. Among other highly engaged posts on the account was a product advertisement with an engagement rate of 1.21%, posted a day before the apology note, this potentially suggests the engagement on the apology note had a correlating affect on the product advertisement post. H&M haven’t posted anything on Instagram since and despite all of the negative press, H&M attained more followers, with a follower growth of over 44k (at the time of writing this article).

Could this be a silver lining for H&M? A typed up apology note receiving the highest engagement rate against high quality content is quite the feat, even at the expense of a PR catastrophe. However, before any other brands reading this decide to take a leaf out of H&M’s marketing misdemeanor to capitalise on social media gains, we must raise this impending question…

If we draw a parallel… a hot topic for debate in the PR industry circles around the question “Is all publicity good publicity?” Similarly in the millennial age of social media, a question we must ask ourselves as social media marketers; are engagement rates always positive? In this specific instance, scanning over the comments on H&M’s post, we can see that the sentiments are mostly negative with few people defending the fashion retailer. Social media marketers and agencies have always used engagement rates as a positive indication of performance, and well rightly so, I mean the more likes and comments you receive the better you’re performing right? Well I guess not anymore, especially for the poor individual presenting social media KPI’s at H&M’s next marketing meeting.

Simple Post, Story + Reel Scheduling

Visually plan your social content. Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn + Pinterest

Try Hopper HQ Now

The post H&M’s Marketing Blunder Causes Highest Engaged Post On Instagram appeared first on Hopper HQ.