instagram, the picture and video-centric social media site, boasts a community of more than 400 million users globally. according to instagram, there are also more than 80 million photos uploaded each day. those photos also receive more than 3.5 billion “likes” on a daily basis. how does this translate for a small business trying to market themselves on social media?

while there’s a slew of heavy hitters in the social media sphere, when it comes to garnering customer engagement, instagram comes out on top, and by a landslide. according to forrester research, the consumer-business engagement rate on six of seven social networks (facebook and twitter included) resulted in less than 0.1 percent. instagram’s consumer-brand engagement rate? 4.21 percent!

“that means instagram delivered these brands 58 times more engagement per follower than facebook and 120 times more engagement per follower than twitter,” stated analyst nate elliott on forrester’s blog.

amid consistent algorithm changes, businesses have to work doubly hard to be seen or heard on social media, none-the-less garner engagement in the form of followers and likes. however, due to instagram’s proof as a consumer engagement powerhouse, the opportunity to garner sales from instagram also has potential.

download our free retail customer loyalty success guide to learn how to drive customers back 2x more.

how does a small business snag sales from instagram? buffer and madefreshly put together this handy infographic highlighting instagram statistics, data, insight and advice for maintaining a sales-generating instagram account. highlights include the following:

• 78% of consumers make purchases based on business’ social media accounts
• 70% of users look up brands on instagram and 62% follow brands they like on instagram
• 41% of consumers follow a brand on instagram for perks and rewards
• 67% of consumers say detailed images strongly influence their purchase decision
• peak interactions on instagram occur between 8-9 pm
• images with more light result in 24% more likes
• engagement decreases on instagram if there are more than 5 hashtags

read on to discover instagram marketing best practices:

have you garnered much business or even sales as a business on instagram? we’d love to know how this social media site is working for you compared to say, facebook or twitter. feel free to add your comments below.