Top 25 Brands on Instagram

by Jason Keath on Jan 23, 2013

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Last week a long awaited press page update revealed that Instagram now has 90 million monthly active users.

As the platform continues to grow at a rapid pace, advertising options can’t be far behind. Especially with the backing of public and revenue hungry Facebook.

The high active number is good for businesses interested in Instagram. Their growth is still steady and users do not seem to be lossing interest. Ads would be a bonus, but even without ads, several brands have seen fit to invest heavily in Instagram as a branding platform.

Instagram web profiles also launched in November 2012, making it easier for businesses of all sizes to promote their Instagram presence.

It turns out at least 4 brands have already accumulated 1 million Instagram followers to date. And at least 29 brands have over 100,000 followers on the platform.

The top brands on Instagram are still dominated by fashion, retail and media brands. Some less typical brand types include Starbucks, Audi, the Boston Celtics, and General Electric.

Here are the current top 25 brands on Instagram and their follower counts, and a few extras listed below. Special thanks to Simply Measured for their help on some of these Instagram metrics.

1. Victoria’s Secret

1,363,468 followers

1victoriassecret

2. MTV

1,125,591 followers

2mtv

3. Starbucks

1,061,665 followers

3starbucks

4. Eonline

1,061,837 followers

4eonline

5. Nike

838,177 followers

5nike

6. Forever21

673,560 followers

6forever21

7. Burberry

651,199 followers

7burberry

8. Redbull

536,320 followers

8redbull

9. Top Shop

518,466 followers

9topshop

10. asos

468,706 followers

10asos

11. H&M

456,614 followers

11hm

12. Adidas (Adidas Originals)

393,282 followers

12adidasoriginals

13. Billboard

362,910 followers

13billboard

14. Boston Celtics

357,397 followers

14celtics

15. Tiffany

347,071 followers

15tiffanyandco

16. Gucci

341,935 followers

16gucci

17. NBC News

311,366 followers

17nbcnews

18. Audi

292,587 followers

18audi

19. Today Show

292,061 followers

19todayshow

20. Playboy

289,389 followers

20playboy

21. NPR

237,240 followers

21npr

22. CNN iReport

223,121 followers

22cnnireport

23. Bergdorfs

158,572 followers

23bergdorfs

24. General Electric

134,239 followers

24generalelectric

25. The Onion

132,064 followers

25theonion

And a few brands knocking on the door:

Coach 121,568 followers
Good Morning America 120,950 followers
Ralph Lauren 112,374 followers
Adidas 109,793 followers
Gap 77,683 followers
Armani 73,874 followers
The North Face 63,932
Mercedes 56,473 followers
Sharpie 52,647 followers
Puma 47,738 followers
Mashable 46,379 followers
Levi’s 43,284 followers
American Express 25,823 followers

—-

If you know of any brands that we are missing, please add them in the comments with a link to their profile.

Post Author

Jason Keath

CEO and founder of Social Fresh, the social media education company. Jason is a social media consultant, a social media speaker and industry analyst. He consults with corporations and agencies on social media strategy, building community, and influencer... View Full Profile →

http://socialfreshacademy.com/ Jason Keath

There is no catch all tracking of Instagram brands yet. The big sites that track other social networks have not pulled the trigger on Instagram, but we hope that changes soon.

Because of that, this list is certainly missing a few brands. Help us out by adding them in the comments so we can keep tracking.

Here are a few that folks have already pointed out:

Converse: 235k followers
http://instagram.com/converse

The Food Network: 135k followers
http://instagram.com/foodnetwork

Johnnie Walker: 25k followers
http://instagram.com/johnniewalker
http://twitter.com/pkb0001AU Tricia B

There aren’t necessarily “tricks of the trade” when it comes to having a substantial online presence, but it’s becoming more and more obvious that online presence can turn into an online brand. Universities are realizing that through social media and higher education, an online brand can drastically change their perception to next generation students. We took a dip in that pool with our blog this week at @VergePipe_Media : http://vergepipemedia.com/blog/why-so-serious-levity-v-brand-politics/
http://twitter.com/ThibautDavoult Thibaut Davoult

Hi Jason. I manage the community and content at http://nitrogr.am (that you can use to track activity on Instagram, including top brands)

I’m currently working on a list of the most popular brands on Instagram. Let me fill in for the biggest ones you missed:

The Ellen Show: 1,150K
http://instagram.com/theellenshow

Louboutin: 882K
http://instagram.com/louboutinworld

National Geographic: 843K
http://instagram.com/natgeo

Peace & fireworks!
http://socialfreshacademy.com/ Jason Keath

Awesome info @davoult:disqus. Thanks for the additions and the resource.
http://socialfreshacademy.com/ Jason Keath

Another interesting addition…

NiceNicks.com: 400k+ followers
http://instagram.com/nicekicks
anon

rolling stone is up there: http://instagram.com/rollingstone
Fabio Lalli

I’m a coFounder of Followgram. We have 64 brands (example D&G, Armani and much more) that use our platform to engage the users, to create reports, analitycs and stats, to comunicate with followers, for content curation, contests and pages http://followgram.me/brand/
http://adsie.me/ Luke Miler

Hey Jason, nice listing.

I could also add those two I think are doing nice job with the platform:

Skullcandy: 52k followers
http://instagram.com/skullcandy

Heath Ceramics: 20k followers
http://instagram.com/heathceramics
http://twitter.com/sbh sbh

VH1 has 120K followers >> http://instagram.com/vh1
http://twitter.com/sbh sbh

Hi, i run social for VH1, we’re up there too! http://instagram.com/vh1
http://socialfreshacademy.com/ Jason Keath

Thanks @twitter-18827936:disqus. If you are interested, we would love to interview you for the site. Shoot me an email if so…

jason@socialfresh.com
http://socialfreshacademy.com/ Jason Keath

Awesome stuff. Thanks.
Ashley

Men’s Health magazine -> 64k
http://socialfreshacademy.com/ Jason Keath

gracias @ce403532a7262ae2be36af3b67ad6745:disqus
http://gregramsaran.com Greg

National Geographic, 849k followers

http://instagram.com/natgeo

ah, I see it below in the comments, but it’s worth another comment b/c they have such great pictures.
http://www.nicekicks.com Nice Kicks

Thanks for listing us here. It’s too bad there isnt a site that lets one see the biggest brands on Instagram. It must have taken a TON of time to research this piece.
http://twitter.com/Aaron_Carrera Aaron Carrera

SURFER Magazine. Have almost 200K followers and Mashable did a feature about their success. http://mashable.com/2012/10/12/surfing-instagram/
http://socialfreshacademy.com/ Jason Keath

It did indeed. We outsource most of our research these days, thankfully. =)
Guest

Every red blooded American Male should follow @Playboy with a shade under 300K followers.
http://twitter.com/ThibautDavoult Thibaut Davoult

We’re working on such a page with Nitrogram at the moment. We’ll release it in less than 2 weeks
http://twitter.com/Social_Citizen Ashley K. Edwards

So this is based on number of followers, then, and not necessarily content? One of my favorite brands to follow on Instagram is Sharpie. They’re quire creative!
Christian

Great post. I love what shipping company Maersk Line is doing. So surprising for a ‘boring’ B2B company. 23K followers. Think they got on IGs suggested users list recently. http://instagram.com/maerskline
Christian

Oh, think you forgot Southwest Airlines: http://instagram.com/southwestair -> 52K
http://twitter.com/JHKrak Josh Krakauer

Interesting note that a large majority of this content is professionally shot (or shopped), then sent through Instagram.
JC

Free People is doing great: 511,316 http://instagram.com/freepeople
http://twitter.com/reidsplace Reid Schilperoort

Worked on Beats by Dre’s Instagram presence for a while. They’re almost to 320,000 followers.
http://twitter.com/reidsplace Reid Schilperoort

I worked on the Beats by Dre Instagram presence for quite a while. I believe they’re up to almost 320,000 followers at this point.
http://twitter.com/Ladymenga Rhonda Hughes

Any examples of B2B brands?
Tiffany Harrelson

Anyone interested in health and fitness should follow @VitaminShoppe. They don’t have as many followers as most of the brands on this list, but their content strategy is solid. It looks like they have lots of custom content created just for Instagram, as opposed to content regurgitated from other social platforms like we normally see.

Social Fresh