National Geographic’s picturesque journey to Instagram juggernaut

But according to social media tracker NewsWhip, it had the second-biggest engaged page in June, with more than 131 million likes and comments, putting it comfortably ahead of megastars Kylie Jenner, Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift. (number one was humour publisher 9Gag, with more than 171 million likes and comments in June.)

National Geographic achieves these huge numbers in large part by giving its 90 photographers and freelancers the password to the account. They use it to post photos they’re taking while on assignment or just from their everyday lives, giving each other at least an hour between posts. “People don’t hog,” said Declan Moore, chief media officer at National Geographic. “It’s an amazing group with mutual respect. It’s self regulating.”

The posts regularly get hundreds of thousands of likes and thousands of comments — a testimony to the fact that the brand’s famous nature photography is tailor-made for a visual platform like Instagram. Also, as it is for all Instagram accounts, there are limited ways users can interact on Instagram. Unlike Facebook, you can’t share posts, and your likes don’t show up in other people’s feeds, so there’s no disincentive to hitting the like button over and over.

The account gives National Geographic a way to reach a wider audience beyond that of its monthly magazine or other media properties, on a platform that’s popular with millennials, Moore said. And while National Geographic doesn’t see the account as delivering tangible benefits, it could help the nonprofit drive new memberships.

For a more direct monetary benefit, National Geographic is looking to its Travel, Adventure and My Shot accounts to support larger ad campaigns. Here’s an example of a post Nat Geo did for Visit Florida.

Source: Digiday

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