When Twitter cut off Instagram from its API there were questions about the effect the move would have on Twitter. As it turns out the shutdown hurt Twitter’s quarter-over-quarter engagement per photo fell, while Instagram’s own engagement increased by 30 percent.
While Twitter has put a lot of stock in the Twitter Cards system, specifically Twitter Photo Cards, it turns out that most users would rather click on a link to view Instagram photos.
The team at Column Five visualized the entire shift from Twitter to Instagram in a new infographic. Column Five worked with Simply Measured in February 2013 to determine the shift caused by the Twitter shut down of Instagram.
What Column Five and Simply Measured discovered was that engagement with brands since that time has grown by 35% on Instagram while brand follower count grew by 41%.
They also offer some helpful tips for tracking your social media photo sharing, for example, use Instagram for photo sharing on Facebook to increase engagement.
If you want to increase Twitter engagement you need to upload pictures directly to the Twitter photo sharing system and not through Instagram.
Here is the full infographic:
