Following Celebs on Instagram

In this era of digital society, social media has become more than just a tool or platform that enables its users to share their every-day life. It has become the spectacles of the society, particularly Instagram, which is widely used by celebrities around the globe, both personally and professionally. Regarding to this phenomenon, recently Jakpat has conducted a survey in order to see Indonesian Instagram users’ preferences and habit in following celebrities’ account. This survey involved 313 Indonesian Instagram users in a range of age from 17 to 37 year-old. Those respondents are currently living in 10 big cities of Indonesia, including Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Surabaya, Medan, Makassar, Bali, Lombok, and Yogyakarta.

First of all, we found that there are many Indonesian users (68%) who follow celebrities’ personal account on Instagram. Apparently, 25% of them have joined Instagram since 2014, while 22% of them have joined since 2015, and 21% of them have already had Instagram account since 2013. Furthermore, regarding to which kind of celebrities they follow on Instagram, the most popular choice is actor (78%), with singer and/or musician as the second most popular choice (72%). There are also some users who choose model (38%), comedian (27%), and fashion blogger (26%) as celebrities they follow on Instagram. There are also a few of them who admit that they follow athletes (19%) and MC and/or television personality (12%) on Instagram. Meanwhile, politician is the least popular celebrities they follow on Instagram, chosen by 7% of them.

When asked about the origins of the celebrities they’ve been following on Instagram, most of Indonesian Instagram users admit that they follow local or national celebrities (87%). On the other hand, international celebrities are less popular, with Western celebrities chosen by 47% of them and East Asian celebrities chosen by 34% of them. Meanwhile, regarding to the reason why they follow those celebrities’ accounts on Instagram, half of them (50%) state that they are a fans of those particular celebrities. There are also some of them who admit that they’ve been following celebrities account on Instagram just for fun (41%) and out of curiousity (39%).

Regarding to the habit of leaving a comment on celebrities’ Instagram personal account, apparently only less than half of Indonesian Instagram users (43%) who admit that they have ever left a comment on the uploaded postings of the celebrity they follow. Henceforth, there are four main reasons in regard to their motivation for leaving the comment. The first most popular reason is to respond other comments from other users in the particular posting (46%). The second most popular reason is just for fun (44%), while the third most popular reason is to inform their friends about the particular posting (32%). Meanwhile, the least popular reason is to look for attention from the celebrities they follow (24%).

Talking about following celebrities’ Instagram personal account cannot be separated from talking about the endorsed posting those celebrities frequently post on their Instagram account. Apparently, most of Indonesian Instagram users who follow celebrities account (81%) admit that they have seen endorsed posting uploaded by those celebrities on their timeline. Of course, those endorsed postings were being uploaded in order to promote some products. When asked about what kind of product they frequently see being promoted through celebrities Instagram account, the most popular answer is fashion product (77%), while cosmetic product is chosen as the second most popular answer (61%). Furthermore, there are also culinary product (39%), gadget and/or electronic product (32%), and popular places such as restaurant, gym, or beauty salon (25%). The least popular answer is baby and/or kids product, chosen by 18% of them.

Regarding to the reaction of celebrities’ followers toward endorsed posting, apparently most of them admit that they don’t feel disturbed by it (78.5%). Henceforth, while seeing the endorsed posting on their Instagram timeline, more than half of them (58%) admit that they just ignore the posting and keep on scrolling the timeline. However, there are also some of them who intentionally look for further information about the promoted product (23%) and decide to pay more attention to the promoted product on the posting (16%). In regard to their opinion about the effectiveness of using celebrities’ personal Instagram account to promote some product, most of them (81%) argue that it is indeed an effective way.

Lastly, we also asked those Indonesian Instagram users who do not follow celebrities’ personal account. Apparently, only a few of them (29%) who admit that they have interest to follow celebrities on Instagram, sometime in the future.

For more detail you can download XLS report at the button below (bahasa). JAKPAT report consists of 3 parts which are 1) Respondent Profile, 2) Crosstabulation for each question and 3) Raw Data. Respondent profile shows you demographic profiles ( gender,age range, location by province, and monthly spending). Cross tabulation enables you to define different demographic segment preference on each answer.