Social Strategy Deep Dive: The Kardashian's Instagram activity since 2015 to present day
What creators and brands can learn from the world’s most followed family on Instagram.
In this article, I discusses the incredible growth and popularity of the Kardashian/Jenner family on Instagram from January 2015 to January 2023. In the last year alone, their followers increased by 314.97 million, or 24.33%. The article emphasizes the importance of the comments/likes ratio and consistency in posting. The article also examines the top-performing posts, which are determined by Instagram's overperformance score. The article highlights the importance of focusing on the people who work behind the scenes of any business and who can create personal connections with audiences. Additionally, I discusse a post by Kim Kardashian's SKIMS Instagram account that featured actresses Simona Tabasco and Bea Granno from HBO's White Lotus season 2. The article concludes by emphasizing the importance of active comment sections in creating cultural zeitgeist and growth opportunities for brands.
Ummm hi hello! How are you? I’m good except I dove deep into the Instagram posts of Kim, Kourtney, Kris, Kourtney, Kylie and Kendall since 2015! Do I have the time to do this? Absolutely not! Are there tons of learnings I thought you’d find interesting? You bet!
I should preface this by saying that not everyone is part of the most famous family in the world. You can have all of the Instagram followers in the world but you are always competing with someone. And when you’re comparing and competing, you’re miserable. Be happy with the following you have. Connect with people in your life. The comparison journey is a race to some pretty bad feelings. Unless you’re Kylie Jenner, you are absolutely crushing everyone. And there’s lots to learn by digging into their stats.
Let’s begin….
This data covers the period of 1/1/2015 to 1/26/2023. Please note this does *not* include Reels. The software I’m using does not allow me to pull Reels data without doing it by hand (no thanks!). So here you go!
Here’s the overview– the Kardashian/Jenner women have 1.55B followers in total. From January 2022 to January 2023, this number grew 314.97M in total, or 24.33%. That’s astonishing growth– for those who post most actively and engage meaningfully with their followers, growth between 1.69% and 2%-6% is considered very high. Not to mention, the more followers you have after 1m+, the harder it is to grow. Kylie has the most followers with 379.74M. Khloe’s follower growth was the highest at over 33%.
In the next sections, I will highlight the importance comments/likes ratio, how many times the women are posting per day, the top performing posts and what we can learn from it all.
At-A-Glance: Kylie Leads in Total Interactions (Comments + Likes)
Maybe I am biased because I am obsessed with SKIMS or her net worth is the highest at $1.7b, but I had assumed Kim is the most followed. I was completely shocked to see Kylie has such a lead in total interactions. Her numbers alone are pretty wild.
To put these interactions into context, the total views of the Superbowl since 1967 is 4.67b. This means that 5x more people have either liked or commented on one of the Kardashian women’s Instagram posts in the last 8 years than have watched the Superbowl in the last 55 years. In other words, this family owns more audience numbers than almost anyone else can imagine reaching. This does not include Reels, view counts or their numbers from other social media platforms, let alone viewers of their popular reality television show which has gone 10+ seasons.
Another stat to blow your mind, their family’s total interactions are 28.23B but there are only 8B people in the world. This is 3.5x the world’s population. Kylie’s Instagram likes in the past 8 years alone (13.23B) are approx 1.5x the entire world population.
The Importance of Your Comment Section
Their comment section is as important as the posts themselves. The posts act as mirrors for our lives and the comment section is where we discuss our own perspectives with each other. Generally, they cover a plethora of topics and conversations related to the themes of the posts.
Kendall, despite having almost ~700M less likes than her sisters Kourtney and Khloe, has over 15M and 8M more comments, respectively. Yay for her. But these numbers raise a red flag for me. They could be a signal that there’s negativity or fighting in her comment section. Kendall is hearing a lot more in the comment section than the ratio of her “likes” compared to her famous sisters. Comments are not always positive, especially when they outnumber averages of “likes”. I imagine this can be a lot to deal with. Kendall famously discusses her struggles with her mental health.
Consistency is key. The family has posted 1-2x per day over the years.
Per the diagram on the bottom left side, the family has posted fewer individual posts through the years and have focused on carousel posts aka “albums”. People spend more time on posts they have to swipe through and read long captions for. When people spend more time on your posts, Instagram continues to serve your posts to more people. Hence the high performance. Everyone should be posting carousel posts.
This chart does not include posts that have been archived or removed.
Which side of posts performed better?
Can you guess? Keep scrolling for the answer…
Top Posts & Methodology
The methodology for the top posts among the Kardashian/Jenner women is the same methodology that Instagram uses, which is by an “over performance score.” This score weighs comments 1:1 with likes. This means comment/like ratios are weighted and higher when the first initial people see the post, then interact with it by liking or commenting. The more people who saw the post in the beginning hours of its time on Instagram, the more Instagram showed the post(s) to people. This is the key for growth of accounts no matter your follower numbers. If I covered the top posts solely by interactions (likes + comments), Kylie’s posts would outrank everyone because of how many more followers and interactions (likes + comments) she has. So I’m going to do my analysis by looking at posts that overperform how they “should” do based on those factors alone.
Did you guess the right side above? If so, congratulations my lil social media genius. You’re hired.
Top Posts: Everyone should get their mom on Instagram
As far as overperforming scores go, Kris Jenner leads the way in performance of posts. Despite having the lowest followers, Kris has the most potential for the fastest growth. Kris also posts double (avg 2x per day) than the rest of the Kardashian/Jenner women.
Based on these, everyone should get their mom on Instagram and have them post about your birthdays, weddings and major moments in your life. Kris’ posts that do the best feature her children and grandkids.
Kris’s top performing posts all include Kylie (the highest performing and most followed of the Kardashian women). So if you have a super popular, influential friend or product, focus on posting hype moments around that. Kris should post more of North. People on Instagram love Northie.
Speaking of hyping your friends and loved ones up, Kris is the perfect hype woman. Performance is higher when Kris posts her support of others rather than celebrating herself.
Kris has mastered the “through the years” and contextual posts aggregating all of the Kardashian happenings and people into a single frame. If you notice, her top posts have multiple pictures within one frame either of people through the years or in a contextual context or of ALL the kids, ALL of the sisters, ALL of the baby daddys in one frame. Another is Queen Elizabeth (through the generations) in one frame.
Kris supporting the men in the Kardashian/Jenner women’s lives is also notable. If she were my client I’d recommend she continue to do so. Whether it’s Travis Scott’s birthday or the unfortunate loss of Tristan’s mom, these are just a few examples of her posts of “support.” that bring significant follower interactions
Black and white pictures also perform better. It adds a sense of sentimentality to the life moments.
We like big butts we cannot lie… or do we?
One thing not pictured as high performing on this slide: body, booty and sexy selfies. People are not drawn to the aspirational lifestyle and images as they were during social media’s past. I also have a theory here that most of their followers are women so they are looking for connection and intimate moments. That’s not what’s keeping people hooked and works to grow careers. It is the uniqueness to our stories and our relationships with each other which is bringing the biggest response here. In fact some of their lowest performing posts are Kylie on a yacht that feel extremely staged. People want the BTS, the journey and the raw footage. People want to see the inside of your closet, KIM (me).
To look at Kim specifically, even from Instagram’s early days in 2015 and especially into 2018/2019, Kim’s children were always her top performing posts by 5x+ which is extremely significant. On average, most of her posts perform 1.5x better than the others. Here are all of her top performing posts since 2015.
It’s always been about her kids and family. Have you been paying attention? The decline of posts of sexy photos feels inevitable when you look at the numbers this way, doesn’t it?
The transition of Kim from sexy to savvy is a great example of how anyone can learn and start implementing long term strategies for their life (and social media posts). It is time that people stopped wasting their time scrolling, posting and consuming and started envisioning their dreams and what the steps are to get there. I talk about this at length here.
Kim didn’t speak at Harvard overnight. This was a long term dream and she is showing the steps of what it took to get there. In order to understand how your brand will perform in the future, you need to look at what performs best for you and how you can up-level and magnify the sides of yourself that lead to growth and long term development. A picture of yourself outside of a class you just spoke to at Harvard is the new museum of ice cream. What are your gifts, how do you want to take accountability for them? What does that look like when you get there?
One of Kim’s last sexy top performing posts is very TikTok, pre-TikTok. 1-3 seconds to hook you with her voice and a black screen with a question, “Can you guys see what’s going on here”, and then 1-2 second stills of her and her sisters. To read more about TikTok hacks, please read my piece on TikTok hacks.
Sentimentality and Connection
People see the imperfections of the Kardashians and relate to them. The families aren’t nuclear ones, they’re forging their own path. It’s easy to minimize their relevance, but I think people seek out more about them than just their beauty and wealth.
Public audiences want to see an “authentic” family, throwbacks and sentimental moments of the Kardashian/Jenner women especially. Public sentiment around them using their bodies or sex appeal to attract audiences are missing the larger picture.
What We Can Learn
If you are a brand or a business, your employees are not your family and there’s only one Kardasian/Jenner family. But one lesson is that you should focus on highlighting the people who run your accounts, who work behind the scenes of your business, and who can create personal connections with audiences. These types of posts would overperform to the rest of your metrics. People want to connect and relate to other people. Supporting and uplifting others always wins.
We can also learn that we should be empowering individuality through dialogue. Digital technology and emotional storytelling are not mutually exclusive (but are always treated this way). Social media means facilitating dialogue between consumers and brands. Without emotional connection, no amount of technology will inspire attention, purchases or loyalty. Brands must empower dialogue around issues that its demographic cares about. Championing values in sophisticated ways works, not forcing perceived relevance.
Another thing we can learn is how to tap into the value of sentimentality to provide exhausted, troubled consumers with emotional escapism. There is a facility of nostalgia with experiential and visual ways to update existing norms. This is seen in the visual power of Kris Jenner’s contextual / historical timelines of the people in their family.
Where should the Kardashians take this?
Kim’s top performing posts used to do 5-6x the others. Since 2022 and 2023, they’ve done about 1.5-2x better than her other posts. What I’d love to see the Kardashian/Jenner women discuss: One or more of the sisters really discussing the struggles around the way we talk to ourselves. One thing I don’t see discussed a lot is how we are often our own worst critic and that most of what people say about us doesn’t compare to the things we say to ourselves. How we talk to ourselves really matters. Dealing with this struggle is an incredibly hard pattern to break but I think discussing mental health at length and how we can crawl out of dark holes could be really healing for the multiple generations of people who now spend the majority of their time online. Particularly now, there’s a lot of trauma.
Having one of the most “perceived” and viewed internet families discuss this struggle could be a really important for emotional connection among audiences. As mentioned above, the families’ comment section is as important as the posts themselves. Representing a plethora of topics and conversations related to the themes of the posts. The posts act as mirrors for our lives and the comment section is where we discuss with each other. There is no doubt these ladies have mastered dealing with being in the public eye and some of those darker themes can be very relatable for their fandoms as an opportunity to bring strangers–who are their “communities–in closer dialogue and connection. Being methodical and responsible about the conversations we create in the cultural zeitgeist via active comment sections is one of the greatest social strategies one can have. This is one of the biggest opportunities for growth. To get people talking about “the right things”. I wish more publications and brands understood the power of this. Celebrities and creators, please show them how it’s done!
Integrating Product Content
Here are some of their lowest performing posts. If simple product shots don’t work for the Kardashian/Jenners, then it’s not going to work for your CPG brand either. Sorry.
One Post Deep Dive: White Lotus / Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS; Product Content That Works
Last thing, I’d like to cherry pick one post and break down why it caught our attention. One of the most popular posts by Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS Instagram account (@skims), is the valentines day collection featuring Simona Tabasco and Bea Granno from HBO’s popular series, White Lotus season 2 as the brand’s ambassadors and models. The comment section praises SKIMS for the marketing and perfect collaboration.
I’d like to discuss why this campaign worked and what made it resonate so heavily with audiences. For one, it was an incredible example of culturally relevant timing. The campaign was announced on Jan 23, 2022 and followed the season 2 finale on Dec 11, 2022. A little more than a month since the finale, White Lotus wasn’t exactly still in our heads but it was something we felt that we had started to move on from. A month is a short time to pull this off, don't get me wrong, but it wasn’t the instant, next-day craze we’ve been accustomed to with social media and fast fashion. This is why I think there’s something more going on here.
On White Lotus, actresses Simona and Bea (pictured) play two local prostitutes who spent their days at the ultra luxurious White Lotus Hotel in Italy. Their scenes followed the girls around the hotel, using their looks and sex as they daydreamed about following their real dreams of being a singer (and performing at the hotel) and owning a clothing store. The women used their bodies and proximity to powerful men in the fancy White Lotus hotel to get what they want: money and opportunity. In the meantime, we watched as the older pianist promise Bea a stepping stone/opportunity to reach her dream of singing at the hotel (to ultimately leave prostitution).
The men in the show didn’t pay up right after they had sex. Instead, the women had to chase the men around the hotel, prepared to hustle, negotiate, and do what it takes in order to get the money they are owed. The show and these two characters remind us that ultimately most relationships are transactional. Life is about going after what we want. The two women who were most upfront with this, and how power always plays a role every dynamic, “won” big.
Not pictured in the SKIMS campaign but felt in the collaboration with the White Lotus characters is that we resonate with them, and Kim, because this experience is one universally felt by women. That we can only be taken seriously, or become powerful enough because of our proximity or co-sign of powerful men. Mostly through intimate relationships but also in our career as our bosses and mentors. Kim and her sisters, and their proximity to powerful men, including Kanye West, had power that ultimately eclipsed the attention and proximity to the men in their lives, including Kanye. Given the platform, like Bea’s beautiful performance in the season finale of White Lotus once she was given the chance, eclipsed the man who promised her introductions after sleeping with her but ultimately never made good on his promise. Given the platform, especially in achieving our dreams and in business, women can and will outshine the men before us. It’s interesting and remarkable Kim chose these girls, of all the characters who include the elegant and much more local, Jennifer Coolidge.
The soul crushing reality and experience for women everywhere, that we are just one really rich guy away from being taken seriously is something my friends and I discuss but I wish it was talked about in the public square more. What if we found out Britney Spears and Jeff Bezos are dating? Would it change the way you saw her? Or that you were dating Jeff Bezos? or Lebron James? Do you think people’s perception of you would change? This is what I’m talking about. This is felt at such deep levels by women about most powerful, wealthy men. Not just Jeff Bezos and Lebron James. Until we have our own money and power, we are stuck fighting for the upper hand with people we’d rather not even speak to. Put a different way, for my millennials, it’s like how many asses do you have to kiss to just own your own home? Can we just be open about this transaction? There is something in this campaign that speaks to the power of a well written storyline being amplified by a real world example of its main archetype.
I don’t normally write pieces like this but if you enjoyed pop culture breakdowns, please let me know. I treated this piece as if I was going to start to look into the data as if the Kardashian/Jenner’s were potential new social clients but I’ve barely scratched the surface. This piece is a way for brands and creators to learn from and how to look at the broader trends and themes for their own social posts to set the strategy for their future. This would be my preliminary research before an initial phone call. Kris needs to give me her Instagram password, because I would grow that sh*t to the moon. Hope that helps provide context. Thanks for reading.
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