Instagram's growth set to double next year

Marketers are rapidly embracing Instagram, signaling their intent on diversifying social media marketing beyond the more established platforms, according to a new eMarketer forecast.This comes at a time when social network marketing has reached a saturation point, with 88.2% of US companies using at least one of the major platforms this year.Instagram, which was included in the forecast for the first time, is set to double its growth next year, surpassing Twitter in 2017.According to the report, 32.3% of US companies with 100 employees or more will use Instagram for marketing activities by the end of 2015.That number will jump to 48.8% next year.By 2017, 70.7% of US companies will use Instagram for marketing, edging out Twitter for the first time."Now that Instagram is opening up advertising to all businesses, it's not surprising that marketer usage will grow rapidly," eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson said, "Its close ties to Facebook are a key advantage."As Instagram attracts marketers new to the platform, marketer usage of Twitter is reaching a plateau. The number of US companies using Twitter for marketing purposes will continue to grow, but penetration will increase by just 1.4 percentage points between 2015 and 2017.Facebook, a mature platform within the social space, is similarly saturated among marketers. In 2015, 84.7% of US companies with 100 employees or more will use Facebook for marketing activities, rising to 85.3% in 2016 and 85.8% in 2017.