17 of the Best Brands on Instagram Right Now

 Contrary to what your friends' photos suggest, Instagram isn't just a social network for selfies and brunch pics. In fact, Instagram has a whopping 1 billion active monthly users as of June 2018 -- the last 200 million of which joined in the prior nine months.

In a time when visual content remains a crucial part of any business' marketing strategy, Instagram marketing presents a unique opportunity to visually represent your brand, celebrate its personality, and keep it top-of-mind for all those users who scroll through their Instagram feeds every single day.

Although they're few and far between, there are some brands out there -- in every industry, and with every type of target customer -- who are doing really, really well on Instagram. These industries include skincare, lifestyle, education, shoes, interior design, entertainment, and even office supplies (one of the most B2B markets you can think of).

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Ready to get inspired? Check out this list of brands that are thriving on Instagram right now, and what about their posts sets them apart. For each of these brands, we've included examples of their best posts. For some of them, we've also included their most popular Instagram post of all time in terms of engagement (i.e. combined total of likes and comments) thanks to data from Instagram analytics and management platform Iconosquare.

Best Brands on Instagram

Lego

Califia Farms

FollowMeTo

Lorna Jane

Letterfolk

Apartment Therapy

Paris Opera Ballet

Tentsile

Desenio

No Your City

Vans

Divinity LA Bracelets

WeWork

Finfolk Productions

Shiseido

Sephora Collections

Staples

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17 of the Best Brands on Instagram

1. Lego

Followers: 3.8M

If you're not following Lego on Instagram, you're missing out on some entertaining content that isn't just product plugs for kids.

The famous plastic building block brand populates its Instagram feed with fun takes on pop culture references everyone is bound to appreciate -- something many businesses can learn from on their own Instagram accounts.

While most of Lego's posts do serve to announce the release of new Lego characters, the main value in its Instagram account is to emulate familiar social tropes in a classic Lego way. Some of them are pretty impressive, like the life-sized flying car from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

2. Califia Farms

Followers: 219k

Califia Farms natural beverage products have some of the most attractive packaging we've come across. In fact, it's so iconic that it won top honors in the global packaging design category from Beverage World Magazine.

Instagram is a perfect platform to showcase that cool, curvy bottle, and the folks at Califia don't shy away from doing just that -- most of the brand's posts feature the beverage's containers in some way, whether they're the main subject of the photo, or more of an accessory in the context of the active, healthy lifestyle Califia's buyer personas love.

Califia Farms Instagram showing wafflesCalifia Farms Instagram

Something Califia does really well on Instagram is create fun, playful videos and GIFs. Check out this one, which they used to teach viewers how to create a fresh tomato basil soup:

And this one, which is just plain fun to watch:

3. #FollowMeTo

Followers: 499k

Ever seen those photos of a woman leading a man by the hand in all different parts of the world? That pose was made famous by a couple named Murad and Natalia Osmann for their #FollowMeTo project.

Their Instagram account is a mix of stunning images of the classic #FollowMeTo pose that have been edited beautifully, as well as some really interesting behind-the-scenes photos of their world travels -- including some fun photos of the "making of" the famous pose.