NHN Data announced on the 5th that it has revealed the ‘golden times’ for increasing the efficiency of Instagram marketing at the end of the year, based on the ‘2025 Q4 Instagram Trend Report’ compiled through its social marketing analytics solution ‘Social Biz’.
This report is notable for analyzing Instagram Direct Message (DM) sending data to identify the times when marketing responses are concentrated throughout each day, week, and quarter. NHN Data defined the times when DM sending is most active as ‘golden times’, reflecting this in the analysis results based on actual operational data collected through Social Biz.
The analysis found that the times when DM sending is most active during the day are early morning and just before bedtime in the evening. This can be interpreted as a result of users tending to engage with Instagram and other social networking services (SNS) intensively before starting or ending their day.
In terms of days of the week, Sunday saw the highest volume of DM sends, while Monday recorded relatively high numbers among weekdays. This was analyzed as being influenced by the structure where informational DMs are effectively consumed after the weekend, given the concentration of end-of-year promotions and seasonal content.
Looking at the flow within a quarter, there was a tendency for DM sends to increase in November and December, which is the latter part of Q4. While SNS usage somewhat decreased in October due to increased offline activities like travel and family gatherings during the Chuseok holiday, DM sending was seen to increase from November onward as year-end season promotions, shopping discount events, and various recap marketing began in earnest.
NHN Data also released a comprehensive analysis of Instagram trend reports published from Q1 to Q4 in 2025. The analysis confirmed that regardless of the quarter, conducting Instagram marketing during early mornings and just before bedtime in the evening could be expected to result in relatively high efficiency, and such user patterns are projected to continue into 2026.
Lee Jin-soo, CEO of NHN Data, stated, “When establishing an Instagram marketing strategy, it is important to rely on data rather than intuition,” and added, “The usage data from Social Biz and the 2025 quarterly trend reports will serve as indicators for preparing marketing strategies for 2026.”