Brisbanites just love snapping self portraits for Instagram

BRISBANE, the Gold Coast and Sydney are the nation's "selfie" hot spots, according to the first study into how Australians use photo-sharing app Instagram.

Melburnians posted photos of food most often and Adelaide users preferred posting artistic shots but in NSW and Queensland images that focus on the photographer, also known as selfies, ruled.
"People in Sydney, Brisbane and the Gold Coast take selfies not just out of narcissism," said Douglas Nicol, Partner at Sydney-based The Works advertising agency.
"It's benchmarking. Girls want to know if they are hot. Boys want to know whether their sixpack is ripped. I call it gamifying the body."
Melbourne's preference for food photos is linked to the influence of Italian and Greek populations on the city. "These are food-centric cultures, which is reflected by the popularity of food photos on Instagram," Mr Nicol said.
The urge to impress others is the driving factor in selecting what to post, argues Ben Hourahine from digital marketing experts Razorfish.
"Images are deliberately chosen based on their likelihood of being 'liked' and this is usually predicated by how visually appealing they are. In this way, Instagram shows our wants, tastes and needs in vibrant colour," he said.
Darwin leads all cities with the number of photos posted per population, followed by Gold Coast then Canberra.
"In Darwin and the Gold Coast there are a disproportionate number of tourists compared to the population, leading to a higher proportion of posts," Mr Nicol said.
Sunday at 5pm is the peak time for posting images to Instagram. On weekdays, the peak is 8pm.
Mr Nicol believes these peaks show how Instagram provides a different function to other smartphone apps.
"Instagram is a leisure tool used by people when they are out and about, unlike Twitter which is predominantly used in the workplace," he said.
The findings are part of a study from The Works in partnership with the University of Technology Sydney's Advanced Analytics Institute. They have analysed more than three million geotagged Australian Instagram images since the platform launched in 2010.
Instagram is the fastest growing social media platform in Australia and had been estimated to have more than one million users here.