For all businesses, big and small alike, marketing is an integral part in the business’s success or failure. With so many marketing strategies social media marketing stands out as a go to option given the digital we live in. An avid beginner in marketing would consider launching a social-media based campaign. A more experienced one would either go for Facebook or Instagram.
However, a smart marketer would study all the platforms that there are and then go on to launch a social media campaign on the platform that works out best for their business based on integrated data.
Social media marketing is a powerful, cost-effective and versatile tool that marketers cannot shy away from. Not only does it help you reach out to your target audience, but it also comes with so many other added advantages!
For instance, increasing brand recognition, boosting business sales, driving traffic to your website, enhancing conversion rates as well as improving your SEO ratings. In fact, according to statistics, investing in social media is forecasted to grow from $32billion in 2017 to close to $50billion in 2021. This is undoubtedly an impressive trend that all business owners should embrace for the success of their business.
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Which Social Media Platform Should You Consider?
Of all social media platforms that exist, there are two that stand out; Facebook & Instagram.
Considering how interactive they both are, they are bound to give you a remarkable Return On Investment.
Of the two, Facebook is clearly the bigger guy. Launched in 2004, it has had a tremendous growth reaching an average of close to 1.5 billion users each single day. Its original intent was to make it easier for people to stay in touch with close friends and family. Nowadays, it is a platform for companies to reach their target audience or customers as well.
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Instagram is relatively a new platform, more like the new kid on the block having being launched in 2010. It gained popularity almost immediately, given its visual story telling aspect for everyone; teens, artists, brands, celebrities and almost everyone else. Currently, it stands at over a billion users globally.
Facebook vs Instagram
Both platforms have billions of active users making it crystal clear that these social media tools are quite powerful and offer you a lot of opportunities for brand engagement with clients. While it might be true that Facebook owns Instagram, looking at both platforms as one entity is as far from the truth as it can get.
When launching your marketing strategy, there are a lot of considerations you need to make before making the decision on which platform to use. What works out on Facebook may not necessarily work out on Instagram.
The big question remains, whether to carry out separate campaigns on both or settle for one that complements your business type. Let us delve right in for more insightful information.
Brand Engagement: Facebook vs Instagram
On Facebook, there are over 60 million Business Pages. This right here might communicate that Facebook has the numbers. However, in as much as many users follow or like a Facebook Business Page, only 32% of these users actually engage with brands on Facebook by regularly sharing content, asking questions or leaving comments.
With Instagram, the situation is way much better. In US alone, 70.7% of companies use Instagram in their marketing strategy having created Instagram Business Profiles in which they advertise regularly. When it comes to the users, there is 80% of them who follow a certain business on Instagram and a sizeable number of them (68%) actually engage with brands on a regular.
It is evident that Instagram has a higher brand engagement. However, not every type of content or advertisement that you post on Instagram as opposed to Facebook is bound to receive views, comments and shares. Despite Facebook having a lower brand engagement, there are more than 8 billion video views on a daily. This makes it a better platform for video sharing.
Instagram on the other hand does remarkably when it comes to images. Therefore, when it comes to brand engagement, video advertisement may do better on Facebook while photo advertisement are better-suited for Instagram.
As a business owner, learn which of the two types of advertisement works well with your business and choose the appropriate platform for it.
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Numbers: Facebook vs Instagram
Facebook statistics record 2.38 billion active users each month. There are 65 million small business that have Facebook Business Pages. 89% of marketers confirm that they use Facebook for their brand-social strategy. Out of the active users accounts accessed, 96% is through a mobile device. 40% of consumers confirm that most of their videos are watched on Facebook.
Instagram statistics on the other hand record 1 billion active users in a month. When it comes to active Instagram stories, there are 500 million users globally on a daily. 37% of internet users in the USA are on Instagram. Of all Instagram users, 60% visit the platform daily. As part of their brand’s marketing and social strategy, 65% of marketers confirm that they use Instagram.
From the digits above, it is evident that Facebook has seemingly larger numbers. However, Instagram statistics are super impressive especially when it comes to engagements.
While Facebook’s head start may be a bit intimidating for Instagram, Instagram’s growth has been upwards, steady, strong and continuous. It has managed to create a niche that thrive on user’s engagement with the visual content shared by brands. If you are looking to connect with your audience, and be social with them, then Instagram has got to be your go-to place.
Audience Demographics: Facebook vs Instagram
While coming up with a social media marketing strategy can be daunting, taking demographic data into consideration can make the process a whole lot easier.
There are various audience demographics that you can consider including age, location, gender, education as well as income. Instagram has a strikingly younger user base with most users being under 30. This difference in audience would provide an excellent opportunity for a brand trying to reach to the younger population.
Depending on what services or product your business offers, demographics are of extreme advantage.
Conclusion
Both Facebook and Instagram are excellent social media marketing platforms. The type of content you publish on both sides will highly determine the success in your marketing campaign. Treating one like the other will not work.
Identify what your brand is all about and then come up with content that is relevant and unique to each platform. Curated content for instance works out better on Facebook than on Instagram which is all about original photos and videos. Company news would be better suited on Facebook given its text-based nature. For image contest, Instagram being the engagement king on social media would work out best.
Instagram and Facebook are both platforms that would take your marketing strategy to a whole new level and the only trick to achieving success is learning to tell what content is suited for which platform.
