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Instagram vs Facebook – Which is Better for Your Business?

July 29, 2018

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instagram vs facebook

This is a guest post by one of our Guest Bloggers. You can read the guidelines to guest posting here.

Establishing an online presence of your business is now considered a necessity. Gone are the days when you could attract customers solely through traditional marketing efforts. As the world is becoming digitalized, most individuals now spend more time online than they do listening to the radio or watching TV.

Even when we say you must build your online presence, we are being quite general. An online presence can be built in a variety of ways, depending on which platform you choose. There are two platforms that have dominated the limelight – Instagram and Facebook.

Both of them are known to provide quite a lot of benefits. The question arises, which of the two is best for your business in Instagram Vs Facebook? To answer this, we must see what both platforms offer to their users.

Why Instagram?

When Instagram was launched back in 2010, it was considered to be just another fun social media site for young adults. However, it has since developed into so much more. With an active user base of over 800 million people, it offers marketers quite an opportunity. Here is why Instagram is a great choice for your business.

Excellent Reach

For any marketing campaign to be effective, you must make sure that it reaches a lot of your target audience. Instagram delivers this to you. With over 800 million monthly users and 500 million daily users, using Instagram make sure that your communication would reach the masses.

Additionally, since businesses have not yet fully understood the importance of Instagram, there is little advertising or promotional clutter on the site. This means that not only does Instagram give you an excellent reach, but it also ensures that you have an edge over other businesses.

High Engagement of Traffic

Instagram is known to feature high user engagement. The number of people that post on the platform daily is quite high. Actually, to date, billions of posts have been posted on Instagram. This shows how involved users are on the platform. If your business were to use Instagram, it will be easier to engage with people.

This doesn’t just end here. A recent study has found that people who are diverted to business websites through Instagram spend a higher percentage of their time on the website than had they been diverted via other social media platforms. This high engagement of traffic is the end goal of all marketers.

Why Facebook?

No one can contest the power of Facebook. Launched in 2004, it has been the most used social media platform since the past decade. Here is why Facebook is great for your business.

Unprecedented Reach

As of 2017, Facebook has over 2 billion active users. That is a lot of people. Think about how many of your target market you will be able to reach if you were to use Facebook. Also, the site allows you to conduct micromarketing. This is done by allowing you to select the type of people who would be exposed to your communication. You can select the age, demographics, interests, etc. This means that you would truly reach your intended audience and not a generic audience.

Hence, the reach and frequency delivered by Facebook are unmatched. This is one of the reasons why the social media platform has been heavily used by marketers.

High Ad Revenues

In total, Facebook was able to generate $6.82 billion from ad revenues in 2017. This means that an ad on Facebook has a much greater chance of being clicked than an ad on other websites. Thus, you can easily post ads for your business to divert traffic to your site. Or you can add a few ads to your page and earn ad revenue. In both cases, your revenue is likely to increase.

The best part is that such advertising is not costly either. The cost per click, as of 2017, was $1.72 on average.

Engagement

The engagement rate of users with the content on Facebook is quite high. A lot of people open external links when they see them on Facebook rather than searching for them on their own. This is why a lot of newspapers have established a presence on Facebook. They have found that people are more likely to read their content if it pops up as a link in their newsfeed.

This showcases a huge opportunity for businesses. Rather than investing solely in building their website, establishing their Facebook profile as well ensures that people are aware of their product and recent developments.

The Faceoff: Instagram Vs Facebook

While both are excellent platforms and deliver results, the question still remains, which one is better? Well, we can judge on the following measures.

Engagement – Winner: Instagram

Audience engagement is necessary for today’s age as there is just too much competition and clutter out there. This is a reason why the average attention span of an individual has decreased quite a lot. The more engaged a given user is to a social media platform, the higher the chance that they will notice your communication. This helps establish awareness and ensures that you enter their consideration set.

In this aspect, Instagram is the clear winner, even though Facebook is close behind. This is seen by a study conducted by NewsWhip. It found that while the average number of likes on the Victoria’s Secret Instagram profile was 283,030 per post, on Facebook, it was only about 2,078. That is a huge difference and is a great representation of the high engagement level of Instagram.

Targeting Customers – Winner: Both

There can be no clear winner when it comes to targeting people. Ever since Mark Zuckerberg bought Instagram, both platforms offer the same option of micro-targeting based on demographics. However, the user composition of the two platforms is quite different.

While Instagram users are generally younger, Facebook caters to the older generation. Which platform is perfect for your business depends on who you wish to target. If you are interested in a younger demographic, Instagram will be the winner for you. However, if you wish to target those with higher incomes and an established job, Facebook is the place to find them. Hence, there can’t be a universal winner in this category. It all depends on your business.

Visibility – Winner: Facebook

This is obvious considering the enormous difference between the number of active users on Instagram and Facebook. Visibility is very important for businesses in today’s climate as the competition is quite tough across all industries. Before you get people to choose your service over others, you must ensure that they are aware of your company’s communication in the first place. High visibility is what ensures that you are at least heard and seen.

Compared to Instagram, Facebook offers considerably high visibility. Moreover, since it is used by people belonging to a wide variety of ages, you can get your message heard on a massive scale. On the other hand, Instagram has mainly a young user composition which is best for niche marketing.

Direct Marketing – Winner: Instagram

Direct marketing is defined as marketing efforts that target customers directly rather than going through the usual traditional modes. Since Instagram has a higher engagement rate than Facebook, it is a given that is a much better platform for direct marketing.

Whether it be interacting with customers or showing your new product or service, Instagram is the place to do it. Also, internet celebrities and bloggers are mostly found on Instagram and not on Facebook. Even if they are on Facebook, the number of followers they have on Instagram is usually higher. As a business, you can use these bloggers for influencer marketing. By sponsoring their content now and then, you can attach credibility to your business. This type of direct marketing is most effective on Instagram.

Functionality – Winner: Facebook

When it comes to functionality, Facebook is the clear winner. This is because it allows you to do quite a lot. You can use it to post pictures, videos (irrespective of their length), stories, and content. You can add as many links to your page as you want. Overall, it serves as an informational vessel for your customers.

On the other hand, Instagram is mostly visual. You can only do so much on it. You can post photos, short videos, and stories. The one common feature in all of these functions is the visual aspect. Instagram solely focuses on it and is not great for spreading information.

Who Wins?

To be honest, you should be on both Facebook and Instagram for your business. You must establish a strong presence on both platforms if you wish to succeed. Now is the time for integrated marketing efforts, and using various online platforms is a part of it.

There can’t be a clear-cut universal winner. It all depends on the type of business you have, who you wish to target, and the goals of your marketing campaigns. Analyze your business needs and decide what you need. The winner would depend on your answer.

About the author 

Guest Blogger  -  

These posts are submitted by our Guest Bloggers. We accept guest posts on topics that are relevant to our blog like blogging, internet entrepreneurship tutorials, affiliate marketing, social media etc. You can read more about how to submit guest posts by visiting our write-for-us page.

My name is Dilip. I am a fan of the internet and love the many opportunities that the world wide web provides. If used constructively , the internet can give you an opportunity to lead a life free of the 9-5 treadmill and will be able to give more time to your family members. Read about internet entrepreneurship at my blog.

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