Instagram Vs Facebook: Which One is Better for Brand’s Strategy

Instagram vs Facebook: Facebook and Instagram are the two champions of the social media platform, don’t you think? No other social networking sites have gained such popularity among users in contemporary times. 

This should not come as a surprise as almost everyone nowadays is dependent on the internet for anything and everything. And a major part of this dependency is due to the presence of such social media platforms. 

Facebook and Instagram have a combined active user base of more than 3.30 billion users which makes them extremely resourceful for marketing brands. 

Although if there has to be a comparison between the fan base of Instagram Vs Facebook, then even with the increasing popularity of Instagram, Facebook is still the king of social media. 

As of June 2019, Facebook has grown into a user base of 2.38 billion. While in the case of Instagram, in June 2018, it had almost 1 billion active users.

Instagram vs Facebook: Which Is Better For Your Brand

When Facebook acquired Instagram in the year 2012, it was nothing more than a company of 12 employees. But today this single social media platform is one of the fastest-growing enterprises in the social media industry. 

As a result, both Facebook and Instagram are trying to bridge the gap between their user bases. As you know, you can directly share your Instagram stories on Facebook as well. 

This is actually a path-breaking idea from the perspective of businesspeople. For any sort of business strategy to be open to such a collaboration of two powerful social media platforms is highly advantageous. 

But, the marketing strategy on Facebook and Instagram does not come with the same rule. While Facebook is a complete package in all, but Instagram is more about visual presentations. 

Thus, for any company to expand its user base and market, it must know which of these social media platforms is the better one. 

This article is attributed to a comparative study between Facebook and Instagram regarding any brand strategy. Accordingly, here are some points of distinction between the two.

Facebook Vs Instagram

Statistics

The first and foremost thing before strategizing your brand in any social media platform is to know its statistics. What is the activity of the users? What is the user’s liking? Based on the demand, you have to design your marketing plans. 

Here is a fact for you: When it comes to the 2.38 billion users of Facebook, 96% of the user accounts are accessed via cell phones. This means that this percentage of people is very easy to access as they frequently visit these sites on a daily basis.

Also, 40% of consumers watch mostly videos on Facebook. And there is almost 65 million small businesses on the Facebook pages.

Did you know? When it comes to Instagram, out of the 1 billion users almost 60% of the Instagram users visit the platform on a daily basis.

Now based on these statistics, it is very clear that any company would get a maximum number of users on Facebook as compared to Instagram just merely on the basis of user accounts.

The Algorithm

When Facebook started its primary algorithm, it was about what your close friends are posting on the news feed. But now with time, more importance has been given to the high paying contents. 

Now you can mostly see content from some other page relevant to some topic that you may have checked last week or so. Thus, paying high can give you a large amount of audiences on Facebook according to their recent algorithm.

In the case of Instagram, the algorithm is still kept in its original form. Although changes have been made after Facebook acquired Instagram, still, with original content, you can reach customers on Instagram more organically. 

Thus, if you have a start-up company just at the beginning of its career and you have a less budget but great content, you can definitely try Instagram for more popularity other than Facebook.

Demographics

Before setting any marketing strategy you have to find out the demographics of the social media platform. Only then you can hit the maximum targeted audience. 

Here is a fact: On Facebook, 77% of the female internet users use Facebook while the men users constitute 71% of the male internet users. Also, the active age group on Facebook is between 18 year to 64-year-old.

Also, While on Instagram, 42% and 33% are the percentages of female and male users respectively out of the total female and male internet users. Here the Instagram active age group is between 18-year-old to 49-year-old.

Thus, these numbers clearly show us that Facebook has a larger range of age groups than Instagram. Thus, if you have a company which caters to the need of the old age people then Facebook is the place for you. You can definitely gather a range of customers on Facebook which is quite not possible on Instagram.

Engagement Rate

Did you know this: There is a study that shows that if you put a post on both Facebook and Instagram then the median engagement rate of the post on Facebook is 0.09% while the same number goes up to 1.60% on Instagram.

This study is evident enough to show that the user is more actively participating in Instagram rather than on Facebook. 

This is due to the fact that people react more to images and videos than text. Instagram doesn’t have any text content and thus posts on Instagram are more seen by users than the ones with text on Facebook.

Functionality

One must understand the working of both social networking sites to get a real sense of the difference between the two. 

Facebook is a very informative social media platform. You can find out every detail about any company from its Facebook page. 

Facebook has always given more importance to text than videos. Thus, you will see that the profile of any page on Facebook is very elaborate for that matter. Thus, Facebook is not only for socializing with people but also with companies. 

When it comes to Instagram, it is more about the videos and the moments captured. The profile of Instagram is a very brief one. So, you can’t say anything about your company through text on Instagram. 

But when it comes to content, you can really hit the nail. On Instagram, content is the core function. With only images and videos to serve, the Instagram users don’t have much on their plates like on Facebook. Thus, you can easily get noticed here. 

Thus, it is evident that with a higher number of users in Facebook and more variety of options, your company can become a needle in the haystack but the same company can shine on Instagram due to less traffic and minimum features.

Tips for Choosing the Better Networking Site for Different Marketing Techniques

Now all the company has different marketing strategies. There is no such company which comes up with only one type of strategy in social networking sites. 

The main aim here is to attract more and more attention of the customer. So, the companies keep on attacking them with different marketing techniques.

Now, these techniques work differently on Facebook and Instagram. So, here are some tips to decide which the best site for the different marketing techniques is.

1. Facebook is a great platform for curated content. Most of the content that you see on Facebook is curated content and it works fine for the companies.
2. Company news will also be more effective on Facebook. Facebook is mostly about texts. Here you will have a better chance of people reading the full update. 
3. For notifications of company events, you must definitely go for Instagram. On Instagram, photos and videos work amazingly. You can get a great response to visual representation in this site.
4. Sometimes for marketing, companies go for image contests. In such a case Instagram is the best option. The hashtags generate more importance and popularity here. 

Thus, based on the marketing technique you can carefully use both the sites for effective results.

The Conclusion!

Facebook and Instagram both rely on each other highly. Thus, as a company, you have to rely on both of them. Although Facebook has the largest user base you definitely cannot ignore the increasing popularity of Instagram.

As seen in the above points, both the sites have pros and cons. Now you have to choose your targeted audience and see which one of the sites gives you the maximum access to such audiences. You can even choose different marketing techniques based on the different demands on both sites. 

Where Facebook is a one in all packages, at the same time Instagram gives you more concentrated traffic. It completely depends on the functionality of your company as to which of these social media sites will suit it. 

Marketing strategies are always tricky and the most important part of the business. The productivity of your company would exponentially rise if you can hit it right with the social media platforms. 

We hope that his article has helped you shed some light on this issue and help you come up with a better choice for your brand’s strategy.