FACEBOOK VS INSTAGRAM

Facebook and Instagram are two out of the top 10 social media platforms. Facebook has 1.1 billion estimated monthly visitors, while Instagram has 500 million. These two platforms have similarities and differences. So building your business with Instagram or with Facebook might pan out differently.

Here’s a look at ways in which these two platforms can impact your business, so you can make a more informed choice.

Quantifying consumer reach.

Facebook has been around much longer than Instagram and therefore has a larger user database than Instagram. Facebook is also more popular amongst the older folks whilst Instagram is more popular among the younger generation.

However, this is not to say Instagram isn’t on its way to having a larger database, as it is rapidly growing. Statistics below show the comparison between both platforms.



As stated clearly in the table above, Facebook has higher numbers. But Instagram has better statistics in engagement and content sharing. All in all, Facebook has more total users but Instagram also has a very strong following.

This may mean that they would work differently for different kinds of businesses. For instance, businesses that depend on a lot of visuals to advertise may find Instagram a bit more beneficial than Facebook.

Targeting consumers.

Consumer targeting is necessary for every business in order to avoid loss of information or wrong communication. You need to know where your target audience is based, their gender, interests, age, etc.

Facebook allows you to send the right message to a specific audience, as it has options to target by location, language, age, gender and other demographics, and by psychographic behavior.

However, these targeting options are also available on Instagram. This is probably because it is now owned by Mark Zuckerberg who also owns Facebook.

So if your business is trying to reach a younger demographic, Instagram is the better platform to use. But with Facebook’s older generation users, businesses that use this platform have access to consumers who have higher income and higher spending power. And this is a major plus, depending on what you are selling.

Engaging consumers.

Studies have shown that engagement with businesses on Instagram is 10 times higher than Facebook. And the average engagement per post has grown by 416 percent, compared to two years ago.

For instance, a particular post from Adidas was put on both its Facebook and Instagram account. Adidas’ Facebook account has 24 million likes while its Instagram account has 9.7 million followers.

The Instagram post had over 130,000 views versus Facebook’s 78,000 views. The post also has 154 comments on Instagram while Facebook was able to garner only 67 comments. This just shows that despite having a wider reach on Facebook, Instagram has the higher engagement.

Instagram is pretty clean without much clutter. And it’s easy to navigate, unlike Facebook which has a lot of things going on, all at the same time. So your business may be accessible to a smaller audience than on Facebook, but it will be more visible to that audience, which invariably means greater engagement.

Assessing platform strengths.

In comparing and contrasting the two social media platforms, importance must be placed on the major features that makes each distinctive.

Instagram is about sharing photos and videos. The short videos were formerly 15 seconds long but are now up to a minute. Instagram helps with direct conversations with customers and with building a solid brand loyalty base. This can be achieved through the sharing of daily work routine which would create a personal feel for your business, and engage consumers.

Facebook, on the other hand, is multi-optional, with lots of variety.  You can choose and use whatever feature {groups, events, shops, photos, videos, text, etc.} suits your business needs each time you post content. Things like business hours, events, addresses, and response rates can be found on most business pages. You can also create groups, events, product pages and shops.