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Instagram vs Facebook: The Battle of Brothers

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social media marketing is a versatile and powerful tool to use for marketers. Marketers need to study all the social media platforms and launch successful integrated social media campaigns on the platform that is best for their business.

Among all social media platforms, there are two, which are the most interactive-Facebook and Instagram. Facebook vs Instagram for business which is the best the user needs to choose. This blog will help you in finding out Instagram vs Facebook, which is better The average number of daily users for September 2019 equals to 1.62 billion on Facebook. Instagram, on the other hand, is a younger platform with one billion monthly active users in June 2018. With the above figures, it is obvious that both platforms are great for advertising. Facebook has over 60 million active business Pages. Facebook has a lot much to offer. There’s so much you can do on the platform from messaging to playing games and watching videos. Facebook provides its users with many possibilities. Instagram, on the other hand, serves less. It is hyper-focused on a few core features.

Facebook Statistics

2.38 billion monthly active users

96% of active user accounts access Facebook with a mobile device

65 million small businesses have Facebook Pages

40% of consumers say that they watch most videos on Facebook

89% of marketers say they use Facebook as part of their brand social strategy

Instagram Statistics

1 billion monthly active users

500 million daily active Instagram Stories users worldwide

60% of Instagram users visit the platform daily

37% of US Internet users are on Instagram

65% of marketers say they use Instagram as part of their brand social strategy

Audience

Facebook is one of the oldest social media platforms and has gained immense popularity; it has an enormous audience worldwide. However, Instagram has a smaller audience. Statistics show that even users of Instagram are not very active. Instagram’s main audience is 18 to 34-year-old men and women both. This difference ends up providing an excellent opportunity for companies. Depending on what products or services your company offers, you can choose your platform. For instance, a Real Estate firm might have much more success on Facebook than it would on Instagram. However, a beauty product company will do wonders on Instagram.

Optimization

Facebook is seamlessly optimized for desktop, laptop as well as mobile usage.  Instagram, on the other hand, lacks a desktop experience as it puts a large number of limitations on the user when they log in with a web browser. On Instagram you cannot easily upload photos, edit existing posts when you are not using it on a mobile device. It’s been created predominantly for mobile users. Images actually perform better on Instagram than on Facebook since that’s what Instagram is primarily designed for.

Engagement

When we talk about Instagram vs Facebook users we come to the fact that Facebook users spend actually an average of 35 minutes per day on the app and visit it 8 times per day. Every 60 seconds Facebook users around the world share 54,000 links, about 147,000 photos, and over 317,000 status updates, which totals more activity every minute than any other social platform in the world. Even though these numbers sound good, 40 percent of users don’t use a Facebook Page, to reach consumers.

Meanwhile, 80 percent of Instagram users follow a business model, giving brands a better chance at social media success than they might have on Facebook. Instagram still has an extremely active user base. As per studies, Instagram users share more than 95 million posts a day and like more than 4.2 billion posts a day. On top of that, more than 3500 million people use Instagram’s story feature every day, while Facebook’s story feature is still struggling to gain traction, earning about half that daily activity.

Distributing information

When we talk about Facebook ads vs Instagram ads, Facebook’s paid advertising is still quite effective, and it’s able to reach older groups than Instagram. Facebook is a better gateway to external sites or online stores because you can post links to anywhere from this platform.

But when it comes to direct customer engagement and building your brand identity, Instagram is the winner.

Video marketing

Video marketing is on the rise across all forms of digital media, Facebook or Instagram. Over 68% of marketers have published a video on Facebook, while 41% of marketers have used Instagram video. As these two giants battle for the first place in Instagram vs. Facebook video marketing competition, It is important to consider which platform is better suited to meet your marketing needs. At first glance, these social media networks might appear to be the same. But after diving deeper, it becomes clear that these platforms have distinct advantages and disadvantages.

Reach and demographics

When it comes to the number of Facebook vs Instagram users, it seems that no platform can surpass Facebook. The social media pioneer has more than 2.38 billion monthly active users around the world – more than any other social media platform – while Instagram clocks in at 1 billion monthly active users. But a platform’s number of users isn’t the best indicator of how your marketing efforts will perform; we need to dig deeper into demographics to understand this.

Facebook is the best when it comes to users and these users consistently span all age groups, with ages 25-34 leading the way. Though, we might soon see a decrease in the platform’s popularity as younger generations grow up; 34 percent of teenagers think Facebook is for older people, and they are not necessarily wrong. 40 percent of people 65 and older are on the platform, which explains why only 1-2% of people aged 13-17 use Facebook.

Brand use and ad effectiveness

Even though Instagram provides vast opportunities for businesses, Facebook is still the most popular network for brands, hosting 80 million business pages compared to Instagram’s only 8 million.

Over 93% of marketers use Facebook advertising regularly, and 62% of marketers find it to be their most important social media channel. While the platform has powerful paid advertising potential, Facebook intentionally hides company posts so brands spend more ad dollars; organic reach for branded Facebook pages is only 2% on average.

Functionality

The functionality comparison will actually be incomplete without taking a look at how each social network is used. Instagram is strictly image/video-based, but the difference goes far beyond that.

Facebook is largely informational. You can find out things about a company through its Facebook Page whether it’s business timings, address or upcoming events. Facebook has always focused on text because it’s detail-driven. This is the reason it takes longer to create a profile on Facebook than it does on Instagram. They actually serve different purposes.

Instagram is about capturing moments. People usually do not open Instagram to find out your company’s business hours. They use Instagram to engage. Engagement makes it effective for building your brand and gaining popularity.

The successful brands on Facebook

1. Nike – Number of Likes: 22.6 million
2. March of Dimes – Number of Likes: 594,000
3. Taco Bell – Number of Likes: 10.6 million
4. TOMS – Number of Likes: 2.9 million
5. Nature Valley – Number of Likes: 1.4 million
6. Microsoft – Number of Likes: 6.2 million
7. Universal Studios Orlando – Number of Likes: 1.2 million
8. Fitbit – Number of Likes: 586,000

The Top Brands on Instagram

1. Shake Shack 284k followers
2. Oreo 1.6m followers
3. Starbucks 8.9m followers
4. Ben & Jerry’s 635k followers
5. Chubbies 273k followers
6. Nike 47.4m followers
7. H&M 14.2m followers
8. Chanel 12.3m followers

Conclusion

You have to identify your audience, think about the type of content you want to publish and then find the medium. Facebook is not a replacement for Instagram and Instagram cannot replace Facebook. The question isn’t which social network is better. The question is how your company can use each one to reach your audience and grow your potential social media presence.

Choosing the right platform depends on what you are looking for. You need to think of your goals and what you wish to achieve from the campaign. Facebook and Instagram, both the social media platforms, have extremely subjective benefits. Different features and audiences mean what works better for you may not work extremely well for another business.

You have heard the phrase don’t dump all your eggs in one basket, and this stands true for marketing also. The conclusion is to use both Facebook and Instagram simultaneously and cash on their individual strengths. So go ahead and check the right platform for yourself or use both. Also, dive deeper to convert your Facebook Business Page into an App with Appy Pie’s Facebook app maker.