Learn how to leverage either platform to boost the visibility of your business

For your digital marketing strategy, which social media platform do you prefer in the first — Facebook or Instagram? If your answer is neither of the two, perhaps you are deprived of millions of organic viewership.

According to research, Instagram now has more than 1 billion active users around the globe. On the other hand, Facebook now has 1.5 billion active users. This figure is round about 20 per cent of the world’s population.

To build or grow a business, you need to have a digital presence on all social media platforms. Predominantly, two mediums are in the race to plan out marketing campaigns. These mediums are known as Facebook and Instagram.

Also Read: 7 tips for using Instagram to maximise your business

So let’s examine which is more effective for marketing your business — Facebook and Instagram?

Algorithms

For firms which provide Instagram marketing services, they need to get the science behind the algorithms. Although algorithms cannot be predicted with 100 per cent accuracy, there are guidelines you can follow regarding each platform’s algorithms.

Instagram’s algorithms

Interest

Your followers will see the content of similar types that they have liked previously on their Instagram account’s feed.

Aptness

The length of time you recently shared the post last time. Your latest post will be prioritized over your older posts.

Time spent

How much time your followers spent time on your post. Here time spent means actual time seeing the posts.

Direct number of shares

Your posts will rank higher if your followers share the positions directly from their account with others.

Your Instagram profile’s popularity

Your posts will rank higher if your Instagram profile is searched constantly or regularly by users.

Facebook’s algorithm

Click bait

Make sure your posts are not pushy. Do not beg for likes, shares and comments; otherwise, your posts will automatically rank lower by Facebook.

Videos and pictures

Posts that are text driven are ranked lower as compared to posts that are rich with images.

Engagement

Posts that get more likes, shares or comments are ranked higher. Also, if your posts are answer-seeking, then there are bright chances that they get a higher ranking.

Instagram is certainly not lagging behind!

With a conservative analysis, around 400 million Instagram followers watch and share stories. According to a study, around one-third of the Instagram stories are posted by businesses.

Facebook still has its charm!

In spite of the existence of other social media platforms, Facebook has not lost its strength and charisma. According to research, adults aged between 25 years till 34 years see the ads run on Facebook.

Which platform is more beneficial to the businesses?

It is quite evident that Instagram is more about photos or images as well as videos. In addition, we saw earlier that people are tending towards seeing more photos rather than reading the text.

Therefore, Instagram comes very handy when selling products through images. A staggering number (62 per cent) shows that Instagram provides help to people in finding new products.

Also, it has been seen that customer’s pictures on the Instagram feed give up thrust to the sales order. Further, 200 million Instagram users see one profile related to a business every day.

On the other hand, digital marketers take Facebook very seriously in terms of digital ad’s Return on Investment (ROI) A study shows some noticeable results in favor of Facebook. The study revealed that 30 per cent of the marketers think that Facebook provides them with the highest digital ROI on their ad campaigns.

What type of target audience do both platforms have?

This is also an undeniable fact that Instagram is more adult oriented. According to a study, 90 per cent of the Instagram accounts belong to people aged 35 or below.

Moreover, we see a flood of accounts that cater to the need for beauty, fitness, food and apparels because the above niches belong to the adult population.

On the flip side, Facebook is equally popular among millennial and adults. But Facebook stretches its range till the age of 65 or more. Facebook helps to write your mind. We often see businesses provide much more details on Facebook as compared to Instagram. Facebook also aids in long-form discussions.

What about the engagement rate?

Without a shadow doubt, Facebook comparatively is the biggest platform as far as number of followers is concerned. But audience engagement is a crucial requirement which Facebook lacks.

Despite various options that Facebook provides for example groups, pages, Facebook stories, etc. it never comes close to the engagement rate of Instagram.

According to a study, the average time spent on an Instagram post is 192.04 seconds, while users spend 164.02 seconds on a Facebook post. The figures show a significant difference.

Besides, brands with significant popularity gain more likes on Instagram as compared to Facebook.

Which platform has a more user-friendly layout?

When we talk about Facebook, we do not see much of a difference regarding layout. Whether you use Facebook via PC, laptop or smartphone, the platform is optimized for every device.

Also Read: 8 tips for a successful Instagram advertising campaign

While for Instagram, the story is quite different. You encounter several limitations when using through a desktop. Instagram users can’t upload stories or photos via the desktop site. We can easily say that Instagram is specifically developed for smartphone users.

Final words

Any Instagram marketing agency cannot brush aside the relevance and importance of Facebook. Although Instagram has got a slight edge over Facebook, you still can’t ignore the impact of Facebook marketing.

If you are a business planning to obtain Instagram marketing services, you have to utilize Facebook as a secondary marketing tool. Otherwise, you can quickly fall behind in the race.

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Image Credit: Alexey Malkin

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