Facebook Vs Instagram, both home to the same company, but serve different needs for social media marketing. The comparison between Instagram and Facebook has been a hot-button issue for marketing professionals for many years.
After Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012, the platform saw a paradigm shift in the way marketers used its features. An Instagram business account can be linked to the Facebook business dashboard, and all content can be navigated from a single point.
This change made social media marketing very seamless. The Facebook ad templates for marketing can be used on Instagram, with a simple click of the button. But they are both platforms that perform very different tasks.
Why single out each platform? Before we can compare one to the other, we must understand what each of them has to offer. While one might be better than the other, the parameters we use to gauge their strength could differ.
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If we single out Facebook as a marketing device, we can notice that it’s years of existence has made it a bulletproof platform. They have had the time to master the domain and create the perfect social media platform. Facebook is designed to encourage user engagement, which is a massive advantage to a marketer.
Simple gestures such as like, share, love, shock, are simple visual integrations that trigger a reaction from the users. The comment sections of each post feel like a fluid discussion room that adds value to the post. Additionally, posts with more engagement rank higher, making it an excellent reward system for content creators.
The easy-to-use interface and the familiarity of the platform also bring a much diverse user base to Facebook. Facebook has users from all age groups, be it college kids to retired seniors. This is a useful database to better target ads.
Facebook is also an advocate of visual posts over text-filled posting. If your image has more than 20% text, Facebook flags the image and ranks it lower compared to other posts. Click-baiting and posts that ask for actions (like comments, and shares) are also ranked much lower on the platform.
Facebook is overall, a wholesome tool that allows marketing managers the luxury of highly specific targeting. The large user base and familiar interface are hands down their more significant advantages.
As compared to Facebook, Instagram is a much younger platform: both its age and the age of the user base. Instagram is a photo and video driver platform with minimal room for long posts and text-based content.
However, they have a lot of diversity in post types like stories, IGTV, carousel ads, etc. Instagram tends to encourage videos. The majority of the userbase on Instagram is looking for short-form and snackable video content.
This demand for videos has also given rise to many tools that make content creation accessible. An Instagram video editor for android can help produce simple and straightforward videos in just a few clicks.
The ranking of posts on Instagram, unlike Facebook, is not dependent on engagement. The posts that are uploaded more recently rank higher on the home page. If you are an avid follower of a specific account and engage with them more often, their posts will appear earlier.
Instagram also does not allow direct-to-feed sharing of content. It can only be shared on stories or sent to users via direct message. Users will have to rely on their part apps like ‘repost’ to share on their feeds; however, these shares do now add to the insights of the original post.
To put it broadly, Instagram is a young-person platform, while Facebook is a more global one. A domain like fashion, art, design, etc. will flourish on Instagram more than it would on Facebook.
The reactions on Instagram are also limited to only a comment and the like-button. But this platform is more conducive to content creators. With exciting features like layouts, boomerang, face filters, and much more, the platform is nothing short of paradise for creators.
Overall, Instagram gives many pre-built features to make content posting fun and much more manageable.
Once we understand how both these platforms function, you might be leaning into one of the two options. This bias is solely based on the selective-fact-reading to back your brand. Unfortunately, we cannot pick one winner, but we can dedicate certain qualities to each.
Facebook is an effective way to gain more from conventional marketing. The user base is more prominent, and it also has a much denser age and region demographic. Also, Facebook has features like Facebook pixels, which makes it much easier to gather data points and run a more robust campaign.
On the other hand, Instagram is the ideal tool for direct-to-consumer marketing and paints a better brand image. It allows users to build a community around each page and share content that is trending and shareworthy. If your brand targets a younger demographic, there’s no replacement for Instagram.
Since these two platforms are from the same parent company, it’s faster for marketing managers to plan ads and marketing campaigns for both audiences, all from the same dashboard. From the marketer’s point of view, the ad-manager on Facebook is the only tool they need to market to both the platforms.
While both platforms are effective in their own ways, the bottom line is still quality content. Without quality content, the variety of platforms is a redundant argument. By quality content, we mean one that satisfies the interests of the audience and keeps them hooked to your page.
Technical aspects of posting also play a significant role. This means your post should have the right hashtags and should be of the correct size based on the platform. Pay attention to the finer details like color grading, adding subtitles, good-quality audio, etc.
The content you post on any of these platforms should be original, relevant, and creative. Once you hammer a nail on content type and quality, they can be taken to the next level with better marketing strategies.
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