This is a question that we get asked ALOT. This is because the two platforms are quite similar in many ways. However, breaking them down, we can see that they are in fact very different. So, which one is best for your business?
The shortest answer is both are great, but a longer answer is that it really depends on what you are using them for, your target audience and your industry.
Let’s look at the two of them a little closer.
Instagram is a photo-sharing platform that allows users to edit their images with filters, stickers, text, stories and continues to increase in popularity year after year. After being founded in 2010, it wasn’t long until Facebook acquired Instagram for $1 Billion in 2012. With over over 1Billion users it’s easy to see why.
The advantages of using Instagram:
- You can share lots and lots of pics, it’s also having lots of interesting filters and settings that you may use to edit the pictures as to your requirements instantly.
- You can share your pics to socialise and promote your business and it’s accessible to the rest of the world.
- Filters allow users to design photos to be captivating, eye-catching, and flawless.
- Instagram’s Live story feature, where brands chat in real-time with their followers provides an engagement level of 100%.
- Studies have shown that customer engagement on Instagram is 10x higher than on Facebook.
- More options for ad placement. Stories have been monetised, with ads popping up between auto-playing videos and stories as a user browses their feed.
Twitter is an online news and social networking site where people communicate in short messages called tweets. Tweeting is posting short messages for anyone who follows you on Twitter, with the hope that your words are useful and interesting to someone in your audience. Another description of Twitter and tweeting might be microblogging.
Five years ago, Twitter was a dominant force in the social media marketing world. Marketers flooded to the quick-paced platform to get their content out in front of millions of people. Today, Twitter is not the platform it used to once be. One of the reasons it has seen a decline is because of the rise in Instagram.
The advantages of using Twitter:
- You can socialise and it’s good if you’re promoting your business or ideas.
- It caters to quick updates and summary posts.
- Your posts can quickly go viral.
- Trending topics give your business a chance to be seen by Twitter users from around the world.
- The conversion tracking feature will help your business see which tweets and campaigns perform the best.
- Twitter is great for getting closer to customers and answering their questions and concerns in real-time.
The main age group of users for both networks is 18-29-year olds. After 50+ years old, the number of users start to drop significantly.
If you’re after a younger demographic, you can’t really go wrong with either of these platforms. However, if you are after an older market you may be better sticking to Facebook.
Conclusion
The truth is – you should probably be using both platforms to grow your business. Instagram will allow you to create great content quickly and easily, while Twitter is great for engaging with your audience and even providing customer support.
If you only have time to use one of the platforms, you need to find out what platform is best suited to your business and where your customers are – that will allow you to focus your time and resources on what will work best for you, your business and your customers.
If you want a marketing partner that is passionate about helping you grow your business then get in touch. It’s what we’re best at.
