It’s no longer news that Instagram is now an acquisition of Facebook. While as at the time of acquisition, a lot of stakeholders and experts faulted the move as a wrong investment. Why would they spend a billion dollar to acquire something run by a scanty 13 employees.
Since then, Instagram has grown in leaps and bounds. The current value of Instagram has quadrupled its value at the time of acquisition. The social networking site is now seen as a giant on its own (although Facebook is still the bigger giant). Those people who frowned at Facebook’s decision back then would have retraced their steps by now.
While Facebook is still very relevant, some marketers would rather spend their marketing time and efforts on Instagram rather than Facebook. There are good reasons for this.
Instagram does better for visual contents
When instagram was launched, its primary focus was to enable users upload and share their photos online. Till today, Instagram is more tailored for visual contents. If you are in an industry where visual communication is relevant, Instagram will fare better for your marketing efforts.
Industries like architecture, beauty, artifacts, and fashion will do better on Instagram. However, the option is there to increase Instagram followers by putting in the necessary time and work, of you could simply outsource this process and buy followers through a wide range of services.
Instagram can help you go direct
Although Facebook may have the highest number of monthly users, sometimes it’s more about the quality. Instagram will enable you meet the small group of people that are interested in your offer or proposal. In other words, your marketing could be more effective. You are channeling your efforts to specific individuals, which could be great to gain more followers. However, on Facebook you could market more people but have a very low turn up.
Use Facebook for a wider reach
If you are in a generic niche, where numbers of audience matters, Facebook will be the better marketing platform for you. This is because the social media horsepower has more marketing tools and software to aid your campaign. You have better opportunity to reach a wide range of people from all walks of life via Facebook. Another benefit to using Facebook, is their chat and messenger platform. Engagement numbers on these platforms in comparison to email marketing, have been through the roof.
Those who are looking for followers from all ages will fare better on Facebook. You don’t need to segment the audience as you are going to cover their interest, no matter their age grade or social status.
Facebook is also great for paid advertising
If you want to run an advert campaign on social media, Facebook is the way to go. Their paid advertising system is still more effective than that of Instagram. There are so many tools that can help you channel your adverts to the specific audience you want to attract. Facebook has a wider reach and it could be a cost effective way of running paid adverts than on Instagram.
Overall, both Facebook and Instagram are very relevant in today’s world of marketing and branding. If your industry is more about showcasing visuals, you will be better off using Instagram. However, if you are in a more generic niche, the platform with wider reach is always better. And you could even synchronize your Facebook and Instagram profiles to work effectively.
Facebook and Instagram are two of the biggest social platforms on the internet today. Ironically, they are both owned by the same people as well. If you want to stay ahead of the curve, make sure you keep both of them on your content creation and marketing efforts list.