Social networking sites like Facebook and Instagram are the perfect place to promote your brand, especially if you’re looking to reach consumers. No matter where they post, your audience can easily find you on these networks. As part of this synergy, Facebook and Instagram have created opportunities for brands to connect with users by allowing them to share Instagram Stories directly to Facebook and letting marketers place Instagram ads on Facebook.
Most companies have a presence on both Facebook and Instagram. But which is better for your business? There’s no simple answer to this question, so we’ll lay out the facts for you to make an informed decision about how you will use these social media platforms moving forward.
Facebook vs. Instagram Statistics
When you take into account the growth of the user base and its usefulness as a marketing tool, it is no wonder that Facebook continues to be an extremely popular platform for many businesses. Facebook has become the ultimate social media platform for businesses, with over 2.91 billion monthly active users as of the fourth quarter of 2021. Its popularity soared over the past 15 years, redefining what social networks can be and providing businesses with a wealth of ways to connect with their customers.
While Facebook has had the longest existence of all of the social media networks, new platforms have seen increasing popularity in recent years. Instagram was founded in 2010, and as of 2021, it has more than 2 billion monthly active users worldwide. Mobile browsing is incredibly popular globally — people spend much more time on the web using their phones than on computers. This global shift toward mobile exploring explains Instagram’s rapid growth.
These numbers are incredible but let’s try to investigate them a bit more to truly understand their significance.
Facebook Statistics:
- Currently has 2.91 billion monthly active users
- A study conducted by the Statista Research Department found that Facebook is the most popular social media site for marketers with 93 percent of responding social media marketers using the site to promote their business.
- In a statement released by Meta, it was estimated that 3.59 billion people were using at least one of the company’s core products (Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram or Messenger) each month.
- According to a recent report, 1 in 3 adults receives news from Facebook. The study also shows that these news consumers are attracted to timely and often controversial content on the platform.
Related: 8 Facebook Statistics That Every Business Needs to Know (Infographic)
Instagram Statistics:
- Instagram reached 2 billion active users after 11.2 years of being launched.
- 78% of marketers use Instagram as part of their brand’s social strategy.
- Instagram now has 500 million daily active users on its Stories feature.
- There were 3.7 million sponsored posts on the platform by influencers.
Related: 12 Instagram Statistics That Every Business Needs to Know (Infographic)
Facebook vs. Instagram Demographics
Demographics are extremely important to consider when you’re considering your business’ target customer. In 2018, 105 million people used Instagram in the United States. By 2022, U.S. Instagram audiences will grow to 131 million users. As of April 2019, it was found that the United States, Brazil, and India had the largest Instagram audiences by a wide margin. The biggest demographic group on Instagram is people between the ages of 25 and 34 years old. In general, two-thirds of Instagram’s global audience is 34 and younger.
According to the study from Statista, women between the ages of 18 and 24 years make up 9.3 percent of Facebook’s audience, while male users between the ages of 25 and 34 years constitute the biggest demographic group on the social media platform. Facebook users usually access the network via mobile devices. Many people use mobile devices because they are based in countries where mobile is primarily how people access the Internet. For example, India ranks first in terms of Facebook audience size with 340 million users. The United States, Brazil, and Indonesia also all have more than 100 million Facebook users each.
Facebook vs. Instagram in Terms of Engagement
Facebook and Instagram are both very popular social networks, but they are very different from each other. Facebook is a great platform for text updates and for interacting with your community in various ways. Your interactions on Facebook can also be shared on other platforms or used for content promotion. While Facebook and Instagram are similar, there are still many differences that you need to take into account when posting and targeting your audience.
You’ve probably noticed that the majority of people on Instagram use the network to share images rather than text. This is because the audience uses Instagram to share photos with friends. It’s also worth noting that, since these are pictures posted by real people, your caption has a greater chance of gaining traction and being liked or shared than if you were posting text.
One thing we should also consider is Facebook and Instagram’s algorithms. These algorithms have the capacity to learn. Social media platforms are living, breathing entities, in a sense. They rely on their users to help these huge companies grow and expand. By interacting with these social media platforms, their algorithms will learn from you and decide what content you’ll see more often on your feed. See how that works? Now, we’re not saying these algorithms only work one way. The algorithm also learns as much as it can from the individuals who use it — even if they aren’t liking or posting pictures or updating their newsfeed on a regular basis.
Which Social Media Network Works Best for Your Brand?
For companies, it’s important to choose the right social media platform for your business because each platform is different in terms of interaction and its use of visual content. Where you post and what type of content you post on different platforms should be carefully considered so as not to confuse your customers and damage brand integrity.
Curated Media Content
If you’re trying to reach a mass audience, Facebook is the better platform for reaching new people. With news feeds serving headlines for your friends and users from its community, you have more space to share blog posts or educational resources that you think may be helpful for your audience. If you are just creating stories and original photo content, Instagram works better, especially in a visual form.
Brand News Or Blog Content
If you’re posting a company news update or sharing a blog post, Facebook is the better social media platform to post it on. If you’ve ever posted an article on your company blog and wondered why only a few people read it, it might be because you posted it on the wrong online channel. Understanding where to write your company news is important since different audiences spend time on different social networks.
Brand Teasers or Events
So you’ve launched a new product, or your company is planning to host an event. This is the perfect opportunity to get Instagram content. Post images in real-time to give your followers a feel for how things are going. These posts can really help with engagement and be an effective way to share a behind-the-scenes look at your company with customers. The key is to make sure this content is authentic to make it more interesting.
For businesses looking to approach their marketing strategically, spreading awareness across multiple channels is a great first step. Whether you choose Facebook marketing or Instagram marketing, make sure that your social media marketing efforts are strategic, cohesive, and complement your business’ branding.
What we can learn from this duel is that both Facebook and Instagram are viable marketing options. In the end, we recommend integrating both Facebook and Instagram to spread out your brand awareness. Each platform serves a different kind of content, and by catering to their respective audiences you will stand a greater chance of getting word out about your brand.
If you’re looking for someone to help you with the Facebook marketing and Instagram marketing of your business, contact us today, and we’ll be glad to help you!
