Instagram vs Facebook: Favorite Thing for your brand Strategies - Fizah Mughees

 IN Short:

In 2015, $3 billion seemed like an awful lot to pay for Instagram, given that the photo-sharing network had just 30 million users.On Instagram, the main intention is to share and find the best photos and videos. Every user profile has follower and following counts, reprhttps://pin.it/1CBc6uLesenting how many people they follow and how many other users are following them. 

But, Facebook was so weak on mobile in those pre-IPO days, and the purchase of Instagram allowed an immediate shoring up in that area.

Mark Zuckerberg was lauded for his commitment to keeping Instagram independent, and not just Frankenstein the technology into the parent Facebook app.

Instagram’s Algorithm

Engagement. How many hearts and comments on each post.

1.    Relevancy. Are the post’s genres relevant to the user?

2.    Relationships. Posts from accounts that the user interacts with more frequently are ranked higher.

3.    Timeliness. More recent posts are ranked higher.

4.    Profile searches. Posts from accounts that users search for regularly are ranked higher.

5.    Direct shares. Posts from accounts the user directly shares with others are ranked higher, and the person who receives the shared posts gets a rank boost on their own posts.

6.    Time spent on post. The time spent actually looking at a post (not scrolling).

Facebook’s new algorithm

1.    Friends and family. Posts from people the user knows personally are ranked higher. This is important because it means posts from brands are demoted.

2.    Engagement. How many likes, comments and shares the post receives, factoring in time.

3.    Encouraging engagement. Posts likely to start to a conversation are ranked higher.

4.    Images and videos. Visual posts are ranked higher and text-only posts are ranked lower.

5.    Bait is demoted. Posts that aggressively bait for likes, shares, comments, votes or tags are ranked lower.

Promotional posts are demoted. Posts trying to push people into buying a product/service or join a contest are demoted. Also, Facebook checks text against known advertisements and demotes unofficial ads.

Instagram vs. Facebook by the numbers

While Facebook’s head start may give it an advantage in terms of user base and popularity, Instagram’s growth has been extremely strong and is continuing to climb. Let’s look at some of the key stats.

Facebook statistics:

·         2.38 billion monthly active users

·         96% of active user accounts accessed the social network via a mobile device

·         40% of consumers said that they watch the most videos on Facebook

·         65 million small businesses have Facebook Pages

·         83% of marketers say they use Facebook as part of their brand’s social strategy

Instagram statistics

·         1 billion monthly active users

·         500 million daily active Instagram Stories users worldwide

·         37% of US Internet users are on Instagram

·         68% of Instagram users visit the platform daily

·         77% of marketers say they use Instagram as part of their brand’s social strategy

·         As you can see, Facebook might have larger vanity numbers but Instagram’s stats are very impressive—particularly in terms of engagement. Instagram has built itself up as a platform that thrives on users being able to engage with the visual content brands share.

Advantages of Instagram over Facebook?

Instagram is currently the perfect platform for reaching a much younger audience. Demographics that include a huge millennial following really set this market apart.

It’s a much more visual medium than Facebook, which is reflected in the categories that users tend to gravitate towards: Fashion, Photography, Beauty, and Architecture to name a few.

More than one-third of Instagram users have made an online purchase using their phones, and their average spend is actually 15.4% greater than Facebook’s.

Perhaps the best part of advertising with Instagram is that about 72% of marketers are currently making use of it.

Instagram’s latest features like Reels, shoppable feeds, product tags, badges, guides, etc., are further making it a more market-friendly social media network.

In a landscape with a relatively low level of competition when compared to Facebook, you can market yourself to a desirable, engaged, younger audience on the cheap with the help of free Instagram tools.

Why Instagram Is your favorite social media?

However, the most important reason I love Instagram is because it offers the highest quality content out of any social network. Regardless of the account, everything about the application makes it less commercialized and more focused on the content.

What is the main difference between Facebook and Instagram?

It's important to mention that you can have the same content on both social media platforms. What makes the difference is how posting content works on Instagram vs Facebook. You can post one to three times a day on Instagram, whereas, on Facebook, things change a bit.