Twitter was a powerful platform in the social media marketing world about three to five years ago.
Marketers used the quick-paced platform to get their content out in front of about millions of users.
This platform is still very popular, but not as same as old.
Today, Instagram is one of the most engaging social media app currently available.
You can find some brand and marketers start to shift away from heavily focusing on Twitter and try more effort toward Instagram.
Now, Instagram is a place where consumers live.
This does not mean your brand should jump ship and forget about Twitter.
In this Post, you will know more about some of the differences and similarities between the two social networks and allow you to get a clearer picture of which one is best for your business.
Instagram vs Twitter: The Numbers
If you want to focus on social networks based on popularity, statistics can provide you a lot of insight.
Remember, you shouldn’t make your decision just by using these numbers, statistics will give you a great place to start.
Twitter Statistics
- Monthly users = 316 million
- Active users on mobile = 80%
- Users outside the U.S = 77%
- Tweets sent per day = 500 million
Reference: Twitter.com
Instagram Statistics
- Monthly active users = 400 million
- Photos shared = 40 billion
- Photos on average per day = 80 million
- Likes per day = 3.6 billion
Reference: Instagram.com
As you know, Twitter is an older social media platform but the number of monthly active users on Instagram is more.
Many businesses when reading these statistics alone then take notice of the app and start to learn the art of Instagram marketing.
According to statistics, content sharing on Twitter with more than about 500 million Tweets sent out per day is more than 80 million photos posted per day on Instagram.
Instagram vs Twitter: Audience
When you look at their statistics especially demographics, you’ll find out that the two social networks have similar users in income, age, level of education and even location.
The major age group of people for both networks is 18-29-year-olds.
The number of users starts to drop significantly after 50+ years old.
According to statistics, Instagram and Twitter are particularly popular among users who are either have recently graduated or in college.
This group is the most active and this group of users drives social media growth in general.
You can’t really go wrong with either of these platforms if you’re after a younger demographic.
The sites have audiences that are either male and female.
But as you can see in these statistics, gender and location can give marketers significantly more reach
You’ll want to look at the audience of your particular profile to get an idea of who is following you since the demographics for both social networks are pretty matched.
Instagram vs Twitter: Engagement
You can find most engaged users of any social network on Instagram.
While people are browsing with little to no distractions, Instagram focuses on keeping users glued to the app.
When scrolling through a feed, you cannot find any clickable links in the captions or ads to external sites.
Instagram is able to keep customers focused on the content that’s being posted, which is a huge advantage for your business by excluding unnecessary features.
We have Twitter on the other side.
Twitter is very noisy.
Your feed contains links to news articles, blog posts, videos and other content that takes you away from Twitter’s platform.
And this type of noisy content makes it much more difficult to get your audience to see your content and engage with it.
The lifespan
The lifespan of your Tweets can vary depending on how many other people your followers are following because Twitter moves so fast.
For example, your content is going to be one in a sea of thousands of others if your follower is following about 1,500 people.
Your content can go completely unseen in some cases if other people start Tweeting.
Engagement
While Instagram might have more engagement on the specific platform, Twitter actually builds engagement outside of the social network.
Therefore, the brand needs to think twice about taking their focus outside Twitter.
Readers can’t simply share a post to Instagram.
Instagram social media engagement basically begins and ends in the app.
But you can drive engagement outside of the social network platform by getting users to Tweet links to content on your website and other platforms on Twitter.
Instagram vs Twitter: Functionality
Instagram holds you within the app on purpose.
The content that users share will highlight by company.
The value of Instagram comes from within the Instagram app.
Twitter is basically a tool for content distribution.
You cannot find very much original content on Twitter.
The network primarily consists of users sharing live updates or links.
The Value
Keep in mind, the Twitter value comes from the content you can find on other sites.
Twitter wouldn’t be nearly as successful as it is today if users couldn’t Tweet links.
They’re just different and this doesn’t mean that either approach is better than the other.
You can choose the social media network depending on your brand’s goals.
For example, Twitter is a great social media platform if your brand has an active blog and you have a consistent supply of new content that you need to promote.
Twitter is one of the easiest tools to share your content on social media.
But if you don’t have a blog or website of your company is fairly static, Instagram is a better social media for your business.
On Instagram, your brand can share quality content and put a link to your website in your bio.
Customer Interaction
Customer interaction is one of the other key functionalities of Twitter for businesses that I cannot ignore it.
Most brands use Twitter as a customer service tool because it is about conversations.
Consumers using this platform for customer support and feedback.
People aren’t sorry to voice their opinions about the brand on Twitter.
As you know your brand cannot find this type of functionality on Instagram.
Most brands don’t actively track and monitor their accounts on Instagram like they do Twitter.
Dedicated accounts on Twitter purely for support has become the norm for companies.
Twitter is going to be important if your brand sells physical goods or serves the masses.
Twitter gives the brand a better method to interact directly with customers than Instagram.
You can quickly communicate in real time on Twitter and this is a big reason why this platform continues to be one of the top social media channels.
Instagram is less focused on customer-to-business interaction and more focused on the content.
As you know, the conversations on Instagram revolve around the posts instead of consumer issues and questions.
When you want to decide which platform is good for your brand understanding the difference between how people use Instagram versus how they use Twitter is extremely important.
Instagram vs Twitter: Advertising
Advertising is the last thing to keep in mind.
Remember advertising on Twitter is open.
You can sign up now and start running ads on Twitter.
But advertising on Instagram is still in the early stages.
Purchasing shout-outs from established accounts are one technique that most new brands are using to help get established on Instagram.
Instagram vs Twitter: Conclusion
Some people claim that Instagram is the Twitter killer but it is not really true.
They have two completely different functions in your marketing strategy even though they serve a similar demographic and audience.
The Instagram platform is a place where users publish original content and build their brands.
Twitter is a great tool to distribute and curate content, as well as engage and interact with your followers.
You don’t need to select one platform over the other.
Search to find better ways to integrate both into your social media strategy and you’ll get greater results.
