Social Media

Facebook vs Instagram: Which is Best for You?

Hayley Haggerty

As a business owner, you probably know all about the different social media platforms out there. Just in common use, we have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and many more. But do you know all the differences between them? In this article, we’re taking a look at the differences between Facebook vs Instagram. We’ll highlight the differences between their user bases, advertising practices, monetization opportunities, and more!

Facebook vs Instagram Overview

Although Facebook now owns Instagram, there are still a lot of differences between the two platforms.

Facebook rose to power as a social media giant by filling the void MySpace left behind. As a company, they created new ways to form connections. With Facebook, you can interact with your network by sharing posts, videos, and pictures.

Instagram has always been more about simply sharing snapshots of your life in the form of pictures and stories. This can be to an audience of adoring fans as an influencer or to your close-knit group of family and friends.

Audience

When it comes to the main differences between the two popular social media platforms, your general audience is a key component. Typically, the most common age range of customers who use Facebook is between 30 and 64 years old. Instagram tends to skew younger towards Gen Z, or between 15 and 30 years old.

Depending on your target audience for your business, you might want to pick between the types of posts you share and create on each platform to appeal the most to each audience.

Active Users

If you’re looking at each platform in terms of audience quantity, you’re probably wondering if Facebook or Instagram is the best to advertise on.

Overall, Facebook is the better choice when it comes to quantity. With over 2.38 billion active users each day, Facebook is generally the best platform to have your posts seen at any given time.

Instagram, by contrast, has 1 billion active users per day worldwide.

However, it is worth looking at the number of post engagement and interactions between the two platforms. Although Facebook’s daily active users are far above Instagram’s, the number of total interactions on Instagram posts is more than double those posted on Facebook.

Advertising Formats

Between Facebook and Instagram, your business’ advertising practices may look the same to outside eyes, but there are a few key differences.

Facebook’s advertising practices generally take the form of single images, Carousels of 2-10 scrollable images, and interactive Canvas ads using both photos and videos with multiple homepage placements.

Instagram, by contrast, typically only places its single photos, 60-second videos, and Carousels on its main page and IGTV page.

Each platform and advertising type has different goals which you and your business can use to their advantage. If you’re just starting out, your best bet would be to use both social media platforms. This would allow you to capitalize on their unique advertising capabilities.

Monetization Opportunities

Depending on if you’re using Facebook or Instagram for business purposes or as a content creator, you’re probably wondering how to use these platforms to make money.

As we’ve already discussed, both platforms use advertising techniques that are beneficial to your business in different ways.

While Instagram doesn’t share its ad revenue with Instagram creators, there are still plenty of ways to make money. As we discussed in our article on Using Instagram as a Business Account, you can use the app’s shopping capabilities to share and sell your products directly with your customers.

On the other hand, Facebook lets monetize your company’s Business Page, videos, and posts to gain a wider audience.

A Final Word on Facebook vs Instagram

I hope you enjoyed reading about the key differences between Facebook and Instagram when building your business platform.

No matter which social media you choose to pour more time and effort into when promoting yourself, your content, or your company, each platform has its own advantages and disadvantages to creating posts, advertisements, and audience engagement.

Good luck with exploring Facebook and Instagram and figuring out which parts of each app works best for you!

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Hayley Haggerty