Which is More Useful for Online Marketing, Instagram or Facebook?


Companies today are shifting gears. From the traditional marketing channels, they are shifting towards digital marketing channels. Companies are shifting to the online world because of the following reasons −

  • Availability of consumers in the online world Today consumers are spending more than 9 hours in front of a screen, and hence the time that they used to devote to traditional channels like newspapers and magazines has drastically reduced. Companies have to be where the consumers are.

  • Digital Marketing helps the company in reaching to a wider set of the target audience. Now they have expanded their sales operation across the globe.

  • It helps the company with data-driven marketing and advertising of products. Gone are the days when consumers would prefer mass advertising of products and services; now they want someone to directly speak to them and address their wants and needs.

  • It helps the company sell products and services at competitive prices. With digital marketing, companies can save a lot on overhead costs and use that for the company’s benefit or to attract more lucrative consumers.

Now, when companies come to the online world for their marketing needs, they can see that digital marketing has been divided into various wings. In this article, we will be understanding the basic concept of digital marketing and the various wings of digital marketing, and then largely focus on which social media platforms, i.e., Facebook or Instagram, is better for the business and why.

The Concept of Digital Marketing

Any marketing initiative taken by the company on digital platforms or the internet to promote or advertise its product, service, or brand name is known as digital marketing or online marketing. Companies today are leveraging the fact that consumers have access to high-speed internet and smartphones. The various wings of digital marketing are −

  • Social media marketing  marketing done through various social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Hike, WhatsApp, Telegram, YouTube, and others.

  • Affiliate marketing  marketing is done by famous people on social media platforms or in the digital world and by experts in a particular field. Here, the influencers or affiliate marketers try to convince the consumer to purchase a particular product and brand.

  • Search Engine Marketing or Paid Marketing  Techniques: Here the company pays the browsing website to promote their content on the top of the SERP so that they can have more consumers and high website traffic.

  • Search Engine Optimization  Here the marketers focus on improving the ranking of the page or the website on the browsing site through various tips and tricks. It is an organic form of marketing.

  • Email Marketing  In this form of marketing, the companies send e-mails to the consumers regarding the product, services, price offers, discounts, or warm wishes on occasions and special days.

  • Content marketing − This is a form of marketing where the company's product is impactful and convinces content to sell the company’s products and services. This wing also has an important role to play in other forms of marketing because the company needs content to advertise its products.

In-depth knowledge of Facebook

Facebook, the social media application, was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes in 2004. All of them were Cambridge students. Some of the facts and figures about Facebook are −

  • Facebook is the most popular social media platform. Today, it has around 2.93 billion monthly active users present on the website. 36.7% of the world’s population uses Facebook monthly.

  • Facebook is the third-most visited website in the world and the 7th-most valuable brand in the world.

  • Facebook is the most preferred social media platform for people between the age groups of 35 and 44.

  • 7% of Gen Z users plan to quit Facebook in the year 2023.

  • On average, users spend 19.7 hours on Facebook on a monthly basis.

  • Americans spend around 30 minutes on Facebook every day.

  • The average engagement rate of a Facebook page is 0.07%.

  • 7% of global Facebook users are female, and the remaining 57.3% of global users are male.

  • The median age of Facebook users is 32 years old.

  • 7% of Facebook’s total audience, i.e., 93.5 million people, are aged between 13 and 17 years. 21.5% of Facebook’s total audience, i.e., 426.8 million, are aged between 18 and 24 years. 30% between the age group of 25–34, 19.3% between the age group of 25–44, 11.6% between the age group of 45–54, 7.2% between the age group of 55–64, and 5.6% between the age group of 65 and above.

  • 81.8% of Facebook mobile users in 2021 used the application through Android, while the remaining 14.8% used Apple IOS, and 3.4% used mobile web browsers.

  • While the Asian subcontinent has around 935.4 active Facebook users. India alone has 314.6 million users.

In-depth knowledge of Instagram

Instagram was founded in 2010 by Mike Kreiger and Kevin Systrom. The essence of the application was to be an instant photo-clicking and sharing application for the users.

  • The majority of Instagram users are aged between 18 and 29.

  • On Instagram, on a normal day, more than 80 million photos are shared and receive 3.5 billion likes.

  • Every day, around 100 million accounts upload a story on Instagram.

  • There are more than 1 million advertisers on Instagram.

  • The United States, Russia, Turkey, Brazil, and the United Kingdom have the most popularity on Instagram.

  • There are over 16 million Google searches every month regarding Instagram.

  • Instagram today has more than 1.318 billion users. India has the most Instagram users in the world, i.e., 229 million. Instagram has more than 500 million daily active users.

  • More than 60% of Instagram users log in on a daily basis.

  • 80% of all Instagram accounts are personal accounts.

  • Instagram is the 10th most searched query globally and the 5th most popular app downloaded in the Apple App Store.

  • 90% of the people on Instagram follow different brands.

The feud between Instagram and Facebook as your preferred medium for marketing communication

After going through the data above, we believe that you now have much more clarity. Both Instagram and Facebook are excellent choices for the company, but the company should choose the platform on the basis of their −

  • Target customer segment  If you are a brand that is targeting Gen Z, then Instagram should be your mode of communication, while if you are planning to target the middle-aged generation who are working, then Facebook is your choice.

  • Young and very active users  If you are looking for people who are very active on social media, then Instagram is your choice, but remember that those people are generally investing their time on the platform, so think about their financial and professional status.

  • What type of products you are selling − if you are selling laptop bags to corporate employees, Instagram is not your place because of the lack of a target audience, and Facebook is your place because of the abundance of consumers.

  • Geographical location  it is generally observed that people in the rural parts of the country are more active on Facebook and then Instagram, so the company can make the platform choice and others.

Conclusion

Companies have to understand that social media today has uncontrollable power. More than 71% of the adults who have access to the internet are on social media, and more than 4.7 billion people are using social media today. The potential customers that the company has when they are using social media to advertise their products are not mesmerizing. Companies like insurance, real estate, hospitality, and others are using social media to advertise their services. Social media offers the chance of advertising the brand's product through both organic and inorganic methods. It is time that we go with the trend and become the trend.

Updated on: 06-Apr-2023

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