Aseem Badshah
If you’re not sure which social networking platform is best for your social media marketing strategy, first try to understand the purpose of each platform and the goal of your business. By becoming aware of your goals and the benefits of each platform, you can begin to understand which social media platform is best for your business.
In this article, we will break down the similarities and differences between the two social media platforms Twitter and Instagram.
Twitter vs Instagram for Growing a Business
While both Twitter and Instagram may have similar audiences, the purpose of each platform differs greatly.
Both Instagram and Twitter thrive on engagement. A single like on Instagram or a share on Twitter can increase a brand’s presence on either social network tenfold.
From there, however, the two social networking apps vary greatly.
Twitter vs Instagram Comparison of Engagement
Instagram is designed to keep users in the app, engaging with brands and other Instagram users directly on the platform. Engagement can quickly be measured by likes on Instagram photos or by views of Instagram stories. Brands can easily monitor audience engagement with the Instagram analytics tool, which, of course, is built into the Instagram app as well.
Because engagement within the app is so important, many brands aim to increase their followers on Instagram so that they can also naturally increase engagement.
The downside to this is that users must visit your Instagram profile in order to find a link to your company website, which is an important step in the buying process for consumers.
This is where Twitter and Instagram differ the most.
In fact, engagement on Twitter, if defined by the same measures as on Instagram, is significantly lower. Twitter users give fewer likes and shares per post within the same time frame and with the same amount of followers.
For example, Pepsi shared the same photo on both social media platforms within one hour of each other.
They currently have 3.13 million Twitter followers and 1.2 million Instagram followers. They shared the photo on Instagram an hour after they shared the same photo with Twitter.
Even so, there is an immediate explosion of engagement on Instagram, resulting in thousands of likes within the hour.
One of the easiest ways to generate engagement quickly is by using Instagram hashtags.
Instagram hashtags allow you to expand your reach easily and build organic engagement. This is because hashtags on Instagram work a lot like keywords on search engines: they make your content more discoverable.
Instagram is an invaluable tool that can help build your brand presence through Instagram photos and stories, but it does very little to bring organic traffic to your business website.
Twitter, on the other hand, allows you to share blog posts, important updates, and helpful links directly into your Twitter feed. Though users may not like or share the tweet, they are more likely to click the link within the tweet. This form of engagement is incredibly valuable to businesses and is nearly impossible to replicate on Instagram.
Once you create quality and share-worthy content, the engagement on each platform will follow.
Grow Your Presence on Instagram and Twitter
Whether you use your preferred social networks to generate buzz or to build website traffic, it is important that you get more followers on each platform.
After all, your followers are your potential customers.
However, getting more followers and more engagement looks slightly different on Instagram than it does on Twitter.
Because Instagram relies on in-app engagement, it makes sense for businesses to engage as much as possible within the community on Instagram.
The best way to do this is to engage with Instagram posts within your target market. The easiest way to do that is by liking and following Instagram users who are using hashtags within your market.
For instance, if you target small business owners, then your top hashtags would likely be #smallbiz and #localbusiness.
By liking and following users with these hashtags, you are naturally bringing your brand into their awareness. Once they discover your Instagram profile and see that you offer content that they enjoy, they will likely follow your page.
Certain automation tools, like Growr, can help you engage with your target audience continuously so that you can continue to build your social media presence without sacrificing time. All that you need to do is submit a list of hashtags to target, and Growr will like and follow users who use the designated hashtags.
For Twitter, however, it requires a little bit more strategy.
Just like with Instagram hashtags, you can easily find your target market by searching for hashtags on Twitter. By searching for certain hashtags, or keywords, you will quickly find leaders and competitors within your industry, as well as important information that is being shared.
Much like with Instagram, it is important to engage with the users and leaders within your market as it builds brand awareness on the social media platform.
Tools like Socedo can help tremendously in growing your Twitter presence. Socedo streamlines the process of searching for users within your target market so that you can be sure that you are engaging with the right users. You can also manage your outreach and export followers to continue engaging on multiple channels.
A tool like this ensures that you are not only increasing your brand’s presence on Twitter but also that you are continuously monitoring the results of your efforts so as not to waste any time.
Conclusion
Both Twitter and Instagram offer major opportunities for your business, no matter the industry. The key is to understand which types of content work best on each platform and your business’s goals in using social media. Be proactive in growing your brand presence online and don’t be afraid to use tools that can help make that happen. By understanding how each platform can help your business, you are better able to grow your presence on social media.
About the Author
Marquis Matson has over 10 years of experience in the field of Psychology and 3 years in content marketing. She is a rising SEO expert that has grown organic traffic to start-up sites by 900% within the first six months of launch.
She has proven skills in market analysis and keyword research, working primarily in the wellness and mindfulness niche.
She has spent the last three years travelling through most of Latin America, studying Spanish and cross-cultural differences. You can find her at yaySEO, where she provides boutique professional SEO services.
