When you are starting a business, you might wonder about Twitter vs Instagram; which one should you use Twitter or Instagram to promote your business. Well, both social media platforms have been proven to be effective in the terms of business promotion. Now, let’s look deeper into the benefits of each platform to take into consideration achieving your business goals.Â
Twitter Benefits
Twitter has several features that mostly fit any business marketing plan. Let’s take a look closer at those features.
Twitter Lists
Twitter lists can help you with competitive research. It is a customized timeline composed of tweets from specific accounts you have selected. Any public accounts can be added to the list even if you are not following them. The good thing is you can make your Twitter lists private and viewable only to you. Twitter lists can be a goldmine to draw inspiration from other brands and keep an eye on the competition.
Twitter Business Analytics
Business analytics can assist you to track your performance and give insights on how to improve it. Twitter Analytics for business will give you data on video and tweets activities along with an overview of the engagements and impressions.
Within the Twitter analytics page, you can find suggestions from Twitter on how to improve your performance. Some of the data metrics to be considered are Top Mentions and Engagement Rates. Those two metrics can guide you to make necessary adjustments to improve your marketing strategy including what type of content to be posted and getting higher engagements.
Twitter and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Who can live without SEO in this digital world? Social media and SEO are two things that are inseparable. The good news is that the deal between Google and Twitter has given Twitter the upper hand. Tweets will be displayed in the search engine results whenever people are using keywords that are related to the tweets. Finally, it makes more sense to target higher shares and engagements on your tweets with links to drive traffic to your website or landing pages.Â
Instagram Benefits
Now we are moving forward to Instagram and what benefits they have for your marketing strategy.
Instagram Categories   Â
Instagram categories provide users with a better understanding of your business’s offerings or services. They are shown at the top of your brand account. A few examples of Instagram categories are Actor, Architectural Designer, Artist, Athlete, Author, Blogger, and Coach.
Make sure to choose a category that perfectly matches your products or services. By choosing the right category, you will be able to optimize your visibility to potential customers. Keywords and hashtags are the benefits that come along with Instagram categories. You can include contact information for your business or customer service team and also include keywords and clickable hashtags in your bio to increase search availability.
Instagram Insights
Another great benefit provided by Instagram is the Insights feature. Instagram insights help you to monitor content performance and analyze your audiences in terms of demographics. Dive deeper into the granular details of Instagram insights to create a marketing strategy that works.
Instagram Shopping
Running an online store? Well, you should be happy with the Instagram Shopping feature! Instagram has leveled up its shopping capabilities for retail and eCommerce businesses. With Instagram shopping, you can create a seamless online store and customer experience including an immersive full-screen shop, clickable shopping tags for in-feed product details, and a checkout feature for in-app purchasing.
Sounds great, isn’t it?
Twitter vs Instagram: The Comparison
We hope you get a better understanding of the benefits of Twitter vs Instagram. Now, let’s compare them! What exactly needs to be look over before you decide? Here are they!
1. User Demographics
User demographics are the first thing you will need to consider when comparing Twitter and Instagram. The main reason is because: you have to be where your target audiences are! Both Twitter and Instagram have relatively younger audiences compare to other social media platforms.
Some social media research in 2019 found that 38% of Twitter users are between 18 – 29 years old with just 26% of users in the 30-49 years age range. Then, on Instagram, the findings showed that most Instagram users fall within the same 18-29 age range at 67% with 47% of users in the 30-49 years age range. Find it hard to decide?
Well, Twitter features an even split between male and female users while Instagram sways more heavily toward a female audience.
2. Business Ads
Ads? Quite obvious, isn’t it? When it comes to advertising your business on social media, both Twitter and Instagram offer basic targeting options such as segmentation by demographics, locations, and languages.
Now, since Facebook owns Instagram, IG is privy to all of Facebook’s advanced targeting options like behaviors and interests. You can also create custom and lookalike audiences to reach a broader audience. However, if we want to talk about device targeting – Twitter is the clear winner for mobile targeting. We believe that most people using Twitter from their phones. Twitter even has the capabilities including the option to focus on device models, carriers, and even operating systems.
As far as ad types, Instagram is an excellent option for video and brands with rich media. Image ads, carousel ads, and video ads are conquered by Instagram. However, if you are looking to launch a new app or drive traffic to your website, Twitter may be better suited for your ad needs.
3. Business Analytics
Analytics is imperative to understand the content performance and how you can stack up against the competition. Analytics metrics allow you to assess whether your current strategy is working or if you need to make changes to stay on par with your marketing objectives.
Instagram and Twitter Analytics offer insights and analytics for free with business accounts. Even though they differ in metrics and length of comparison you can choose which one is comfier and fit your business needs. Instagram insights will show you the account performance over the last week and they are actually more robust than other platforms. To be exact, here are the metrics you can track from Instagram insights:
- Website and profile visits
- Account reach and performance
- Specific content interaction
- Audience demographics
Twitter analytics will show you the analytic performance over the last 28 days and here are the metrics you can track:
- Profile visits
- Tweet impressions
- Tweet growth
- Individual tweet performance
- Conversion
However, Twitter analytics does not show you any audience data which is an important part of your research to create a crisp marketing strategy.
Final Thoughts
When it comes to comparing Twitter vs Instagram, each platform offers different benefits for your business but both are great social tools to grow. The question is not about which one is better but it’s more about which is best for your needs. Invest your time and resources in social networks that provide the most value to your brand and target audience. Make sure to take time to decide before you jump right in.
