When you get right down to it, choosing a social media platform when you are marketing your business is primarily about which one fits your brand the best. When it comes to Instagram vs. Twitter, there is quite the difference in target audiences. That’s not all. 

As far as offering good social proof and marketing options, both Twitter and Instagram are giants. This is more about how you plan to use them, and how you plan to market your offerings.

First, here are some basic statistics for each platform.

Instagram Basic Statistics: Quantum Marketer

• Total daily active users –  Over 500 million 
• Business marketers  –  71% of U.S. businesses
• U.S. Users – 71% adults aged 18 to 29 (U.S.); 72% are teens, 
• Global Users – 320 million global users aged 18 to 24; and 354 global users between the ages of 25 and 34
• Influence – 70% of shoppers use Instagram for finding products

Twitter Basic Statistics: Twesocial

• Daily active users – 192 million. of which 55 million are based in the U.S.
• B2B marketers – 67% of B2B marketers use Twitter
• U.S. users – 40 is the median age of Twitter users
• Worldwide users – 63% of worldwide Twitter users are between 35 and 65 years old.
• Influence – 40% of users claim to make purchases after encountering it on Twitter

Age-Related Targeting

Both Instagram and Twitter target similar age groups. They are both excellent for users between 18 to 29-year-olds, since this is the highest percentage of users on these social media sites. 

Instagram 

Instagram is a visual social media platform where user share images, memes, videos, GIFs, etc. Anything visual is Instagram material. You can also edit image using their advanced filters, text, stories. stickers, and the other features this platform offers.

When you are considering Instagram as part of your main marketing strategy, one factor to think about is the wide and welcome use of hashtags. You can use up to 30 hashtags per post on Instagram. 

While it’s recommended not to overuse hashtags, you aren’t likely to need that many for your posts. It’s vital to keep them relevant to your niche.

Benefits of Using Instagram

• You get to share tons of pictures, and even edit them with Instagram’s fabulous features.
• It has been reported that engagement from customers on this platform is 10 times higher than that of Facebook.
• The Instagram Story feature is a widely used feature for good reason. You will grab attention from your audience because your stories can be optimized.
• The ads on this platform are wildly visible and effective.
• Live Stories allow you to chat in real-time with your audience. This engagement is at 100%.

Twitter

Just a few years ago, Twitter was a dynamic social platform used for social media marketing. However, due to the powerful social media marketing that has come out of Instagram, Twitter lost some of its appeal in that arena. 

That doesn’t mean it’s not still an effective social media marketing method, because it is.

Benefits of Using Twitter

• Twitter allows you to effective socialize for marketing and promoting business.
• Tweets on this platform can quickly go viral and you can get Twitter followers quickly
• The trending topics of this platform offer you a grand opportunity to get exposure from users across the globe.
• Updates move quickly.
• You can easily communicate, answering questions and concerns for your customers via messaging in real time.
• Twitter has a conversion tracking tool that help you find out which marketing campaigns and tweets are the performing the best for you.
• So, if you’re aiming for the younger demographic, you are in good hands with Instagram or Twitter. If you’re targeting an older audience of 50 years old and up, Facebook would be a better choice.

Conclusion

As you can see, Instagram is the clear winner for effective marketing in general. Honestly, due to the power that both platforms can bring to your social media marketing strategy, both should be utilized to reach out to more people. Some users may follow you on both platforms, though you may find some that only use one or the other.

Twitter has long been known for being a quick and effective method of handling quality customer support, but it’s also great for interacting with your target audience as well. Instagram offers you the option to quickly create and share content to your audience, and you can get a large following very quickly with the help of a growth service.

While you can use direct messaging on Instagram for customer service or support, it’s not as good as Twitter’s features.

It’s important to do your due diligence to find your ideal social media marketing platform according to your needs.