Demographics on Facebook versus Instagram
Facebook’s most prominent users are males aged 25-34, with males being more numerous in almost all age categories. Instagram caters more to those aged 18-24, with the largest number of users being males in this age category.
Therefore, while the content posted on Facebook is usually catered towards millennials, you have a higher probability of success if your Instagram posts also incorporate elements that are preferred by Gen Z. The latter also has a large number of millennials, however, so don’t rule them out of your content planning.
Facebook excels in terms of total monthly active users, with an impressive 3.05 billion, while Instagram users aren’t far behind at 2 billion.
Knowing how many active users a platform has and what age groups they’re a part of can take your social media marketing strategy to the next level. If you don’t target the right segment, you might waste important time and resources.
With such a great online audience on both platforms, it would be a shame if your content got lost in the crowd. To make sure that doesn’t happen, you can download the free Best Times to Post on Social Media sheet below and schedule your content to post according to professional recommendations.
User engagement on Facebook versus Instagram
There’s no perfect formula behind the user engagement equation. It’s all going to break down to the platform your users are most used to. And, of course, the type of content you’re going to concentrate the most on.
If your business is more oriented towards the visual component, go for Instagram as a main social media channel. Instagram users prefer aesthetically pleasing accounts and posts, so your images and visuals are sure to generate engagement if they’re high-quality.
If your audience is keener on reading a post, you’ll see more results on Facebook. There, you’ll build and present your brand as much with your words and curated content as with your unique visuals.
If your goal is increased sales, you place yourself in the Facebook camp again. That is because you can benefit from Facebook paid advertising to put together a great lead generation campaign.
While you can also invest in Instagram ads, the platform is more suitable if you want to dwell on influencer marketing. That doesn’t mean you have to rule it out when it comes to promotions. Boosting posts with images of your products or videos about your services can entice people to make a purchase.
Posting on Facebook versus Instagram
Sharing the same post on Facebook and Instagram won’t have the same results, and it’s for a good reason. While they’re both Meta platforms with plenty of similarities and even close demographics, they don’t favor the same posting patterns, times, and even formats.
On Facebook, it’s best to post between three and seven times a week, and make sure you avoid exceeding two posts a day. On Instagram, posting one to two times a day is recommended, but not more than three times. Moreover, while posting on Facebook on weekends isn’t advised, it can still have great results on Instagram.
Even small tweaks to your post can make a difference on each platform. While Facebook posts don’t really benefit from hashtags, adding a few popular combined with niche ones on Instagram can boost your visibility.
Keep in mind image and video sizes as well; Reels and Stories are the same on both platforms, but feed posts are generally 1200×630 pixels on Facebook, while Instagram has recently switched to portrait images of 1080×1350 pixels.
