Social media marketing (MMS), also known as digital marketing, is simply promoting your product on social media platforms taking advantage of the wide public base of 4.6 billion they have.
This marketing model is effective, with eighty percent of customers expressing their desire to buy content they saw in their feeds. Furthermore, with so many platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Tiktok, businesses should have a general idea about the features of each platform, how to use them to their advantage, and pick the one that presents their products well.
The following article discusses two giant marketing platforms, TikTok and Instagram.
What is TikTok?
TikTok is a Chinese video-sharing platform released in 2017 as an updated version of Douyin, launched in 2016 in the Chinese market. TikTok is only about videos that have a 15-second to10-minute duration.
Most of its content is about funny videos like pranks, and stunts, artistic videos like drawing with the sand or performing some dance moves, and some unreasonably trendy videos of lapsing, finger shooting, and so on.
Users on TikTok can either upload an already-made video or use the app to film one with the help of numerous frames, filters, and soundtracks.
What is Instagram?
Instagram is a primary photo-sharing app that came to light in October 2010. Kevin Systrom and Mike Kreiger were the genii minds behind this outstanding platform, representing a huge leap in sharing and advertising on social media. Photos, videos, stories, posts, and even chats are possible on Instagram.
Marketing on both platforms
Speaking of marketing on social media, companies should be aware that TikTok has come late to the party, so Instagram has the advantage of having years of experience in on-the-mark and miss-the-mark approaches.
Thus, being relatively new didn’t play that much to TikTok’s advantage; businesses were hesitant to jump into TikTok culture and chart this unknown territory. However, this has changed recently, and more businesses are willing to venture into this platform.
When comparing the two mediums of advertising, attention goes to several points:
Influencers
This phenomenon has come to life during the Instagram era since it gave a voice to class B stars. For example, makeup artists, stylists, fashionistas, models, and reality TV stars.
This created a kind of superficial and vanity culture that is all about consuming. The type of culture that makes a perfect environment for businesses to thrive and push their commodities forward by hiring those influencers to promote their goods as fashionable, trendy, and must-haves.
On the other hand, content creators on TikTok are ordinary people who are just having fun doing silly things here and there. Therefore, not much time is left for showing off brands or goods because the videos are too short, and thus no chance for companies to invite people to buy more.
Having said that, the large base of content creators on TikTok has made finding the brand’s perfect voice easier because businesses have unlimited choices.
Video sharing
A video will gain more views on TikTok than it will on Instagram, given that the moment someone signs up in TikTok and has a profile there, they get bombarded with a lot of videos they might not be interested in them at first, but then they grow a liking for them.
It will be a while before a user gets into the algorithm of TikTok and is only provided with videos of interest. Therefore, video marketing businesses will find a priceless opportunity to extend their reach.
The demographic
Here, we’re talking about all potential buyers and clients of different ages, sexes, and origins. If they tend to be over 18, then Instagram is the best of the two, while for companies wanting to reach out to adolescents, TikTok is just the right platform.
It should be noted that gender doesn’t play a role here. Companies that are eager to spread their brand far and wide should opt for Instagram because it is available in 170 compared to only 150 for TikTok.
The time spent on the platform
Time means money for businesses because the more time people spend online, the higher the odds of them coming across their product and the more money that gets transferred to their bank accounts.
In this respect, TikTok is a better marketing choice because people spend more time on TikTok than they do on Instagram, with 90% of users signing in to their account daily in comparison with 57% of Instagram users doing so, and with users spending an average of one hour on the former and half of that on the latter.
Sales and CTA
What is the ultimate goal of a business making an account on social media? It is definitely, not for fun. They want to generate money, funnel cash into their safes, and maximize profits. In other words, they need their client to move from their page on install or TikTok to the catalog page on their website, hitting the ‘Purchase’ button and finalizing the process.
Instagram has a competitive edge here since it allows users to insert the link in their stories and image ads besides being in their bio. The choice of inserting a link to the product page is limited to the bio on TikTok.
In a nutshell
Companies have to advertise on both platforms and study the statistics of where their product is getting more attention and their ads are generating more purchasing operations. Only then can they decide which is the better platform to marketize on.
Nowadays, there are many additional online tools to help businesses create the perfect content for both platforms; you can use an Instagram post generator or a TikTok content creator to produce high-quality professional content for a business without being a marketing expert.
