Facebook and Instagram are two completely different social media platforms with two separate audiences. On Facebook, you have almost every person over the age of 13 years old registered with an active account. This isn't an exaggeration. It's why we reference "Facebook-stalking" as anormal phrase these days. It's a resource used to look someone up on Facebook, with the assumption that every person you come into contact with would be registered on the platform. This gives an infinite level of reach, but when it comes to marketing, it doesn'tmean that every person registered is susceptible to the same marketing techniques and strategies.
However, Instagram users are of a significantly younger demographic, with some as young as 7 and 8 years of age (whether they are given permission by their parents and being truthful with their age or not) through the mid-30s to early-40s, which makes them more easily identifiable and significantly more marketable. According to Smart Insights, about 59% of Instagram users are between the ages of 18 and 29 years old and 33% of users are between the ages of 30 and 49. This article, "20 Instagram Statistics Every Marketer Should Know About for 2018." references several different marketing strategies on Instagram, including that there are more than 800 registered Instagram users overall, only 30% of Instagram posts are actually seen,posts with at least one hashtag average a 12.6% higher engagement rate, posts with a location garner 79% more engagement, to name a few. With these statistics in mind, Instagram has ample room to advertise to a younger generation that is increasingly more susceptible to marketing tactics and strategies. Facebook is an excellent tool for marketing, and considering how wide a user base it has, there is endless potential for advertisers and marketers to tap into this cyber population. However, it's obvious that younger generations are spending more of their time on Instagram, which gives it more longevity in marketing plans overall. Both platforms identified sponsored content similarly with a "sponsored" declaration above or below the post, so I don t think; that plays a huge factor in which platform is more suited tor marketing purposes.
At the Graphic, about 70% of our readership stems from social media. One of the platforms we have had the least amount of success with is Instagram, purely for the fact that when one makes a post, they have to pay money to insert a link into that post. With that being said, this makes it a very difficult marketing strategy for the Graphic to use because of its small budget. If this feature were to be amended to incorporate businesses and publications with smaller budgets, then I think Instagram would have an incredibly successful platform in which to garner more advertising and marketing business from.
Rachel Ettlinger, a student in Jon Pfeiffer's Spring 2018 Media Law class at Pepperdine University, wrote the above essay in response to the following question: Between Facebook and Instagram, which do you think is more effective for marketing and why? Can you tell a post is sponsored more easily on one or the other? If so, do you think that's a positive or a negative?
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