The Benefit of Instagram V Snapchat Stories for Social Media Marketing

Social Media is an ever-changing landscape and brands must be able to adapt to ongoing trends and innovations. Every social media marketing agency should provide the most engaging way for viewers to interact and gain interest in their product. Instagram and Snapchat stories can do just that and much more. These stories provide live and in the moment video/picture content for consumers to see. These stories are easy to utilize for any social media marketing agency. Here at Bright Age, we can optimize Snapchat and Instagram stories to tailor your specifications and brand goals. However, each platform is different and must be utilized correctly in respect to different types of products. Here are some quick tips and what each platform can offer over the other!

Identify Your Audience

The first step is always to identify your audience. Snapchat and Instagram primarily have young audiences but Snapchat grasps an especially younger group – 25% of users are young than 18 and use Snapchat as their primary social media and messaging tool. Instagram grazes 22% of users younger than 18. Notably, Instagram is best for consumer-focused brands that have channels for products and services relegated towards fashion, food, athletics, and lifestyle. Even if your brand falls out of these categories, Instagram provides a variety of opportunities for engagement. These are some of the factors brands must consider when using Instagram versus Snapchat stories. A Los Angeles social media agency like Bright Age is perfect for relegating what channels are perfect for your brand.

The Difference – Advantages & Disadvantages

An important aspect to consider is how these two platforms differentiate from each other. Instagram gives you the ability to tags users directly so that you can reach brands, members, media, or individuals. You can then continue a dialogue that you have started in your feed which can lead to sturdier brand continuity.

Snapchat on the other hand must add brands intentionally. In general, Snapchat has a distinctly more concentrated scope. A social media marketing agency might be more inclined to use Snapchat for event marketing or connection with a celebrity or public figure.

Although Instagram may seem to hold the throne on stories versus Snapchat, there are creative features that Instagram does not feature.

Stories are not the center of the experience, you must scroll up to the top and engage it yourself.
Snapchat opens the camera so users can take a picture right away.
Snapchat offers bitmoji.

The one true advantage that Instagram may have is that they plug you directly into your existing social network. In other words, you can automatically see stories from people that you already follow on Instagram.

Pros and Cons

Here are some the quick pros and cons that a social media marketing agency might consider when choosing a platform.

Snapchat Stories

Geotags give brands an opportunity to insert themselves into private conversations.
The audience is more engaged because users must act – i.e., visit your site, manually follow you and take screenshots.
There’s more person-to-person contact since individuals view brands on their Snapchat feed as friends.
No marketing metrics for ads.
No way to measure views, peak hours for engagement or demographic info.
It is difficult for advertisers to have active and engaging conversations with consumers.

Instagram Stories

Use of visually appealing images.
Brands can link out ads in the bio.
The ability to post multiple photos at once.
Brands can harness the power of Instagram’s advertising father – Facebook.
Metrics on organic posts are not robust.
Plausible to lead to advertising fatigue.
Younger demographic may depart because of similarities to Facebook. Younger generation is often deterred by Facebook software similarities.

Moving Forward

A Los Angeles social media agency like Bright Age takes these factors into consideration when developing an advertising campaign for specific brands. If companies were to ask us which would be the undisputed winner, we would say it is a tie. Different products have different markets and reach potential. We do our best to maximize a brand’s potential while making their marketing strategies unique.