TikTok vs. Instagram: What's the difference?

Today, about seven-in-ten Americans use social media. TikTok and Instagram are the leading social media platforms and they play significant roles in marketing. Businesses use both platforms to reach their target audience, build brand awareness, and ultimately, close deals. TikTok and Instagram are competitive with similar features and marketing tools. Let’s explore their differences and how they can help your business.

What is TikTok?

TikTok is used to create and share short videos. What began as a platform to upload fun dance videos has now transformed into a massive digital landscape for crafts, vlogging, cooking tutorials, and so much more. It is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms in the last six years. Since its creation, TikTok already has over 1 billion users. If your brand’s target audience is between the ages of 13 to 60, you should join. TikTok encourages users, known as “creators,” to share their passions and creativity through entertaining, easy to produce videos.

What is Instagram?

Instagram is a photo and video sharing social media platform founded in 2010. The focus of the platform is to upload photos from a mobile device. Users can upload and edit media with filters and organize it by geographical locations and hashtags. It allows users to connect with friends, family, celebrities, and brands.

Instagram has been embraced quickly from its beginning. When the app launched, more than 25,000 signed up on the first day. Roughly two months later, the platform had more than 1 million users. The timing of the app’s release was fortunate because the iPhone 4 — with improved camera features — had just been released a few months before. Since then, Instagram has continued to grow in popularity across the world. For more information on Instagram, check out our blog post here.

Key differences between TikTok and Instagram

Instagram has been the leading social media platform for over a decade. Since the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, TikTok has taken the world by storm. Beginning 2021, TikTok has been the most downloaded app across smartphone users. The short-term video features on TikTok are a major factor for its success. Instagram can’t seem to slow down TikTok’s growth. To compete, Instagram has added short videos called Instagram Reels and other features.

TikTok and Instagram continue to go head-to-head with competing features, so what makes them different? Here are three major differences to know as a marketer:

1. Style of content: TikTok media tends to have a more creative, spontaneous, “homemade” feel to its videos. There are many easy-to-use editing features on the app to improve the look of your videos, but there are a lot of successful TikTokers that upload raw videos without any touch ups.

   Instagram is known for polished creative content. There are not as many editing features on Instagram, so you need to rely on professional editing software outside of the app. You can also publish more types of media than just short videos. 

2. User demographics: TikTok has a strong influence on the younger age groups with half of the Gen-Z population accessing the platform compared to 22% of millenials and 14% of 50–64 year-olds. 
   Instagram has a wider range of users with 71% of the Gen-Z, half of millenials and about a third of the 50–64 age range. Overall, Instagram users have more buying power due to the older demographics.

3. Number of Influencers: TikTok has not been saturated with influencers yet, but the numbers are growing rapidly. Due to its newness, there are more opportunities to grow mass followings. TikTokers want to see more original content so influencers need to be more subtle in marketing. 
   Instagram has millions of influencers which makes it easier to be picky when choosing which influencers you want to partner with. More than 70% of marketers favor Instagram for influencer marketing. Partnering with an influencer doesn’t necessarily mean you will go viral, but it’s worth a shot! However, there are proven Instagram influencer marketing methods to successfully reach new people in your niche target audience.

How each platform can help your business grow

Both platforms can create unparalleled marketing opportunities for the growth of your business. Different factors regarding your business and marketing goals will determine if you want to use one or both platforms. Both platforms provide free marketing tools and resources and fast ways to reach millions of your target audience. In addition, let’s take a quick look at their unique features which are geared to help your business:  

TikTok: 

• Business online community: Small business conversations are already happening on TikTok. You can find communities of small business owners through different hashtags like #smallbusiness, #entrepreneur, or #sidehustle. These communities hold conversations on tips, tricks, and branding strategies to build your brand online.

• TikTok partners with Shopify: As an e-commerce business, you can set up a TikTok Ads Manager Account that helps you find customers and provide a seamless shopping experience. Many TikTok users join the platform to discover new things. 67% of TikTok users agree that they were inspired to shop even when they weren’t looking to do so. With this mindset, users are ready to buy and the shopping experience is made easy with Shopify. 

Check out TikTok’s business page to learn more about what they can do for your business.

Instagram:

• Advertising: You can have more precise targeting for your paid advertising. Instagram users expect to see advertising, influencer marketing, and promotional content. This expectation makes it easier to start building brand awareness and promoting your products and services. 

• Insights and analytics: Instagram keeps track of what your followers like and are most engaged in. The data provided can help you when making decisions for your Instagram marketing strategy. 

• Connect to a scheduling app: Online marketing can quickly feel overwhelming to stay on top of. With an Instagram business account, you can schedule your posts. Check out Meta’s page to learn how to do so. 

You can learn more about what Instagram can do on their business page. 

What questions do you have? Let us know by filling out the form below. We are happy to help you here at Jamias Creative!

10 facts you didn't know about TikTok

What is TikTok? It is a social media app used for creating and sharing short videos. It has become one of the fastest-growing social media platforms to date. The platform already has over 1 billion users in less than six years. If your brand’s target audience is between the ages of 13 to 60 you should join. TikTok encourages users, known as “creators”, to share their passions and creativity through video and has become a key competitor with YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. Videos on TikTok are focused on creativity and entertainment rather than a lifestyle platform. Creators enjoy making videos through TikTok because they are so easy to produce.

Thousands of businesses are using TikTok as a marketing tool to reach their target audience. Here are 10 statistics about TikTok to help you as you build your brand on the platform:

10 facts about TikTok you can use

1. TikTok has over 80 million monthly active users in the United States. 60% are female, 40% are male.

2. TikTok users spend approximately 52 minutes per day on the app

3. TikTok runs a platform called TikTok Creator Marketplace that helps brands connect with over 100 thousand creator TikTok profiles. Brands can search, discover and collaborate with creators whose audiences best fit their target market.

4. Partnering with TikTok creators boosts viewing rates of TikTok ads by 193%. Survey data shows that 62% of TikTok users agree that using creators is the best way for brands to connect with target audiences.

5. The maximum video length on TikTok is 10 minutes. This was increased from 3 minutes in 2021 and 1 minute in 2018.

6. Engage and be a part of the TikTok community. TikTok released 2022 data that 73% of users feel a deeper connection with brands whom they interact with on TikTok, compared to other social media platforms.

7. Engagement on TikTok is wildly more successful than on other social media platforms. One case study shows that Jennifer Lopez posted the same video on Twitter and TikTok. Her video on Twitter had 2 million views (with 45 million followers). Whereas, the same video on TikTok had 71 million views (with only 5 million followers)!

8. TikTok is paying influencers $500 to join the app and create videos. It is proving to be successful and leading to major growth for the platform.

9. Are you new to the app? TikTok has just begun offering ad credits for new brands advertising on the platform.

10. There are no long-term commitments to advertising campaigns on TikTok. These campaigns start at $50/day. This page on TikTok’s site will help you learn more about launching an advertising campaign.

Opportunities on TikTok for small brands

TikTok is making efforts to help small businesses be successful. The first step to success is to begin a TikTok Business Account that includes tools, extra features, data analytics, and access to TikTok’s content management platform and Commercial Music Library. 

TikTok has many partnerships that help advertising and video creation be a positive experience for small business owners. TikTok and Shopify have a partnership that allows for shoppable TikTok ads that direct you seamlessly to your Shopify website. TikTok Ads Manager is a self-serving advertising platform that includes video templates, and partnerships with Vimeo and Canva to create your content. 

There is a history at TikTok of providing educational and financial aid opportunities for small businesses to grow on their platform. One of their current initiatives, “Small Wins”, highlights small businesses’ successes from around the world. It demonstrates how they found their success, and educates on how to make your “small wins” into big wins on TikTok. It is inspiring, informative, and motivating! In the past several years, they have launched education workshops, grants, and ad credits to support small businesses. 

TikTok is a rapidly growing social media platform that is transforming business marketing online. Your brand can connect with other brands you would not find through other social media platforms- it is truly a global platform. There are various marketing tools, and educational and financial aid opportunities that TikTok provides to guide you to success. Being a creator is meant to be simple, easy, and fun. TikTok can be a great addition to your marketing toolbelt!

Not sure where to begin with TikTok marketing for your business?

Got questions about including TikTok in your social media marketing strategy? Let us know by filling out the form below!

3 reasons you should try out TikTok for your business

TikTok continues to be one of the fastest growing social networks in the world. It’s estimated that there are 80 million users in just the USA with the average user opening TikTok on their smartphone 8 times each day. Here are some categories you may fit in if you’re not already creating content to market your business on TikTok:

• You’ve only seen dance videos and prank videos in your first few times of using the app so you haven’t been back

• You feel too old to learn how to use a new social media platform

• The only people you know of who talk about TikTok are younger than 25 years old so you don’t think it’s applicable to you because you’re well above 30

Sure, the list could go on but the three categories shared above tend to encompass many of the business owners who choose not to use TikTok. The reality is there are so many layers to TikTok. There are a wide range of industries represented on the app from restaurants to mental health professionals to gamers. TikTok creators each have their own story to tell and they all do it differently. You can also do the same on this growing platform.

Let’s cover 3 quick reasons why you should test out TikTok to market your business.

3 reasons you need to give TikTok a shot

1. You can quickly test out video marketing ideas: With TikTok, all videos are 60 seconds or less. This means you don’t have to make a feature length film or even a 10-minute video. You can also focus on getting to the point with your content really quickly. If a video doesn’t do as well as you hoped, keep creating other videos to see what works and resonates with your target audience.

2. TikTok’s user base continues to grow exponentially: Did you know the TikTok user growth in the USA in 2019 was 97.5%? TikTok’s growth has been consistent and users tend to check into the app multiple times a day. This has been due in part to its easiness of use and its video content reach. People who love a TikTok they’ve watched can easily share the video in a variety of ways including text, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram Stories. This means that your TikTok videos aren’t limited to just TikTok. It can truly have a genuine global reach.

3. TikTok can become a proven revenue source: Global user spending on TikTok is currently at 50.4M USD at the time this article was written. Spending is on a significant upswing when compared to the 4.3M USD spent in November 2018. You can’t expect to take your share of the TikTok economy if you’re not creating content for TikTok so get started!

To learn more statistics about TikTok, visit this link: https://jamiascreative.com/blog/12-tiktok-stats-you-need-to-know-if-youre-a-marketer

Similar to Instagram or Facebook, you need to consistently use TikTok and post to TikTok to understand how the app works and how to get engagement. We recommend using TikTok regularly for at least 3 months. This will help you be more familiar with the social network and truly have your own opinion about it.

Do you have any questions about TikTok for your business? Let us know in the contact form below!