Most of the young audience is taking Snapchat as a rational part of their daily jobs. But there is a continuous competition from Instagram Stories that Snapchat has to face. There is a severe shift of individuals & brands to Instagram stories for some fairly odd reasons. Brands & companies can no longer afford to ignore Instagram stories if they want to be part of the game.

From startup darling to Facebook’s big acquisition to the newest marketing powerhouse, Instagram’s six years journey has a lot to say!

And with the continuous releases of the new features in the app, it is becoming an essential platform for the brands to expand their social marketing presence.

“According to the researches, 200 million people are using Instagram Stories every day, compared to 160 million daily users for Snapchat.”

Stories, Stories everywhere!

Oh, Snap! Why Instagram Stories Over Snapchat?

If you’re still not sure to entirely move away from Snapchat, here are some valid reasons why you should start using Instagram stories.

• As compared to any other platform, Instagram Stories generally provide better & less confusing user experience.
• The Instagram user base is older & larger as compared to Snapchat.
• The number of people reaching your brand through Instagram stories is far more significant when compared to Snapchat.
• You can redirect your audience to any link you want from your Instagram Stories. Either your goal is to drive your audience to read your latest blog post or watch a YouTube video, buy clothes or download the song, all is possible with Instagram Stories “Swipe Up” feature.
• Instagram stories are like a small TV channel for your brand where you don’t have to buy any time slot to get into the screen of your audiences. You can be out-of-the-box with the concept & ideas you want to share with your audience.
• You also don’t get the period like in Snapchat when you upload any backdated media from the camera roll.
• If you post anything on Instagram Story, it will automatically be shared on the Facebook story too, if you have linked your account to it.

Instagram Is an Influencer’s Dream

According to TechCrunch:

“Snapchat opens have decreased by at least 15% for some social media stars.”

Social Media Influencers all around the world crave Instagram’s reach. As stated by  the CEO of Galore Media, Mike Albanese

“Influencers that were late to build an audience on Snapchat pretty much abandoned the platform because it was so much easier for them to reach more people through their existing audience on Instagram Stories.”

Digital marketers are now dedicating even more resources to Instagram. According to many, there is less scope of growth on Snapchat as “it doesn’t embrace creators.” Snapchat focuses more on private messaging while Instagram, on the other hand, promotes social media stars & other related content by featuring it on the Explore tab too.

Questions You Should Consider While Comparing Instagram Stories & Snapchat

When it comes to using either Instagram Stories or Snapchat for your brand, here are a few things that you should consider first:

• What is your target audience on the platform?
• What is the type of content that suits your business?
• How do you what your audience to interact with your brand?
• Do you prefer your public profile to be easily discoverable or do you want to build a close one-to-one relationship with your customers?
• Where do you find your target audience more active? Instagram or Snapchat?
• Do you prefer analytics to measure your performance?
• Do you want to run ads on the platform or willing to boost the existing posts?

Instagram vs Snapchat

Let’s see who wins the battle?

1.      Users:

According to Forbes:
“There are more than 700 million monthly active Instagram users, compared with more than 300 million for Snapchat.”

2.      Demographics:

According to some research statistics: “59% of internet users between the ages of 18-29 use Instagram and 33% of internet users between the ages of 30-49 use Instagram.” While “45% of Snapchat users are aged 18-24.”

3.      Metrix:

Instagram lets you know how many followers does a person/brand has. We all know how many followers Selena or Kylie have on Instagram & who has the most number of fan following. It’s a mystery on Snapchat. There is no way to rank an influencer on Snapchat.

4.      Discoverability:

Snapchat is more for peer-to-peer messaging. Almost 60% of interactions on Snapchat were made between close friends, according to Mashable.

While Instagram stories are discoverable to the people who aren’t following you, discoverable accounts can be an excellent opportunity to create new fans.

5.      Content Quality

The image & video content shared on Snapchat is usually unedited, unfiltered, original & raw. While Instagram posts are high resolution, edited & as visually perfect as they can be.

Fun Fact: Pizza is the most Instagrammed food all around the world, followed by Sushi.

Final Verdict:

Even though Snapchat introduced stories first, Instagram just cloned, it is still killing the competition! With Instagram stories, IGTV, live session, business profile & many other features, Instagram is approaching billions of monthly active followers.

If you are a startup with limited resources, we would recommend you Instagram stories over Snapchat. The quality of conversations you can have on Instagram with your target audience is much higher than on Snapchat. When you have limited resources & a small team, dedicate it exclusively for Instagram. Focus on crafting quality content & meaningful relationships to increase engagement.

Schedule your Instagram posts with Social Champ.