1. TikTok vs Instagram: How TikTok Users Differ from Instagram Users
TikTok has over one billion monthly active users worldwide, compared to Instagram, which has more than two billion monthly active users. While TikTok has an audience mainly made up of Gen Z users, Instagram is more popular among Millenials.
In this section, we will focus on both user demographic and user behavior to help you discover the best social media network for your target audience.
You are viewing: Why Might You Prefer To Use Tiktok Over Instagram
Target Audience Demographics
TikTok appeals to a slightly younger generation that consists of Gen Z users. In contrast, Instagram’s user base is primarily made up of millennials (Gen Z is the second largest age group after Millenials).
Here are the largest audience segments for TikTok and Instagram based on age and gender according to Statista:
DemographicsTikTokInstagram
Age
- 25% of TikTok users are between 10 and 19 years old
- 22.4% of TikTok users are between 20 and 29 years old
- 21.7 of TikTok users are between 30 and 39 years old
- 20.3% of TikTok users are between 40 and 49 years old
- 31.7% of Instagram users are between 25 and 34 years old
- 30.2% of Instagram users are between 18 and 24 years old
- 15.8%of Instagram users are between 35 and 44 years old
- 8.9% of Instagram users are between 13 and 17 years old
Gender
- 57 % of TikTok’s users are women
- 43% of TikTok users are men
- 50.7 of Instagram users are men
- 49.3% of Instagram users are women
To gain more insight into your own followers, use a social media analytics tool like SocialBee to track your audience demographics.
And that’s not all. With SocialBee, you can also identify the days and time slots when your followers are most active on Instagram and discover how your audience engages with your content.
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User Behavior
TikTok is a social media platform where users go for entertainment purposes, mainly to watch random funny videos, short tutorials, narrative-driven stories, and even educational content. On the other hand, Instagram is the favorite social media platform for catching up with their friends and checking on their favorite influencers and brands.
On TikTok, users are engaging and collaborating more. This is a platform that rose to fame by allowing people to create duets with each other and participate in trends and viral challenges.
On the Instagram platform, people feel more comfortable posting, as it became a social norm to update your friends with everything that’s going on in your life through feed posts and IG stories.
On TikTok, most users are relying on their favorite creators for content, because not as many users feel comfortable posting there as they do on Instagram.
2. TikTok vs Instagram: Types of Content
TikTok started as a lip-syncing social media app that turned into a short-form video platform that people use to share their opinions, create educational videos, and even express themselves creatively through dance, music, acting, and jokes.
In contrast, Instagram has always been a platform that thrives on visually appealing imagery. This allows people to showcase their lives in a more delightful way, whether by taking a photo of a delicious meal, sharing highlights from their vacation, or posting a video from a night out.
The content on TikTok has the following characteristics:
- Videos take place in a casual setting
- Most videos are edited to a certain extent (users add captions, voiceovers, filters, audio files, and also trim and merge clips to create transitions)
- Users focus on creating or participating in trends, challenges, duets
The content on Instagram has the following characteristics:
- It presents lifestyle-related everyday content people share with their online friends and followers
- The content is highly edited and usually promotes eye-catching visuals
- The images are carefully created with a specific aesthetic in mind
Now that you have a general idea about TikTok and Instagram content, let’s look into specific content types you can post on both social media sites.
Instagram vs TikTok: Instagram Reels Compared to TikTok Videos
Reels and TikToks are almost identical, as they’re both highly engaging short-form video formats that offer the same user experience (e.g. looping videos, swipe-up navigation, engagement buttons placed in the same area).
They both have in-app features such as filters, effects, sounds, and multiple other photo and video editing features.
Instagram introduced Reels to compete with TikTok’s successful content format, which is why users still prefer the original platform for this type of content. The chart below tells us everything we need to know about which content type is more popular.
Source: Digital Information World
While on TikTok, users create their videos by using the app, on Instagram, creators mostly reupload their existing videos. This is quite obvious since we see popular challenges and sounds from TikTok’s music library trickle down into Instagram.
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TikToks are more spontaneous and interactive. Users often make duets to add to someone else’s content, debate a topic, and even boost the visibility of other creators. Not to mention that a big part of TikTok’s culture is based on challenges and trends almost everybody adopts in their videos.
In contrast, Instagram doesn’t have the duet feature, and in general, the content posted is mostly self-centered. There is way less interaction between creators, and most of the trends you see on the platform have originated from TikTok.
Both types of content allow users to post short videos. Instagram Reels have a maximum span of one minute, whereas the maximum length for a TikTok is three minutes.
TikTok vs Instagram: TikTok Stories Compared to Instagram Stories
TikTok stories aren’t quite different from Instagram stories. In fact, they both are ephemeral content types that disappear after 24 hours, allowing people to see your short update of what you’ve been up to for the day.
Source: Digital Information World
If you have a public account, it implies that everyone with an account can tap and see your story. However, if you switch to a private account, you’ll be sharing stories with your follower base only.
Stories are a great way to engage with your peers and encourage high-quality interaction. Oftentimes, different content ideas aren’t enough to form a post alone, so stories can help you relate a message without you having to put too much effort into creating an entire post.
Moreover, stories are often your best shot at getting insights directly from users, as you can ask them questions, create polls, and encourage them to give an opinion on a given matter.
Here are the main differences between TikTok and Instagram stories:
- On TikTok, stories also are shown as regular FY posts, while on Instagram, you can only see them by tapping on the profile pictures that appear on the top of your feed/on the user’s Instagram profile.
- Unlike Instagram, TikTok stories have a feature called “templates” that creators can use to turn their photos into dynamic videos.
TikTok vs Instagram: TikTok Live vs Instagram Live
Live streaming has gained a lot of popularity among social media users since it’s a much easier and more direct way to engage with your following.
On Instagram, celebrities and influencers use live streaming to:
- Showcase their routines
- Promote other brands
- Do live Q&As
- Share highlights of their life (behind the scenes, holidays, private parties, etc.)
- Express their opinion and start a discussion with their followers
In other words, Instagram uses this feature to let creators engage directly with their audience on a deeper level.
With TikTok live, certain rules come when choosing to engage with your audience in real-time. If you’re at least 16 years old, TikTok will let you stream, whereas if you’re at least 18 years old, you have the option to send and receive gifts such as cash prizes.
Overall, doing live videos on TikTok and Instagram can help you build relationships, network better, reach business goals, and cross-promote other social media accounts or even products and services.
Source: https://t-tees.com
Category: WHY
