Pinterest & Instagram have undeniably become popular visual social platforms among brands and consumers. That is because, we, as humans, are able to process images 60,000 times faster than text and 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual. Marketers, who embrace visual content, see a larger return on investment in terms of more readers, more repins, more leads, more customers and revenue as well.
It you would like to get in on the photo sharing action, but don’t have the resources to participate in both, how do you decide between the two? It all depends on who your target audience is. This article explores the differences between Instagram and Pinterest, the demographics the social networking sites target as well as some ideas on how you can improve your engagement and strategies for using the two sites.
The difference
Pinterest is an online bulletin board that lets users curate and share engaging images, videos and infographics. When things are shared, they are called “pins” and they are placed on thematic boards that users create.
Instagram, on the other hand, is a mobile photo sharing app that lets users share their photos with friends. Once the photo has been selected, users can insert filters to add flair to their images. Instagram is mostly used to transform mundane images into works of art.
Who is using Pinterest?
Pinterest has over 100 million active users. Predominately those users are female. In fact, women account for 70% of Pinterest users and are 5 times more likely to pin and repin than men. As well, recent research done by Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project showed that the core demographic of the social networking site is 18-34 years of age.
Who is using Instagram?
Instagram has over 200 million active users. Over 50% of the users are located outside of the United States. Unlike with Pinterest, men and women are more equally represented on the mobile photo sharing app.
Using Contests To Create Engagement
Pin to win contests are well-liked on Pinterest. Brands can invite their followers and friends to pin their favorite images on a predetermined topic to win prizes—trips, merchandise, discounts etc. The topic is usually related to the contest owner’s business.
Photo contests are also very easy to carry out on Instagram. All you have to do is ask your followers and fans to tag photos with a predetermined hashtag, making it easy to find entries and pick a winner.
Interested in running a social media contest on Pinterest or Instagram? iRISEmedia focuses on creating and implementing customized social media campaigns integrating both Instagram and Pinterest as needed.
