Are you looking to promote your business on social media?

Of the many social media platforms available, you should consider Instagram and Twitter as your main platform. These are two of the most popular platforms and are the fastest ways to build a following.

But what are the strategies for marketing on Instagram vs Twitter? What are the common and different guidelines?

You have to figure out the right approach for both of these platforms in order to succeed with them.

Here’s what you need to know about marketing on Instagram vs Twitter.

Consistency Is Key

The first rule for social media marketing is to be consistent with your posting on both Instagram and Twitter.

You want to set a schedule of how often you’ll post on these platforms. At the start, you should consider posting at least once per week. Set a specific day and time each week when you’ll post.

For example, let’s say you run an ice cream parlor. Let’s say your parlor is busiest on a Friday evening.

You might wish to post a picture of your ice creams on a Friday morning. This will persuade your followers to visit the parlor when they leave school or work in the evening.

You can also consider posting a discount code on Twitter a couple of hours before your customers arrive. This can bring in even more customers on Friday evening!

The more you post on social media, the more attention your brand will get. This is a great social media marketing strategy to build a solid follower base. Once you build this base, you can focus on converting followers into customers.

Creating Customers via Instagram

So how do you turn your Instagram followers into paid customers?

The first step is to look through your followers and their profiles. This will help you understand their preferences and tastes. You should also check what someone likes on Instagram.

This will help you decide what type of content you should focus on posting. For example, your ice cream parlor customers might like video clips of making ice cream. They might prefer this type of content over still images.

Your focus should then be on creating more video clips of making ice cream. This will make your followers feel that you are catering to them.

After you do this, you can engage with your customers directly. Send them Direct Messages inviting them to your place of business. Offer them exclusive discounts if they “like” many of your posts.

Through Instagram, you can also host live streams. With these live streams, you can speak directly to your followers. You can also show them “behind-the-scenes” videos of your workplace. You can also invite them to join in your live streams.

You’ll have to increase your posting consistency when you want to convert followers to customers. Try to increase your posting to at least thrice per week. As your follower base grows, you want to increase your content output.

These actions keep your followers more engaged with your brand. If you keep them engaged, you’ll be able to convert them to customers.

Creating Customers via Twitter

Turning Twitter followers into customers is a lot more challenging. Twitter lets you post consistently with ease, and it’s much easier to build a large following with the platform.

For Twitter, you’ll have to offer your followers something via your tweets. You can offer discounts for your products and services.

You can also provide direct links to your products and services via Twitter. For example, you can use a tweet to link to a newsletter subscription page. Or you can link to your latest product through a tweet.

This is especially great for eCommerce stores. Many Twitter users can get bored after reading endless tweets. If you navigate them off Twitter, you can turn them into customers.

Use the Analytics Service

Both Instagram and Twitter come with an in-built analytics service. This lets you keep track of how users are responding to your social media content.

You can use this information to plan your strategy with each social media platform.

Here’s what you want to pay attention to with an analytics service:

• Increase/Decrease in the number of followers
• How many views versus likes
• How many shares/retweets
• Demographic information

This will help you determine what your future output should be. If you find a decrease in followers, you know you need to make drastic changes to your content.

If one type of content has many views but few likes, this should be posted less frequently. You want to keep an eye on the type of content that your followers like to share or retweet.

Demographic information helps you reach your target audience. For example, do you post/tweet in English but have a large audience in Latin America? If so, you might wish to post content in Spanish as well!

As your business scales, you should hire an assistant to look at your Instagram and Twitter analytics. They can provide you with reports as well as strategies on your content output.

Instagram Ads

On Instagram, you can create ads from your posts. This is something that you might want to start even before you build a large following on Instagram.

With Instagram ads, you can currently spend as little as $1 to post an ad. You’ll reach a small audience with a low budget and a wider audience as you pay more.

You can also choose whom to target with your Instagram ads. You can reach out to a broad audience or choose a specific demographic. Demographics can be based on age, location, interests, etc.

Once you create an Instagram ad, you can always re-run them at a later time to reach an audience. You should also know that Instagram posts that have been run by ads cannot be easily deleted.

As such, you want to take the time to create the perfect post first. If you’ve gotten a lot of likes and views on your post, then you should consider making it into an ad.

Twitter Ads

With Twitter, you want to be more selective with creating your ads. As Twitter focuses mainly on text, it’s easy for a user to only take a cursory glance at a Twitter ad.

Consider creating a Twitter ad after you’ve amassed at least 1K followers. If you receive regular engagement on your profile, you can consider creating Twitter ads.

With Twitter, you want to focus on targeting a specific audience. If you reach a broad audience it’s unlikely that they’ll engage with your Twitter profile. Reach a target audience who already takes an interest in your brand.

Which to Focus on?

While you should take advantage of both Instagram and Twitter, you might wonder which one you should focus on.

This all depends on the type of business you run. It also depends on which profile gets more engagement.

For example, does your brand depend on visuals to promote what it offers? Then you want to spend more time focusing on Instagram. However, if you find that Twitter gets you more customers, you want to focus on engaging with these followers.

For retail and service businesses, Instagram is often seen as the best option. For software and consulting firms, you’ll do a better job focusing on Twitter.

While you shouldn’t “give up” on either platform, you might find that one platform isn’t growing in engagement. If so, don’t spend too much time on that platform if the other one is bringing in a lot of engagement.

Promote Your Social Media Handles

As a final step, you want to promote your social media handles wherever you go. This is the fastest way to grow your Instagram and Twitter following.

The first step is to include these handles on your business cards. You want to hand out business cards promoting your brand wherever you go. When you hand out your business card, make sure you remind the recipient to follow your profiles.

You can also share these links as part of your content using a Call To Action. End each blog post with a link to follow your brand on Instagram and Twitter.

If you make YouTube videos, request your viewers to follow your brand on these platforms. You can also include the links to these handles in the video description.

When you get a new follower on either social media profile, encourage them to follow you on the other one.

If you get a new Instagram follower, send them a “thank you” message and ask them to follow you on Twitter. Do the same for your new Twitter followers.

That’s How to Market on Instagram vs Twitter

Now you know how to market your brand on Instagram vs Twitter. It’s best to use both platforms to build a following and attract customers.

Start with posting on a consistent basis at least once per week. You want to focus on garnering as many followers as possible. As your followers grow, so should your content output.

Use the platforms to attract your followers to your website and place of business. You can use these platforms to directly sell your products and services as well.

You can find more tips on social media marketing on our website!