Social media is the most powerful tool of the present time, platforms like Facebook and Instagram help us gain popularity on social media and provide us with a wider reach. Social media has become an integral part of our lives and to be honest, we can’t function without it. In the last 20 years, social media has proliferated tremendously and has changed everything; literally everything! The world is at our fingertips, all thanks to social media.
Facebook happens to be one of the earliest social media platforms that the world was exposed to, launched in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg while he was studying at Harvard University. It still happens to be relevant and thriving. The reason why Facebook managed to beat its then competitors like Myspace (social media platform), was that it allowed the people to be involved with its progress and constantly catered for the dynamic demands.
Today various social media platforms are expanding rapidly, helping people to gain popularity on social media. Some of the most popular social media platforms are Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, and WhatsApp. The fastest out of them happens to be Instagram, launched in 2010. The app is about the photo and video sharing. It is possibly the only social media platform that gives Facebook a tight race, but still, Facebook remains undisputed with a much wider social media reach.
History, Facts, and Overview
Mark Zuckerberg, 23 founded Facebook on 14 February 2004 while he was studying at Harvard University. Facebook became the largest social media platform in the world, with more than 1 billion users in 2012. It continues to remain on the top. Every second 4 new profiles are created on Facebook.
Before delving into why is Facebook better than Instagram? Let’s have look at the statistics:
Facebook statistics:
- 2.41 billion monthly active users
- 97% of active user accounts accessed the social network via a mobile device
- 66 million small businesses have Facebook Pages
- 75% of marketers say they use Facebook as part of their brand’s social strategy
Instagram statistics:
- 1.1 billion monthly active users
- 500+million daily active Instagram Stories users worldwide
- 69% of Instagram users visit the platform daily
- 64.9% of marketers say they attempt to use Instagram as part of their brand’s social strategy
We have a clear winner and that’s Facebook. Facebook has a much wider reach on social media (since the reach is wider, it will help one gain more popularity on social media), Facebook has more daily average users than Instagram. Further, on average, Facebook’s advertising costs (per click) are lesser than Instagram’s. Even for marketers, Facebook is the first choice.
5 reasons by Facebook is better than Instagram
- Gaming Feature: At times we get bored of scrolling the timeline or the feed, Facebook also has a solution for this monotony, the gaming feature! Games are one of the best activities to enjoy in the downtime with family and friends. Facebook again takes the point here. It provides the users with plenty of games like Candy Crush, Dragon City, Criminal Case, Farm Ville, and many others. The best part is that all of them happen to be free of cost. On the other hand, Instagram does not have any gaming feature.
- Less Functionality on PC: Facebook provides the same features on a phone and PC. Instagram is more mobile-oriented and the users can’t use its features in a full-fledged manner on a PC. While users can still view the posts and the videos but posting and direct message feature do not work on personal computers. As Instagram happens to be only about posting pictures and videos it somewhere becomes futile on the PC mode. Further Instagram on PC is not user-friendly, on the other hand, Facebook offers the best possible experience on both modes.
- Limitation on Posts and the Duration of Videos: Instagram allows a user to post only 10 pictures per post. While on Facebook you can upload at least 30 images at once (per post), which is 300% more pictures than on Instagram. The time duration of a video that can be uploaded on Instagram feed is just 1 minute, while on Facebook it’s 240 minutes that happen to be 4 hours! Facebook wins here as well.
- Thought sharing Feature: Facebook offers its users a variety of features like uploading pictures, videos, chatting, games, and in addition to all these, it also has a thought sharing feature. How one feels reflects directly on one’s posts and videos, Facebook allows its users to share their thoughts with texts. There’s no feature of thought sharing on Instagram.
- Business Perspective: Facebook allows its users to post the link on each post. This feature is best from a business perspective, from this you can easily convert your Facebook followers into your website traffic. Unlike Facebook, Instagram doesn’t offer you the feature of links within a post. You can post a link but only in the profile bio. Facebook wins yet again.
These were the top 5 reasons why Facebook stands out. Various other features offered by it corroborate the fact that it is any day better than Instagram. Its safety feature is power-packed. Both Instagram and Facebook share the same terms of privacy (as Facebook happens to be the father company), but Facebook has some more privacy features. For example, you can customize every post as per the individual. Instagram does not allow users to post something which only contains texts, a photo or a video is mandatory, whereas Facebook does. You can even buy Facebook likes to get proper engagement and boost on Facebook for your business profile.
Facebook is an old player of this game and the secret to its relevance and wider reach on social media is its dynamic nature. Facebook keeps changing/modifying itself according to the changing needs of its users. One can’t deny the fact that Instagram is climbing the ladder swiftly but still, it has a long way to go.