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Summary: Navigating the social media landscape for business marketing can be challenging with so many platforms available. In this comparison guide, we dive into the difference between Instagram and Facebook, along with Twitter (X) and Snapchat, to help simplify your decision-making process. Instagram excels at showcasing products or services visually, making it ideal for businesses that focus on high-quality images and videos. On the other hand, Facebook boasts a vast user base and diverse advertising options, allowing for more detailed targeting and community-building. Twitter (X) caters to concise messaging, perfect for sharing industry updates or engaging in real-time conversations. Snapchat appeals to a younger audience with its interactive features. The ideal platform depends on your business goals and target demographics. Read on to find out which platform suits your business best.
To build a strong position in the market, an organization should showcase its best, and stay regularly connected via the four most renowned social media platforms – Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat.
In today’s world, social media is the primary platform for digital marketing, thanks to the 5.31 billion social media users as of April 2025.
More businesses are expected to use social media platforms for marketing their products or services, increasing brand visibility, and enhancing engagement rates.
However, most businesses face the challenge of choosing one of the four social media platforms that better suit their needs and enable successful business marketing. In this post, we will help you overcome this challenge by showcasing a comparison between the most-used social media platforms.
The comparison will be drawn on the basis of the following parameters:
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Instagram and Snapchat are dedicated mainly to pictures & videos, while Facebook is inclined towards recent updates. Facebook encourages users to share fun elements, whereas Twitter (now X) is more about sharing the latest news and updates.
Note: Since July 31, 2023, Twitter has been officially rebranded as X, following its acquisition by X.com, a company owned by Elon Musk. But in this blog post, we will continue to use Twitter as it is still widely used by the audience.
You can expect your content to last for long on both Instagram and Facebook. However, when it comes to Twitter and Snapchat, a tweet lasts forever, though it soon gets replaced by another more popular tweet. Similarly, a snap disappears within 24 hours.
When we assess Snapchat and Instagram, Instagram users share their photos, reels, and videos on their walls, while Snapchat allows users to send videos and pictures directly to their friends.
If you compare Instagram vs. Twitter, the primary importance is given to photos & reels on Instagram, while Twitter is based on text and hashtags.
Assessing Facebook vs. Snapchat, the former encourages both public and private postings, while the latter is exclusively for private chats with friends.
Additional Read: Must-Try Social Media Marketing Strategies
This photo-sharing app is extremely effective for all forms of business as it has 2 billion active users worldwide. While the highest number of users reside in India, there are many from other countries as well. Check out the graph below to see the geographical distribution of Instagram users.
Instagram has a global outreach, which means that you can reach out to your target audience across geographies.
Facebook is supposedly the most popular social media platform and can be truly effective for business marketing if the posts add value to the community. At least 70% of your posts must be related to business tips, recent events, local news, or survey questions. Around 3 billion active users around the world use Facebook as a means of connecting. So, if you’re looking to gain a lot of visibility, Facebook is the one for you!
Research suggests that you must post on Facebook between 1 – 4 p.m. to get the maximum clicks and shares.
While the global user base of Twitter is lower than those of Facebook and Instagram, it is still a great platform to market your products and services.
With a user base of 330 million, you can figure out your target audience and direct your posts to them by using relevant hashtags. However, ensure that you’re posting news on Twitter as it is majorly meant for sharing worldly updates.
Snapchat is one of the fastest-growing social networks, with over 453 million daily active users and 5 billion snaps per day.
According to Statista Stats, 48% of all internet users aged between 15 and 25 years use Snapchat in the USA. If your target audience does fall in this category, you should use Snapchat for business marketing as it has its users spread evenly in different countries.
Check out the graph below to see the number of Snapchat users in different countries.
| 2.11 billion | |
| 3.07 billion | |
| 611 million | |
| Snapchat | 900 million |
| 500 million | |
| 2.11 billion | |
| 245 million | |
| Snapchat | 460 million |
| Platform | 2019 MAUs | 2025 MAUs | Growth (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2.50 billion | 3.07 billion | 22.80% | |
| 1.10 billion | 2.00 billion | 81.80% | |
| Twitter (X) | 312.7 million | 611 million | 95.10% |
| Snapchat | 200 million | 900 million | 350.00% |
If you look at Instagram and Facebook users, you will find a huge difference. Every month, Facebook receives more than one billion active users, while Instagram receives only 500 million. On the other hand, figures for Facebook and Twitter users vary even more. As compared to 1.93 billion users of Facebook per day, Twitter only has 206 million active daily users.
Snapchat is quickly gaining popularity, and the well-established Instagram continues to draw five times more daily traffic than Snapchat.
Social media platforms differ in their purpose, audience, and content formats, making each suitable for different types of users and businesses. Here’s how Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (X), and Snapchat stand out from one another.
Here’s a comparison of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (X), and Snapchat:
| Feature | Snapchat | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary Use | Social networking, community building, brand marketing | Photo & video sharing, influencer marketing | Microblogging, real-time updates, discussions | Ephemeral messaging, interactive content |
| Content Type | Text, images, videos, live streams, events | Images, videos, Stories, Reels | Short text posts, images, videos, GIFs | Snaps, Stories, AR lenses, Spotlight videos |
| Target Audience | All age groups, professionals, businesses | Younger audience (18-34), visual-centric users | News-savvy, professionals, trend-followers | Gen Z, casual social interactions |
| Engagement Features | Likes, comments, shares, groups, pages | Likes, comments, shares, Stories, Reels | Retweets (Reposts), likes, replies, trending topics | Snaps, Stories, Streaks, filters |
| Advertising Options | Facebook Ads, Marketplace, business pages | Instagram Ads, influencer collaborations, Shopping | Promoted tweets, trending ads | Snapchat Ads, AR lenses, geofilters |
| Best For | Community building, long-form content, networking | Influencer marketing, brand visibility, product showcasing | Real-time updates, public engagement, industry trends | Youth engagement, interactive marketing, storytelling |
| Algorithm Focus | Engagement-based, prioritizes personal connections | Visual-first, engagement-driven | Real-time updates, trending topics | Recent & interactive content first |
| Monetization | Ads, in-stream videos, branded content | Instagram Shopping, influencer sponsorships | Subscription model, ad revenue sharing | Spotlight payouts, ads, influencer partnerships |
| Post Lifespan | Long-lasting, remains on profile | Feeds refresh quickly, longer than Snapchat | Fast-moving, tweets get buried quickly | Snaps disappear after 24 hours unless saved |
| Privacy Settings | Public/private profiles, customizable settings | Public/private accounts, close friends feature | Mostly public, but has private messages | Messages disappear, high privacy focus |
Instagram and Facebook
Different facts and figures on Facebook and Instagram recently reported that the engagement rate of Instagram is higher than that of Facebook. The average engagement rate on Instagram is between 1% and 3%, whereas that of Facebook is only 0.18%.
When it comes to Twitter, the engagement rate ranges from 0.09% to 0.33%. Tweets encourage businesses to innovate and show only the important facets of news and updates to their audience. However, Facebook provides ample space for businesses that want to give a detailed analysis of each event.
Snapchat
Snapchat videos get more than 10B daily views, and its engagement metrics suggest that an average user uses that app almost 30 times a day and spends 30 minutes on it. That’s enough to get your business idea through!
The focus area of a business should be the target audience. Twitter can help you reach a wider audience in one go, while with Snapchat, you can reach only one person at a time.
If you compare the popularity of Instagram and Snapchat, Snapchat may be lagging, but its stories and live video features can create a higher engagement and recall rate. On the other hand, Instagram helps a business add multiple photos, reels & IGTV videos to engage with the audience.
If you compare Snapchat and Facebook, posts on Facebook add value to the community more quickly, while Snapchat adds value among friends and followers.
There are several new features marketed by Instagram recently. Some are:
Facebook has many unique features that are rarely available on other social media platforms. Some of them are:
Twitter has unique features to help businesses in the long run. Some of them are:
The most appealing feature of Snapchat is ‘Self-destruct’, where shared elements disappear within a few seconds after viewing them. There are many more features that are exclusively available on Snapchat:
Instagram vs. Facebook
If you compare Instagram and Facebook for business, you will find Facebook has a Liberal Ad exchange feature, and Instagram Ads utilize Facebook Ad Manager to offer an ad service.
Facebook vs. Twitter
Facebook offers a Live Streaming feature, whereas Twitter gives Periscope, which helps you add a ‘go live’ button.
Twitter vs. Snapchat
The most significant feature of Twitter and Snapchat is that Snapchat has the ‘self-destruct’ feature for security, and Twitter has an anti-harassment feature.
Facebook vs. Snapchat
While Snapchat offers a Snapcode feature, Facebook has no QR code through which you can add a friend.
Snapchat vs. Instagram
However, while comparing Snapchat and Instagram, you will find that Instagram offers a unique feature, ‘Geo-Filter’, to share the current location without specifying your precise geographical location. Whereas, there is no such feature on Snapchat.
While June 30th is celebrated as Social Media Day around the world, for businesses, each day should be social media day, to attract more customers, engage them, and drive sales. Business marketing on social media is dependent on three foundation elements: valuable content, a solid and analyzed strategy, and know-how.
Let’s check out how you can develop a social media business marketing strategy using the above elements and turn your business into a known brand.
For effectively marketing your business on Instagram,
As per the study conducted across 475+ global campaigns, ad recall from sponsored posts on Instagram is 2.9x higher than Nielsen’s norms for online advertising. Adapt the above-mentioned strategies so that users are able to recognize your images instantly and engage in liking and commenting. This will help:
As per the terms of service, anyone over the age of 13 with a valid email address can create an account on Facebook. This is important because a business marketing strategy should be youth-centric. Teenagers are likely to spend most of their time on Facebook, so you can target your ads to them. More so, Facebook is now even more popular among middle-aged adults too.
An ideal Facebook marketing strategy should include:
You must also use Facebook advertising to amplify the reach of your posts to your target audience.
Here’s what you can do to market your business on Twitter.
By following these points of Twitter Marketing you can grow your brand presence and community on Twitter.
Snapchat is perfect for real-time social media marketing. Here’s what you should do:
Strategies adopted for each of the four social media platforms are distinctive, and none can be replicated by the other. One of them may be better for a short, engaging post, while the other is necessary to engage your audience in a fun manner.
Today, all the platforms are using distinctive features to maintain their followers, and it should come as no surprise that each of them is picking up a likable feature from its competitor and adding it to its own set of features. For example, snaps or stories, which were the brainchild of Snapchat, are now also a part of Instagram.
Similarly, both Twitter and Facebook allow posting multiple images in one post.
When it comes to collaborating with influencers or micro-influencers of your niche, all four platforms are equally important. Hashtags, sharing leads, and effective CTAs, are necessary on all four platforms for better engagement.
Some of the greatest challenges are:
The greatest challenge you may face while conducting Facebook marketing is mapping the topics of the post. Choosing some boring facts or posting too many posts can negative image of your brand.
Another challenge is to meet the expectations of the consumers in terms of response time. Research shows that many consumers write a complaint on Facebook and expect a response to their query within 60 minutes.
Despite adopting a proper marketing strategy, businesses may still face various challenges, such as:
It is tricky to cope with this fun messaging app, which is why brands face various challenges while conducting business marketing on Snapchat.
Both social media platforms and businesses using social media are struggling to retain their market positions. The major challenges a business faces while trying to master these social media platforms is mapping topics or limited characters and building a presence.
Challenges include meeting response time, slow growth, and when to share. In the case of look and feel, Snapchat is considered less professional as compared to Facebook and Instagram because 63% of its user base is between 18-34 years.
It is a brilliant idea to use Instagram adverts on images, videos, carousals, and stories. They offer 2.5 times more clicks than ads on other social media sites.
It has impressive targeting capabilities and higher CTR, and the cost of ads on Instagram is a little cheaper than that of Twitter and Facebook advertising. The estimated CPM of Instagram is $6.70. But, it is expected to reduce, as more and more companies are using the platform. Instagram can provide:
The advertisement cost of Facebook ranges from $0.25 to $3.30 on every click. It varies from one industry to the other, based on the size of the audience and ad quality.
The cost is reasonable. That is the main reason 1.5 million businesses spend money on mobile advertising, out of which 92% use Facebook ads.
Twitter has three types of advertising options
The cost of promoted tweets and promoted accounts ranges between $.50 – $4.00 per engagement and promoted trends cost around $200,000 per day.
Clicking, replying, retweeting, or favoriting paid tweets and ads costs between $.50 – $2.00, depending on your targeting. For local campaigns, this figure is $1.35 per engagement.
Snapchat advertising is a bit costlier as compared to other social media platforms. However, it’s worth it as the swipe-up rate of Snapchat ads is five times more than the average CTR for other platforms. The cost for Snap ad campaigns starts from $10,000/month.
Snapchat-sponsored lenses cost $450,000 per day from Sunday to Thursday, $500,000 for Fridays and Saturdays, and $700,000+ for holidays or special events.
If we compare these four platforms in terms of users, growth, and ad revenue, Facebook has a dominant lead in the social media space.
It is important to compare the costs of these four platforms before investing money in promoting posts.
Instagram is costlier than Facebook, though Instagram has started using Facebook Ad Manager to facilitate PPC ad services for businesses.
Twitter ads are cheaper than Instagram ads.
The unique feature of cost variation in Snapchat on different dates can be helpful while planning your ad placements in comparison to those on Twitter or Instagram.
As of today, Facebook is the cheapest platform, while Snapchat is the costliest among all.
On average, users spend 28 minutes per day on Instagram. A study conducted by Simply Measured found that 85 million top brands are now using social media to grow their audience base, and most of them prefer Instagram over other social platforms.
Research shows that visual content usage in Facebook campaigns can generate 65% more engagement within a month.
20% of Facebook posts are based on promoting other business events, tagging others, or sharing others’ content and 10% of posts are promotional, displaying discounts or sales.
Twitter ads containing videos are much cheaper (50%) in terms of cost-per-engagement. 2 billion videos are watched on Twitter every day. Using videos is going to be a great option for you! Moreover, Twitter users spend 26% more time looking at ads than other social media users.
Snapchat
Snapchat stories last for 24 hours only. These are a thread of snaps used to create a video narrative.
There are over 5 billion snaps created each day on Snapchat, and almost 60% of viewers skip ads on Snapchat. So, in terms of ads, Snapchat might not be such a great idea for business marketing.
The fact is that you cannot deny the specific contributions of each social media platform to excel in business marketing.
If you look at the bigger picture, you will be able to find that:
Techmagnate provides complete expertise in Social Media Advertising Services. Contact us today!
Instagram is focused on visual appeal while Twitter is centred around texting, copy, stories, and conversation. Instagram is currently the most popular social media channel around with a billion monthly active users. Instagram is better for brands with a visual appeal such as fashion or luxury, while twitter is great for having direct conversations and updating frequently such as news websites.
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