THE 3 MAIN DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PINTEREST AND INSTAGRAM

Are you trying to grow a marketing strategy for your own business?

Do you want to know where you should invest your time and energy?

Let me be clear, I’m not saying that you should choose only Pinterest OR Instagram. You can absolutely have both, I just wanted to share the main differences in this post, so you’ll be able to make a conscious decision.

1. SEARCH ENGINE VS SOCIAL MEDIA

Although Pinterest is usually defined as a social media platform, it’s actually a Search Engine, like Google. That’s why keywords are so important! When somebody types the words on the search bar, they’ll get the results that Pinterest considers that are the most relevant. A pin that was published months ago can still be found today!

Instagram is, of course, a social media platform, like Facebook and Twitter. Most people just scroll through their feed or watch Stories and they engage with others: they like, comment, and send messages, but they don’t usually search for something specific.

2. SHOPPING VS INSPIRATION

You may be surprised when you hear this number, but 90% of people say Pinterest gives them ideas for products to purchase! This means that there are many people going to Pinterest before shopping. This is very interesting to know if you’re selling a product or a service because your customer is not on Pinterest just to be inspired by beautiful photos, but also because they have a need (and you can cover it!)

You may surely sell on Instagram, I’ve seen many people selling on Stories and I think it’s great if it works for them, but the main reason people are on Instagram in the first place is that they want to be inspired, be motivated and connect to other people.

3. LIFE SPAN OF A PIN VS INSTAGRAM POST

The awesome thing about Pinterest is that a pin can be seen even months or years after it was published! If it has good keywords and a great image, Pinterest will consider it good content and it will be shown in the feed when a person is searching for a particular topic or product.

In the case of Instagram, the success of your post really depends on the engagement it gets in the first few hours after it’s published (especially the first half an hour). If it doesn’t get many likes or comments, Instagram won’t show it a lot. You can always experiment with Instagram Stories, hashtags or tweaking your images, but the life span will be limited anyway.

Let’s be honest, I’m a Pinterest manager and I’m obviously a little biased when it comes to Pinterest. I just wanted you to know that I do love Instagram as well, especially the interaction and connection with other people. But eventually, I’ve noticed that Pinterest usually drives more traffic to websites.

My suggestion?

Manage both if you can, see which one gets you more traffic and then decide accordingly where to spend your time and energy!

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to me!