Written by: Patricia Baronowski-Schneider, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Are you looking to get more followers, likes, and views? Whether you're on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube, the key to success is understanding the right keywords to use. From hashtags and challenges to filters and playlists, discover how to make the most of each platform and reach your online goals!
So one of the things that come with doing this for as long as I have ‒ is that you see things come and go, and I often think of how often I see musicians act like the sky is falling over nothing. I recently saw a great example of this, which made me angry. I was at a show, and the musician had some issues with her equipment. She kept trying to fix things that were not broken, frustrating the other musicians. Towards the end of the show, she finally just gave up and walked off stage. It was a disappointing way for the night to end, and it made me mad.
On the one hand, she was probably tired and frustrated. But on the other hand, she could have at least tried to stay or work through the issues. Instead, she just gave up, ruining the rest of the show for everyone. It reminds me of how people drive in NY. There is something about how people go in New York City when it rains that is both dangerous and imprudent. They are new to the experience and are not taking the necessary precautions to avoid accidents.
I see people lose their minds about Instagram when it seems like it's dying. Instagram is constantly evolving and changing, making it hard to say what will happen next. Some people have started quoting The Graduate about this, as Instagram has taken on some of the features and interface of Facebook.
I predict that Instagram will become more like YouTube because users can post videos instead of just photos. This will make it a more popular and versatile platform for sharing content. But here's the thing ‒ Instagram is still alive. It's more relevant than ever; if you think I am wrong, you should stick around.
Instagram is constantly adding new features that make it easier to share photos and videos with others. Plus, it's become a popular platform for businesses to promote their products and services. If you want an edge over your competition, consider using Instagram to share your content. But another thing that has helped Instagram stay afloat in a saturated social media market is its pricing strategy.
For example, instead of charging for standard features on other social media platforms, Instagram assesses for features that make it stand out. For instance, it charges for the ability to add videos and for the ability to export photos and videos. In addition to charging for features that make it stand out, Instagram also charges for services it provides. For example, it charges for the ability to add hashtags and for the ability to create custom profiles. These different pricing strategies have helped Instagram maintain its popularity among social media users. In addition, the fact that it is a mobile app has helped it stay afloat in a saturated market.
This strategy allows Instagram to keep its user base engaged and loyal while generating revenue. Despite these challenges, Instagram is still a force to be reckoned with in the online social media market. It continues to add new features, and its pricing strategy makes it more affordable for users. Additionally, Instagram is becoming more popular as a platform for businesses to promote their products and services. So, I'm going to explain how Instagram and TikTok work together and their differences.
Hi, I'm Patricia Baronowski-Schneider, a marketing nerd who has taught many people how to grow their fanbase from zero to 10,000 fans. Let's be honest here. There's no doubt TikTok is eating Instagram's lunch regarding engagement and time spent on the apps.
How to Use Instagram Grid to Grow Your Audience
And when it comes to growing your audience as much as reels are helping some people and businesses, TikTok is just so much more explosive, and no one would argue that the amount of growth and reach you get from TikTok is unparalleled by any platform ever before. But so many of you that I talk to act as if this is a game and you should only be rooting for the winner instead of just seeing one as a hammer and the other as a screwdriver, which are two different tools for two different jobs that need to get done. So let me help you. I'll explain each part of each app so you can get each function and understand how to use them. The Instagram Grid is where you put your greatest hits, most significant announcements, and pieces of content.
How Instagram can be used to market your business
Seriously, think of your grid as where the best of you goes and a place to use captions to tell stories about your business. Along with the highlighted stories and your bio, someone can easily see what you have going on and get a good sense of if they want to go deeper with you and check out your business or products. Whereas TikTok posts should be thought of as your ambassadors that go to a new person who doesn't know you and shows how great it would be to spend time with you. It's a place to aggregate your fans doing cool things around your business or products. A place to show your existing followers your personality and lifestyle where you can use talks and actions to go deeper on your character, promote what followers share about your business or products, or interact with your microgenres culture.
Instagram vs. TikTok: The Difference
It belongs here as long as it's compelling content that will keep people scrolling. But here's the thing to understand about the difference between the two ‒ When people do news posts on TikTok like "we have a show at the Garden February 23rd or even big events like My TedEx Talk," you know what happens??? Like 5-10% of your followers will see it.
To get a grasp on this, that's a massive failure along the line of how bad Facebook updates are. And more than half of how many people read just the subject line of an email update. This is because TikTok is unlike any other social network we have ever seen, and this even goes for businesses with a million followers. I watch some of my favorite connections with crazy fanbases get 50 likes on their promotion drop post because no one sees it. This is because, UNLIKE INSTAGRAM ‒ TIKTOK IS NOT FOR NEWS ANNOUNCEMENTS UNLESS YOU MAKE THEM IN A TIKTOK FORMAT.
Why TikTok Doesn't Show Life Updates
And while you need to do them, TikTok only shows them to people if you do them in a compelling way people want to watch to the end. This is by design, and TikTok has no interest in being what Instagram is as a news feed where people do life updates or post flyers for events, and if you want proof, look at the latest news of TikTok product updates. Instead of trying to become the hub of information as every other social network has done when they have become the number one place people spend time, TikTok has said NO WAY, were going to do 10-minute video uploads to compete with YouTube instead.
How to Market on TikTok: Keep Your Updates Interesting and Consistent
TikTok wants content that other people enjoy, not your updates. And they're confident if people build relationships with you on their app, they will go to the different places where you do updates, which is why they let you link your Instagram or youtube because they know if you're building relationships with fans. They interact with you, and the fans will return here and keep growing their relationship with you, the platform they found, and the performers they like.
Instagram Marketing Tips
But they'd much rather you follow your favorite creators elsewhere, and they will handle showing their users your most engaging content. At the same time, the other social networks can have the less fun stuff since they are banking on that being a winning strategy. They even let you do a link on your bio page.
How to Use Instagram Stories to Build Relationships
TikTok and Instagram are a reciprocal relationship and two things that should not be seen as competition but instead as two tools you use. Since you're probably wondering how to think of this piece, you probably use Instagram stories the most. I like to see Instagram stories as the place on social media where you build relationships with people.
Instagram Cloned TikTok in the Form of Reels
No matter what anyone tells you about interactions with TikTok eclipsing Instagram, every product or business fan still knows that if they want to see the real life, personality, and details of what a person is really like ‒ stories are where that happens. If you see stories as the best place to build a relationship with fans, It is where you can overshare with barely any consequences and often have it rewarded. The second you overshare on TikTok or put up mid-grade material, you most often get no reward since TikTok wants your content that fits the tropes they like. But at this point, I have been obscuring that Instagram cloned TikTok in the form of Reels. And yes, they have, but here's the big caveat I have with saying TikTok was cloned.
How to Market on Instagram: Focusing on Reels
Reels aren't as good at TikTok as making the magic sauce of finding precisely what you want to see on the app. They don't offer explosive growth in engagement and followers or jump the curiosity gap to hear the words or songs they enjoy and stream them on Spotify. How do you handle this? Instagram has this reel function that can help you get new fans if you want new ones. So let me give you an easy decision tree. If your fans are nothing but people over 30, you should favor reels. If there's no way you can be bothered to make TikTok-style videos, I have bad news. Since reels aren't any different, that's just a border in your brain, but if you can find proof that your genre isn't active on TikTok, do reels. Otherwise, here's what I'd do, and I'm about to complicate things by bringing YouTube into the equation.
How to Monetize Your Short Content on Instagram and YouTube
Let's say you've done what 98% of you should do and chosen to focus on TikTok for your shorter ambassador-type content designed to give new listeners a glimpse at you and make them curious to go deeper. I would then decide what you care more about growing subscribers on YouTube or followers on Instagram. That's a complicated question, obviously, but here's the thing. If you post your short content on YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and TikTok, the chances are that a fan already saw it on another and swipes past it, cannibalizing this content and making it less effective. So lean into two of them and skip the other one. YouTube shorts have been largely ineffective for most people getting followers, but feeding them and building relationships can be effective if you have engaged fans there.
Delaying content on TikTok Live to 3-7 days to decrease
Speaking of that cannibalizing thing, I got a nice trick for you. Since most of the content we're making for TikTok in short form is pretty evergreen, I like to delay posting it to the second short-form platform we're going to use by 3- 7 days to the content I post to the second priority platform so that way the likelihood of the cannibalization occurring goes down. The space between postings also allows fans who were busy and not engaged on both apps for one week to see it later potentially. I know both TikTok and reels have a long tail in that the content can still get significant weeks, even months last, but I have seen a business promotion get better traction with this delayed approach. But what about Instagram vs. TikTok Live?
Which App Should You Go Live On?
This one is interesting as they are nearly identical except for one feature that matters,s which is TikTok allows you to schedule a live in advance. It then advertises it to your followers as they show them your videos and put them on your profile. For that and TikTok's explosive growth, I like it better for going live, but here's the thing. I repeatedly hear that TikTok users aren't looking for the live content; they are looking for the ADD scroll of the app. So when you choose which one to go live with ‒ with, say, another business or product where you two are going to chat, first off, select the app where you both have more engagement, but if that engagement is negligible between them, both, I would build on TikTok. Especially if you have decided TikTok is your focus and are concerned about Instagram's dwindling engagement. But I want to talk about how the apps are similar, and first, I want to say the comments and interaction with fans/followers are where fans and followers are made.
How to build a community on Instagram and TikTok
You should be seeing the interactions you have in your comments as well as those who are in your community. One way to look at both apps is so much of your interaction with followers is in your micro-genre; the great work of building community and getting early followers is done interacting here. So only sleep on one app. Lastly, and to piggyback more on why those videos on building community are so important, you need to know the right hashtags to put on your posts. This is so much of the secret sauce on both apps. On Instagram, the most passionate fans follow hashtags, and on TikTok, it tells TikTok who should serve your content. It would be best if you researched which hashtags work best.
How to Grow Your fanbase on Instagram
The hashtags will often be similar across both platforms, but doing your research will help ensure you optimize them for both platforms. So to wrap up, I think seeing TikTok as a place to grow your business and build relationships is tremendous, but let's remember Instagram is still where your most profound followers will go to stay updated with you, so keeping up on both is crucial these days and understanding the borders of each is extremely helpful to grow your fanbase.
Patricia Baronowski-Schneider, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Patricia Baronowski-Schneider. I’m the founder of Pristine Advisers, since 2010. I have been in the IR/PR industry for over 35 years. I am a 3 x’s international best-selling published author and have also been featured in various books about IR/PR and Business. I’m a member of the Farmingdale Chamber of Commerce, have been featured in and on the cover of multiple magazines and newspapers and won many awards for my work. I help companies around the world to be in front of the audiences that matter most to their business. Check out my YouTube Channel – Been There/Done That where I offer free advice on trending topics. You can also check out my Podcast “Successful Minds with Patty B”.
