Pinterest vs Instagram for Marketing and Business: What is the Best For Your Goals. Knowing me as a Pinterest marketing expert, you probably might expect that Pinterest is going to win this comparison game. But the truth is there can be no winner because everything will depend on your type of business and your goals on the platform.
Pinterest vs Instagram! Knowing me as a Pinterest marketing expert, you probably might expect that Pinterest is going to win this comparison game.
But the truth is there can be no winner because everything will depend on your type of business and your goals on the platform.
Let’s first look at Pinterest and Instagram from the bird-eye view.
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What are regular users, not marketers doing on Pinterest?
On Pinterest, a user’s intent is primarily focused on the discovery and curation of other users’ content. Similar to a search engine, users can use Pinterest to search for specific content or products. They can then create visually appealing boards by pinning and grouping the content they discover.
And what are regular users looking for on Instagram?
They are looking for a much more personal experience with the brands and people they follow. The content you share on Instagram should give your audience an authentic view into your business or personal brand.
On Instagram, followers expect to see visual content about you, your events, your personality as a business and your “human” side.
And what is the outcome from your marketing efforts on Pinterest?
On Pinterest, every pin is a link to the source of the image, usually an external site. That’s why one of the common goals for businesses on Pinterest is generating website traffic and using Pinterest as a search engine.
What should marketers be expecting to get from Instagram?
Instagram works best for building a deeper connection with your audience and for growing a tribe of real fans. On Instagram, you should be prepared as a business, to communicate with your audience even via direct messages. This doesn’t happen on Pinterest, people rarely even leave comments on pins, and sending private messages is extremely rare on Pinterest.
Another factor you should consider when you are comparing these two platforms is the audience.
- Instagram has more than 1 billion monthly active users across the globe.
- Pinterest audience is currently at over 300,000 monthly active users, but the majority of this audience is in the Unites States.
- Unlike Instagram, the majority of the Pinterest users (about 80%) happen to be women. So, Pinterest has the biggest gender difference in comparison to every other social network out there and you HAVE to keep that in mind because not all the products and niches will work equally well with female audience.
So depending on your goals with the platform, you can see what works for you the best.
On Pinterest, as I mentioned, all the pins can be linked to your blog, your Youtube videos, your landing pages, your ecommerce site, etc. So basically, Pinterest is a traffic generating machine. People find you on Pinterest but they don’t engage with you much on the platform itself. They click-through to your external source and then you can convert the visits on your side.
On Instagram, it’s very hard to get users off the platform. Instagram doesn’t give you many options to add your links. It’s basically just a link in the profile bio and links from Stories. Keep in mind that Stories are only available for accounts with over 10k followers and Stories are live for only 24 hours. So any post or photo you publish can only work for you to drive traffic from Instagram for a maximum of 24 hours and then you have to do publish a new Story to keep getting more clicks or you have to use ads on Instagram.
On Pinterest, you link to your site from a pin, and it can leave on the platform for many years and consistently drive you traffic.
Another major difference between the platforms is that Pinterest works for business very similarly to Google. It’s a visual search engine. The main user activity on Pinterest is searching for ideas and content curation (meaning that users are saving pins to their boards based on the similar topic). So as a marketer or business owner, when you are trying to grow on Pinterest, you have to learn SEO (search engine optimization) basics and I have a cool Pinterest SEO Checklist to help you get started with it.
You can download and use it on your computer or even print it out.
And even though Pinterest has certain features of a social media platform, overall, it’s very different from Instagram. The fundamental difference for me is the importance of your following number. It’s really not so important on Pinterest to actively work on growing your following. It doesn’t matter that much if you have 10k or 50k followers on Pinterest. What matters for your traffic volume from this platform is how well keyword-optimized your pins and boards are, and how great is your pin design.
You can have significantly lower following on Pinterest that your competitors and get higher Reach and more traffic to your website.
I made another video with more details about followers on Pinterest and why it’s important to have maybe lower number of followers but higher quality. Meaning you need to grow your account only with followers who genuinely care about your content and will engage with your pins.
And if you know a little bit about Instagram, it’s very important to grow your following base and moreover, it’s also crucial to engage with your followers, almost on the 1:1 level – in the comments and in direct messages.
Now let me try to wrap it up for you here
If you are trying to reach as many people interested in your niche, your products or services, if you are struggling to get more leads and visitors to your site, then you definitely need to focus on Pinterest as it will help you get targeted traffic.
And if you are already getting traffic from somewhere else, if this task is not an issue for your business, and if all you need now is to establish a stronger connection between your brand and your tribe. If you are working on building a personal brand as well – then you should focus more on Instagram because this platform will help you have a really strong bond with your audience.
As you probably know I’m an expert in Pinterest marketing, so if you are trying to get as many eyes as possible on your website or business, I’m your girl.
I have a FREE Pinterest Masterclass which will show you how you can use Pinterest platform for growing your online business and getting more traffic to your website.
Did you find this post useful? Save THIS PIN below to your Social Media Marketing or Pinterest Marketing board on Pinterest!
I’m Anastasia and I’m a full-time blogger, online entrepreneur, and Pinterest marketing strategist. I help digital entrepreneurs and bloggers drive targeted traffic from Pinterest either through my online courses or through Pinterest consultancy.
