Instagram vs TikTok: best social media to make money
- How can I make money on social media?
- Pros of using Instagram
- User-Friendly
- Monetization
- Community into customer conversion
- Market Influencer statistics vs other platforms
- Cons of Instagram
- TikTok Pros
- SEO
- Virality chances
- Short-Form content
- TikTok Cons
- Con#1
- Con#2
- Con#3
- Instagram vs TikTok conclusion
Instagram and TikTok are two social media earning money platforms that we review today. Which one will cause you more success? Let us make an analytical comparison, using customers' and creators' feedback on the subject, so that you can decide the one works for you in specific.
How can I make money on social media?
There should be a strategy that will cover all the baseline aspects of making money from social media. As such we can place an emphasis on viewer engagement, product placement, and followers-into-customers conversion ratio. And last but not least is how easy the platform is to reach for both creators and users. To understand the advantages or disadvantages of one platform over another we need to see the pros and cons of both with their correlations and dependencies having in mind the listed aspects that lead to success.
Pros of using Instagram
Instagram currently has over 2 billion active users monthly with 60% of its users logging in to watch and post 500 million stories daily. The main pro of Instagram is that it supports every content type available. Name another platform where you can post photos, videos, and stories, go live, message your followers, send voice memos, hop on calls with your followers, and do collaboration posts that reach both audiences. There is no one like Instagram in this regard, and no matter what content type you want to create, the platform has it.
User-Friendly
Instagram is also the easiest platform for beginners, they have a very low barrier to entry. You do not have to be a video whiz to see success. Recently Instagram has been pushing Reels, however, even if you have zero video editing skills you can still create a photo educational graphic, memes, and be consistent with another content type before jumping into something that you might not feel ready for.
Monetization
Instagram has the most monetization features for creators. There are eight ways that you can monetize on their platform and while not every feature is available to everyone yet as they are being tested on specific accounts, they still exist:
- Instagram affiliate
- Live badges
- Reels bonuses
- Reels ads
- Setting up your own shop
- Brand Partnerships
- NFT
- Monthly subscriptions
That way Instagram offers a variety of ways to make money to creators of different niches and industries. Instagram is the top platform for sales and building a community, and if you still have a hard time doing business on Instagram, you may start appreciating it in comparison to other platforms.
Community into customer conversion
Instagram is a platform where you can attract new eyes, build and nurture community, nurture relationships with your followers, and convert followers into customers or clients. There is every Avenue to communicate with your community in the way you want and that is how Instagram is vastly different from other social media platforms.
Market Influencer statistics vs other platforms
Instagram is the number one app for influencer Marketers getting spend in 2022 - 2023 where we saw over 16 B dollars being put into the influencer marketing industry and thus came over other social media platforms in regards to channel utilization over the years.
Cons of Instagram
- The first con is Instagram algorithm waves. This is probably the number one biggest complaint Instagram users have is trying to please the algorithm and dealing with the random drops and engagements that come out of nowhere.
- The number two complaint is Bots. Instagram has a lot of Bot accounts that spam comments and follow making it harder to gauge what an accurate engagement rate is. The average platform engagement rate is 3% which means if your post can reach 3% of your followers – you are doing great!
- And finally, it is harder to attract new eyes to the Instagram app without the right strategy, making it potentially harder to grow compared to apps like TikTok. It is possible to reach new eyes but it might be the hardest task.
TikTok Pros
TikTok has over 1 billion active users monthly, which is 1 billion less compared to Instagram. TikTok is a new platform so you are still ahead of the curve. Launched in 2017 after rebranding from musically making it 6 years old, you can still be a first adapter and trendsetter when looking at TikTok’s age in comparison.
SEO
Another pro, their SEO is skyrocketing creators. TikTok's searching capabilities are amazing increasing the overall user experience as they can easily search and find videos they are interested in. Which in turn gives creators the ability to be easily discoverable on the platform.
Virality chances
Small creators have more of an opportunity to get on the “For you” page increasing virality. The main and default page on TikTok is “For You” page, and you will see here all people that you do not follow, which means, every user by default is being introduced to dozens of new creators daily. 
Short-Form content
TikTok is a short-form video royalty. If you love creating videos like that, TickTock is the place to be with all its capabilities of creating effects and built-in transitions for viewers' engagement.
TikTok Cons
While there are a lot of great pros for TikTok, as the platform becomes well-known and older, creators are becoming more vocal about the downsides.
Con#1
It is incredibly hard to nurture a following, or relationship, or community on TikTok compared to Instagram. You can have 500 000 followers, post for them and nobody will show up. People speculate that it is because a lot of followers may not know about it, and why is that leads us to con#2.
Con#2
A majority of users spend most of their time on this very “For You” page and not the “Following” page. So even if you have followers, it is less likely that they will see your videos, unless they go viral again and are shown on the default page.
Con#3
People are quick to believe in the “shiny new toy” syndrome being the secret to Quick effortless overnight success in making money with social media when in reality TikTok has the same issues that every other social media platform has: Accounts random removal, video deletion for no reason, random engagement drops and so on.
Instagram vs TikTok conclusion
In conclusion, Instagram is the easiest way to build a loyal and engaged community that trusts you on that platform which is not the case with TikTok, as the platform has worse community interaction tools and is only good for going viral into a bunch of strangers. People speculate that having 10,000 followers on TikTok is mostly equivalent to having 1,000 followers on Instagram. In this regard, we would recommend having your TikTok content doubled on Instagram Shorts. Use TikTok as your add-on to make money on Instagram as your main social media for money.
Author
IT entrepreneur and co-founder of VJump. His passion is travel photography, within which, he has already visited 75 countries. Photos taken during his travels are actively posted on his social networks. For example, his Instagram account has more than 1 million followers.
In addition, his documentary short film Terra del Fuego was awarded more than 30 international awards and certificates at film festivals worldwide.
