As of November 2021, the number of users on Instagram has grown to over 1.07 Billion. It’s no surprise, Instagram is a favorite place to be for everyone of every age group. Instagram has caught the attention of all sorts of users, whether campaigners, artists, or influencers.
Proliferated over the years, IG continues to broaden its horizons. The photo-sharing social networking platform has come a long way after being owned by Facebook. So, technologically, it’s a go-to place for people looking for fun or an audience for their businesses. The advantages and disadvantages of Instagram will help you decide whether it’s the right tool for you or not. Let’s talk about how it compares to other social media networks like Facebook and Twitter and what type of content performs best on this platform.
Advantages of Instagram
It’s a fun way to learn and earn; you can learn from how many famous Instagrammers are using this platform to share their stuff and make money. From reels to images, you can get maximum advantages of Instagram if you are your purpose clear.
1. Instagram Reels make it more Real
Yes, that being said, you can share your video and make your profile more interactive. This gives you a lot of creative freedom to produce visual content at any length. In fact, this platform even has features like Boomerang, which automatically creates short loops from your footage. You can also upload landscape and portrait photos. Furthermore, if you have the skills to choose hashtags, you can get into the game pretty quickly. There are more chances to get noticed by users having similar interests and yours.
2. Advertising Advantages of Instagram
According to market predictions, Instagram is likely to grow its user base by the end of 2022. This makes it perfect marketing and advertising tool for companies selling consumer products like cosmetics, foods, or apparel. They can easily approach influencers and market their products hence boosting their sales graph. For every follower viewing their favorite users, the chances of lead conversion are higher for businesses. The best part about Instagram is everything is instant and short; that’s what users in the electronic age want. Many people use the advantage of Instagram marketing to promote their brands. Even you can get the email ID of the Instagram by using email scraper software.
3. You Can Quickly Become Famous
Since this platform ranks posts based on how many likes and comments they receive, the success of your content depends on engagement. If you can get many viewers to like or comment, Instagram will push that post higher up in people’s feeds, leading to even more followers. Once your account starts growing, keep an eye out for ways to make it stand out from other profiles, such as using relevant hashtags and creating unique user-generated contests. It is also essential for brands to create high-quality images since photos with faces typically perform better than those without.
4. It’s Great for Visual Learners
As stated earlier, Instagram is the second social media platform that allows users to post photos and videos. Much of the information is consumed through graphics here, unlike Facebook. Since it takes more effort than just uploading a picture or text status update, this network attracts visual learners.
You can’t upload videos on other platforms like Twitter, so the content must be easy to consume, making Instagram an ideal option. Brands that use this platform need to focus on creating quality visuals since studies have linked them with higher engagement rates over written posts. Advertisers should also keep captions short since they typically perform better if fewer words are used.
5. It’s Great for Mobile Advertisers
It’s a mobile-friendly tool to convey your message to the other end. Since Facebook owns Instagram, the company has access to a large amount of data which means that they can tailor ads more accurately. Since it ranks posts based on how many likes and comments they receive, advertisers know exactly what content users prefer, making ad spend much more effective.
When brands share high-quality visuals with their target market, there tend to be higher engagement rates than other platforms such as Twitter or Pinterest. You can create short captions since longer ones do not perform well when paired with photos. It can be done through smartphones these days. If you’re creating visual content, try using relevant hashtags in your caption since these increase discoverability.
Disadvantages of Instagram
Next to the benefits, come the prominent disadvantages of Instagram that you should know before engaging. There are many concerns that should strike you depending on the purpose of use and engaging skills.
1. Limited Targeting Options
Since Instagram is a visual platform, it’s more difficult to target users than other options such as Facebook. For example, when you create an ad on Facebook, advertisers can show it only to the people who have visited their website in the past 30 days. This allows brands to narrow down potential customers without wasting money. However, on Instagram, there are no targeting features, so ads will show up regardless of whether or not someone has already seen them.
This won’t necessarily affect your results if you’re starting fresh with zero followers. But businesses that rely heavily on customer loyalty should consider using another advertising channel instead since they might get less value from this one.
2. Everyone Wants Attention on Instagram
People view too much of social media, especially when it’s an “Instagrammable moment.” People are obsessed with the perfect picture and life that they think everyone else has. The influencers often try to portray this lifestyle to their followers. It’s a tool to become obsessed with being picture-perfect and trying to impress your viewers. Users share only picturesque moments or make them look like all-around amazing people who seem to lead exciting lives.
In reality, most people can relate better to less glamorous but still important parts of our daily existence. This deep need for perfection comes back as a disadvantage because many people get discouraged when they see that their lives are not as Instagrammable or exciting as the influencers.
3. Addictive
Instagram is an addictive platform that can harm your life. People get caught up in the never-ending cycle of liking photos, posting their pictures, and getting likes back from others. The place creates an endless loop as it creates a sense of false success when someone gets “liked” or has more followers than others. This problem can also affect you if you may not look as good to have fun in pictures while still working hard.
Because Instagram makes everything seem so easy, many people find themselves becoming jealous over others’ seemingly perfect. This resultantly, makes you go over the edge and try further to impress your followers.
4. Less Photo editing Options
Instagram has fewer photo editing options than there are on other social media platforms. It’s not a perfect tool to showcase your picture-perfect skills unless you have another tool to edit your images. Instagram has basic editing tools, which is not enough for those who have to depend on editing quite often. In terms of time and viewers, they can miss out on opportunities in other places due to being too focused on another tool. Again, you’ll often feel like they always have to take pictures in outside or natural lighting because Instagram has fewer options for editing.
5. Getting Followers is Difficult
Getting followers on Instagram is difficult unless you know who to target. It’s easy for many users to fake it rather than make it from scratch. You can only succeed on Instagram when you have genuine content. If your only target is to grow fan following and gain advertisers’ attention, you to learn the difference between real and fake content. Since getting likes/followers is difficult for some, many genuine users give up before anything good happens. This is probably so because it isn’t worth it, or there could be better opportunities out there for them. Again, be specific and make efficient use of Hashtags.