Instagram vs Snapchat vs Facebook: Which Stories Should You Use?

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Stories are like pizza: everyone loves them and they're gone before you know it. Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook all offer Stories to their users. So, how do you know which social network to publish your story content on, and which network will best suit your client's marketing campaign?

Easy. Answer this question: which type of pizza--I mean story--does your client's audience love the most?

Stories only last so long. You really need to know why you're making a story and who'll watch it so you can maximize its reach and engagement.

Snapchat once popularized stories, but by no means does that network reigns supreme. Other social networks have aced their story features now.

Today we're going to talk about how Stories vary between social networks. By the end of this article, you'll know which channel will deliver your brand and content to your audience best.

Snapchat Stories: The Convenient Slice

What Are Snapchat Stories Good For?

• Geofilters, fun filters, and video production options
• An instant and raw production value/feeling for branded content
• An authentic/raw feel (its brand-jaded millennial user base loves this)
• Mobilizing a young audience
• Advertising on new content channels

Snapchat User Demographics:

• 300+ million monthly active users
• 188 million daily active users
• 18% of Snapchat users are in America
• 70% of users are female
• 71% of Snapchat users are under 34 years old

Use Snapchat Stories If:

• Your target audience is Millennials or Generation Z
• You have a lot of opportunities to create personable content for your clients (AMAs, employee takeovers, and office parties and tours)

Don't Use Snapchat Stories If:

• You're looking for thorough metrics
• You're marketing to men or have a target audience older than 24

Snapchat pioneered their Stories in 2012. Although Instagram and Facebook have copied Snapchat's idea, Snapchat is still managing to hold its own.

The social network's loyal Millennial and Generation Z followers still use this platform to connect with friends and family, discover brands, and get news updates.

Although Snapchat Stories have fewer publishing features than its competitors, they offer a unique rawness that its younger user base loves. If you decide to use Snapchat then avoid salesy, hyper-branded content. It won't go over well with your audience.

How To Win With Snapchat

One of the biggest draws to using Snapchat is its fun filters. Brands can create sponsored/branded filters to increase brand awareness and drive traffic.

If you want to make a sponsored filter then you better make it creative and clever. Brands that have a strong identity and creative marketing ideas tend to perform better when they produce witty and fun filters.

Filters are priced by location and radius (roughly $5 per 20,000 square feet). If you have a decently small geographic area you want your filter to cover, then Snapchat filters are a great, affordable option.

However, brands that need to cover an entire city or town should expect to spend thousands on a single filter depending on duration, time, and location. Make sure you have a big enough audience to justify the investment.

One More Cool Snapchat Story Feature

You can do Snapchat Story takeovers. Letting a prominent influencer take control of your Snapchat account and use it to connect with their followers can help improve your engagement, reach, and follower count.

Takeovers are a great way to authentically connect with new audiences in an entertaining way.

Instagram Stories: The Beautiful Slice Of Perfection

What Are Instagram Stories Good For?

• Being part of a conversation or topic
• Getting exponential eyes on your content
• Filming live content
• Creating legitimately fun and engaging video content (using gifs, polls, stickers, questions, location tags, etc.)

Instagram User Demographics:

• 1 billion monthly active users
• 500 million daily active users
• 400 million Stories daily active users
• 68% of Instagram users are Females
• 77.6 million Instagram users are from America

Use Instagram Stories If:

• You want higher production value video
• Your brand can produce pre-recorded or live video content
• You want to drive traffic to your brand's website
• You want people to find your content
• You can make viral or loveable content

Don't Use Instagram Stories If:

You don't have the resources to do so. Instagram's algorithm prioritizes frequency, relevancy, and engagement. If you can't engage with your community enough or provide enough relevant content enough of the time, then your stories will not drive the traffic you need them to.

Let's be honest: Instagram copied Snapchat's stories idea and did it better.

Instagram Stories leverage an explosive social network that is incredibly popular to begin with. On top of that, they've refined their stories to be even more useful, exciting, agile, and fun than Snapchat Stories (especially from a business standpoint).

If your team is video production-savvy then Instagram Stories are right for you. Instagram has better video editing and curation tools that Snapchat and Facebook. You can also share pre-recorded video or film video live. This is great for controlling your viewers' brand experience in comparison to Snapchat.

Instagram Stories Drive Engagement

Instagram stories are a great vehicle for driving engagement because you can add external URLs if you have a higher volume of followers. If you can't add a link to your story, then you can always add a link to your profile to drive engagement to your client's website or landing page.

Amazing Insights

Instagram business profiles give you live story insights. They show you everything: views, forward taps, actions taken, and viewer location.

Their insights are incredibly helpful and can teach you more about what areas you need to improve on. Snapchat simply doesn't offer this.

Discoverable Content

We think that one of Instagram's biggest advantages is that their Stories are discoverable. People who aren't your followers can still find, watch, and share your stories.

Stories gain popularity and views through search and algorithms. If you get good follower engagement and post often throughout the day, then your story can be seen by millions of new eyes. That's a huge advantage for brand awareness, lead generation, and demand generation.

Even Facebook Stories can't beat that. Facebook Stories are only seen by viewers who actually Like a Facebook Page ????.

Facebook Stories: The Beautiful Slice's Less Attractive, Yet Crowd-Pleasing Party Slice

What Are Facebook Stories Good For?

• Short and sweet videos
• Getting people to like your page and view your content via paid ads
• Live video feeds that are "show-style" content (cooking show, talk show, etc.)
• Getting granular-level analytics on your stories (great for experiments before bringing content to other channels or paid ads)
• Re-engaging stale followers

Facebook User Demographics:

• 2.23 billion monthly active users
• 1.57 billion daily mobile users and 1.47 billion daily desktop viewers
• 150 million daily Story viewers
• Facebook users are 53% female and 47% male
• 62% of online Seniors aged 65+ are on Facebook, 72% are between age 50-64, 88% of online users 18-29 are on Facebook, and 84% of those 30-49

Use Facebook Stories If:

• You can produce content that fits in 20-second bites
• You have A LOT of Facebook followers (on your business page or personal page)
• You can create raw and high production value video
• You want to drive traffic to your brand's website
• You want people to find your content through friends and family
• You can make viral or loveable content

Don't Use Facebook Stories If:

• You have a small following
• You can't create news-like content

Facebook was the last of these three networks to adopt Stories, but it certainly learned from its predecessors.

It combines the genius of Stories with what Facebook does best: analytics and a strong platform for business social networking.

Facebook Stories for Pages help brands deliver custom content to draw in and delight existing viewers. They are great for re-engaging a passive audience by breathing new life into brand-to-consumer relationships.

Stories can help boost your brand engagement and the organic reach of your Facebook Page because your page stories will always pop up at the top of your followers' feeds.

Leverage An Existing Social Network

Facebook is a densely knit social network with millions of Pages that are created by fans, creators, and businesses. All of these successfully connect brands to their followers, help create online venues and communities, and allow brandsto engage with them and grow.

A Fantastic Analytics Engines

Facebook Stories are powered by their famous advanced analytics. They show you everything from post-performance to audience demographics. This can all help you fine tune your stories over time and then bring the best products to your more successful social network communities.

You can understand which stories provide the biggest value to your follower base, which you can carry over to other social networks or advertisement campaigns with little to no engagement or monetary loss.

Which Social Network Story Reigns Supreme?

All of the social media networks can bring value to your marketing campaigns, but it really depends on what you're looking for and who your audience is.

Snapchat provides the raw, visceral experience that millennials love. It's great for leveraging influencers in effective and creative ways. Big budget brands perform well on Snapchat thanks to their filters and brand awareness.

Instagram is great for small to medium businesses. It helps lesser-known brands become more discoverable and engage with new and old audiences. Instagram also helps you understand sufficient metrics to help you adjust your creative direction to produce better content.

Facebook brings Stories to Pages, which can help brands with existing communities re-engage with them. Facebook's powerful analytics help brands fine-tune their content strategy and create deep connections with their audiences.

You'll probably want to try each of the platforms in turn to see which is the right fit for your community and brand personality. It doesn't matter how cool your filter is if the people you want to talk to aren't going to see it!

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