7 Reasons To Ditch Snapchat in Favor of Instagram Stories 28128

7 Reasons To Ditch Snapchat in Favor of Instagram Stories

It might sound a bit crazy, but it has only been a bit over a year since Instagram took a turn at Snapchat introducing Stories. I say “crazy” because Stories have become such an integral part of the whole Instagram experience, that it is impossible to imagine the platform without them anymore. In fact, nearly 30% of Instagram users are daily Stories users as well — and that percentage is growing as we speak. And yet, Snapchat is still there and still growing (albeit slowly). The Kylie Jenner and Ariana Grande generation are still loyal Snap fans. And as marketers, we are told we have to be where our audience is and follow them wherever they go. Sometimes, however, that doesn’t make much sense. In this article, I am going to break this marketing credo and put to the test Instagram stories v Snapchat, giving you 7 reasons why your small business should ditch the latter in favor of the former. Reason #1: Instagram Has a Bigger Audience Last month, Instagram made a big splash announcing that the platform has finally reached 800 million active users. This means that Instagram grew by 100 million people over the last 6 months. Yes, you heard right: 100 million, in just over 6 months. In the meantime, Snapchat is still at its first 166 million users — a big milestone for the platform, whose year-over-year growth has been reportedly slipping. In other words, this means that merely 30% of Instagram — aka the Stories users — is still 1.5 times more people than Snapchat’s entire population. Instagram is a bigger country, and, with the borders constantly expanding, it seems like Snapchat is becoming harder and harder to find on the map. Reason #2: Instagram Has a Wider Audience Snapchat is often dubbed as a platform of choice amongst teenagers, and rightly so. According to Statista, only 14% of Snap’s users are over 35 years old, which means that the core population on the platform is made up of millennials and post-millennials. If this is your target audience, then Snapchat might be the right place to be. However, it also happens to be that 54% of Snapchat peeps are also active Instagram users, which means follow this link that half of the audience you are trying to reach on Snapchat, you can easily meet on Instagram, too. In addition, Instagram’s demographic markup is wider and, more or less, equally divided; 54% of the users are over 35 years old, while the rest, 46%, are between 18 and 34 years old. Now, here is why it matters to take note of that: According to Snap itself, in their first S-1 form issued just before they went public, concentrating all their forces on such a narrow, particular demographic does more harm than good, as such an audience is considered to be less brand loyal and more likely to switch to other platforms: “The majority of our users are 18-34 years old. This demographic may be less brand loyal and more likely to follow trends than other demographics. These factors may lead users to switch to another product, which would negatively affect our user retention, growth, and engagement.” Snap goes even further to admit that it also “may not be able to penetrate other demographics in a meaningful manner”. In other words, Snapchat’s stuck in a rut and doesn’t know how to get moving again. Which leads us to Reason Number 3.