Stories are an incredibly popular form of social-sharing. According to Hootsuite, nearly a billion people use stories across apps like Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and Whatsapp.
Many brands have recognized the potential of stories for reaching and connecting with customers. It’s estimated that four out of five major brands are already using stories.
Fast Company has even declared that “embracing the story format may no longer be an option for businesses, but a requirement.”
But creating stories, which require a mixture of videos, pictures, and graphics, is a lot harder than creating a simple text post.
If you’re a business owner, you probably don’t have time to make snaps and stories for each platform. That’s why it’s important to focus your marketing efforts on the platforms that will get you the highest return on investment.
Today, we’re going to compare Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat stories and tell you which one we think is the best for your business.
Which platform is more popular?
According to Buffer, Facebook might just be the best platform to post stories on.
A survey of 275 social media users in the US revealed that Facebook is the most popular platform to watch stories on. Around 70% of the people surveyed said that they would rather watch stories on Facebook than on Snapchat or Instagram.
One thing to note about this survey is that it wasn’t targeted based on age — the demographics were a broad set of consumers in the United States.
If you ask young adults this question, you’re likely to get a different answer, as Facebook tends to skew older than Instagram or Snapchat.
But the fact that Facebook stories was the favorite of 70% of the people surveyed is hard to ignore. This data shows that your stories will probably be more visible and have more reach on Facebook than Instagram or Snapchat.
And since most marketers and business owners focus their efforts on Instagram stories, Facebook stories may be less saturated and provide even more opportunity for you to reach potential customers.
Which platform should you post stories to?
Which platform you should post stories to all depends on who your ideal customer is.
If you’re trying to reach teens or young adults, Instagram or Snapchat is probably your best bet. But if you’re trying to reach adults, Facebook is a solid option.
If you’re trying to target local customers, Facebook may also be the best place to post.
Many Facebook users follow small businesses in their area and would probably be more interested in seeing local content than people on Instagram or Snapchat.
You don’t have to choose
But luckily, you don’t have to choose between posting on Instagram and Facebook. Because Facebook owns Instagram, posting the same story on both platforms is as easy as tapping the “Share to Facebook” button on Instagram.
Many business owners and marketers post the same content on both platforms with good success. But if the demographics of your audience is very different on each platform, you may want to take the time to create separate stories for Instagram and Facebook.
Even though Snapchat came up with the iconic story format, it seems like they’ve lost the story war to Facebook and Instagram.
Although data suggests that Facebook may be the better platform to post stories to, where you upload your stories is really up to you. Both Facebook and Instagram have a wide, engaged user base, so you can’t go wrong with either platform.