How Small Businesses Can Think About Instagram vs. TikTok - Organic Reach and Engagement
Your Daily TikTok Marketing Insights, Trends and News
I was scrolling through TikTok today and found this video, which pretty much summarises the main benefits of why a small business should use TikTok vs. Instagram.
https://www.tiktok.com/@rapture.mcr/video/6928028347989576965?sender_device=pc&sender_web_id=6893660611785197057&is_from_webapp=v1&is_copy_url=0
In the TikTok above, we see someone tell a story about about how they are struggling with using Instagram as a marketing channel for their small business. They outline all the different things they are trying —regularly posting good content, researching hashtags and running Instagram ads. All of this results in very few followers, engagement or sales.
Then this person switches to TikTok and says that move “gets waymore views, likes, engagement, and support.” The key takeaway is that switching from marketing on Instagram to TikTok was the right decision for this person’s business, which is an independent UK streetwear brand called Rapture. And this video summarises the situation many small businesses are experiencing.
Let me break it down for you.
Instagram Has Low Organic Reach, TikTok Has High Organic Reach
Organic reach refers to how many people your posts reach on a given media platform, without having to promote these posts through paid advertising. As a general rule, organic reach on media platforms declines as the platform becomes more popular, because your posts have more fierce competition against other posts. When Instagram was a younger platform, several years ago, you would get more organic reach and engagement on average per post. Today, your organic reach and engagement is lower than ever before —because more people are competing for attention on the Instagram feed.
On the other hand, TikTok has high organic reach. TikTok is still young, less competitive, and has a different content algorithm, so your TikTok posts on average should get much higher organic reach and engagement vs. Instagram. This person’s TikTok shows how she experienced that exact scenario when switching from Instagram to TikTok.
TikTok Can Provide You With Higher ROI Than Instagram
Overall, your objective as a business is to getting the highest ROI (Return on Investment) for your marketing activity. Whether that’s measured in sales, views, or some engagement metrics, you want to get the most results out of the time or money you put into marketing activity.
Because organic reach and engagement is so much higher on TikTok vs. Instagram, you will get a much higher ROI on average for the time + money you spend marketing on TikTok vs. Instagram.
It’s worth me mentioning — Instagram is still an amazing marketing platform for your brand. But the reality is that every small business owner has limited time and money. So smart decisions need to be made around where to focus your energy.
For many small businesses, marketing is a tough, but simple decision. For brands like Rapture, they decided to move from Instagram to TikTok, and that has made all the difference.
To learn more about TikTok, check out my TikTok Course or download my free e-book on TikTok case studies. I’ll be sharing my thoughts daily on all the interesting things I’m learning about TikTok for business.
FUN FACT — the sound used in this video is pretty popular, and has been used in a few trending videos before where people are going through intense dialogue.
What do I mean? Check these out:
https://www.tiktok.com/@tegaalexander/video/6919211725417942274?sender_device=pc&sender_web_id=6893660611785197057&is_from_webapp=v1&is_copy_url=0
https://www.tiktok.com/@houseoflaughter.ent/video/6918112050971462918?sender_device=pc&sender_web_id=6893660611785197057&is_from_webapp=v1&is_copy_url=0
https://www.tiktok.com/@soylea._/video/6922849609500904709?sender_device=pc&sender_web_id=6893660611785197057&is_from_webapp=v1&is_copy_url=0