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Every time social media rules are just starting to get clear, the rug is swept out from under you and there’s a whole new set of rules to play by.
If you feel like you’re lost in a sea of platforms, unsure of which to join, don’t worry, I’ve got you covered.
Small businesses should be posting on TikTok and Instagram in the vast majority of cases. Instagram is better at letting businesses promote their products because they allow external links in all bios and stories. TikTok is better at giving real engagement and organic growth.
In this article I’ll be breaking down common myths about why businesses should be picking one platform over the other, and hopefully convincing you to post on both platforms regularly.
TikTok is Not Just For Teenagers
Some sources will say that you don’t need to be on TikTok unless you have a product marketed towards youth. This is becoming less and less true, there are many middle-aged and older people that use the app frequently.
Ages of TikTok Users
Ages 10-19 are 25% of users.
Ages 20-29 are 22.4% of users.
Ages 30-39 is 21.7% of users.
Ages 40-49 is 20.3% of users.
Ages 50+ are 11% of users.
Since there are over 1 billion active users on TikTok each month, this means that even if you market exclusively to ages 50+, there are still over 100 million users in your demographic.
What’s more, since many people think that TikTok is only for teenagers, this means that the older populations are greatly underserved.
If you are able to provide content for their niche, you may rise faster than other segments of the app which are already crowded.
Businesses Will Benefit From Posting On TikTok
I’ve talked with many business owners who are very skeptical of whether or not TikTok is ‘worth it.’
To them, it feels like getting into TikTok is this whole new thing that just will take tons of time and probably won’t reap any rewards.
And to be fair to them, if you don’t have a good social strategy overall, this is absolutely right.
If you are making unengaging content that social audiences don’t want to interact with, it’s much better to post one low effort thing a week and give yourself the time back.
However, if your business is engaged in any sort of effective social media, you need to be on all the major platforms.
There’s no escaping TikTok. Even if you never spend a minute on the platform, its effects are all around you. Instagram and Facebook didn’t randomly create reels, YouTube didn’t randomly create shorts.
These short, vertical videos were created and promoted for one reason: to compete with the eyeball attention TikTok has been getting.
Which means, if you’re creating smartly crafted social media for your business, you’re creating short-form vertical videos.
And if you’re creating short-form vertical videos and publishing them on Instagram and Facebook, you’re losing out by not posting them on TikTok as well.
Instagram Is Much More Business Friendly Than TikTok
One of the most important things you can remember while thinking about social media is that every platform has the goal of keeping you on its app for as long as possible.
This means that every app views it as a terrible thing when a user clicks on an outside link.
This means that social apps do everything in their power to prevent businesses and individuals from being able to take the app’s users to their websites.
This is the only reason Instagram doesn’t allow links in comments, this is why TikTok does not allow links in bio until you have at least 1,000 followers, or you fill out their tedious business account application.
Now, they can’t block websites entirely, because they need people to create content for free, and people are only going to create content for free if they can do some kind of self-promotion.
Another important thing to remember is that most of these apps have lost money and not been profitable for the vast majority of their existence.
What happens is that they’re able to grow because of intense amounts of venture capital funding, and then after a decade the investors are pissed they haven’t gotten a return, and start demanding money.
What do the apps do? The only thing they can do: put more ads on their platform.
This is done in tandem with an effort to be more business friendly, since they know they have to keep the paying customers (companies) happy.
Because Instagram has been around longer than TikTok, it is further down the pipeline and its investors want more.
This means that Instagram has gone through many more layers of monetization, and trying to be business friendly than TikTok has.
You definitely need to have an Instagram account for your business, because in many ways this is like a modern business card.
A business without an Instagram is either messing something up, or is purposefully doing an ‘anti social media’ part of their branding and marketing.
Additionally, all the things like Instagram product tagging, links being allowed with under 1,000 followers, and most importantly, external links in stories, make Instagram a great place for your business, even if the engagement is lower than on TikTok.
It’s Easier To Grow On TikTok Than Instagram
It’s hands down easier to grow on TikTok than it is on Instagram. Organic engagement on TikTok is much higher than it is on any other social platform. While Instagram has greatly improved in this area with its reels, reels don’t often translate to new followers.
The biggest exception to this is if you already have an existing account on Instagram, but not on TikTok.
If you already have a few hundred or thousand followers on Instagram, the algorithm will boost you there because you already have people interested in your products.
If you are starting with new accounts however, TikTok will be much easier to grow on.
TikTok has laid out its app to encourage new followers and likes, shares, etc.
But as long as you’re creating short form video content for one of these popular apps, I encourage you to post on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube shorts, and Facebook.