Instagram Reels vs. TikTok vs. Snapchat: Which Should Businesses Use? [Marketing Professional Data]

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Remember Vine? Despite its huge initial growth, the six-second looping video app was discontinued by Twitter in 2016 — only four years after its launch.

Since then, we’ve seen apps like Snapchat, Instagram’s Reels feature, and TikTok fill its void. They allow users to express their creativity with short mobile videos while attracting Gen Z and millennial audiences. They also feel more niche and non-traditional than older platforms, like Facebook or Twitter.

Snapchat, which launched in 2011, allows users to create video-based stories about their lives and send video or image-based messages to their friends. Unlike most other apps, Snapchat content expires either immediately or after 24 hours. This platform leads to users creating content that is more lighthearted on uncensored than other more public-facing platforms.

Meanwhile, TikTok, which launched in just 2017, is similar to Vine in that it allows users to create 10 to 60-second looping videos that can be seen on their profiles or can be algorithmically placed on feeds of users with similar interests or demographics.

Instagram Reels, launched in late 2020, is the platform’s answer to TikTok. The similarities between the two are many — they both allow users to quickly create short-form videos and add filters, effects, and music. However, the most noticeable difference between the two is the length of videos. A Reel is capped at 60 seconds, whereas a TikTok video can reach 3 minutes.

At the moment, all three apps continue to grow. Instagram has 500 million daily users globally, closely followed by Snapchat with 306 million. Not to be outshined, TikTok hit a big milestone towards the end of 2021 — 1 billion daily users.

Despite each platform’s growth, marketers in the social media realm are wondering, “Are any of these worth the hype? Or will they just become another Vine?”

It’s no secret that short-form videos are dominating the social media landscape, and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down. 31% of marketers currently leverage short-form video and 29% plan to leverage it for the first time in 2022. But where, exactly, do they plan to invest?

To learn more about the strength of these three apps, the HubSpot Blog surveyed 1,000+ marketers to find out where they’re investing their time and money.

When asked which platforms marketers plan to increase their investment in this year, TikTok came out on top (62%), with Instagram following closely behind (54%).

But how do these apps fair for ROI? When asked which platform resulted in the biggest ROI in 2021, 18% of marketers responded with Instagram, earning a second place spot. Meanwhile, TikTok landed in fourth place at 12%. As for Snapchat, it didn’t make the top five — but you shouldn’t cross it off your list just yet (more on that later).

Below, I’ll walk you through the ins and outs of TikTok, Reels, and Snapchat, their distinct differences, and the marketing opportunities that …read more

Source:: HubSpot Blog