When looking at website traffic from social media, Facebook often produces twice as much as Instagram.
If that’s the case, why does everyone keep talking about how important Instagram is?
The answer is pretty complicated…
How do Facebook Posts lead to increased website traffic?
One of the reasons a lot of traffic comes from Facebook is that its social media platform allows for embedded links in posts. That means that, if you share something like a video or a blog, users just have to click on the shared piece to be taken to the site hosting the material. This also works by including a link within the body of the caption for your Facebook post.
With Instagram, you can’t do that. The only option is to add the link in your bio.
Is it even worth it to have Instagram as part of your small business’ social media?
Of course, which social media platforms are right for your company depends on what you do and who you’re targeting. But if Instagram is something right for your product or service and your target audience, hell yes you should be on it!
Just because a social media platform isn’t showing up as a referral source on your website analytics, doesn’t mean it isn’t helping get people there.
Here’s a good example: One of our clients only receives a tiny fraction of their website traffic from Instagram. Yet, the conversion rate on that segment of their traffic is very significant. It’s a small group of people who tend to be very engaged buyers for our client.
So, Facebook or Instagram?
Which one should you use? The truth is that the people who use Instagram are often very different from those who use Facebook. You can target two very different audiences with these two platforms.
If website traffic is extremely important for your business, put plenty of effort into Facebook, but also consider other social media sites that create lots of clicks, such as Pinterest, if that applies to you.
