Instagram & Pinterest, which one for your e-commerce photographs?
The figures (source the Moderator's blog, social media figures 2016) speak for themselves: Instagram and Pinterest together represent 650 million users in the world! A windfall to use for your e-commerce product photographs.
A windfall of 650 million users
- Pinterest represents 150 million active users monthly, 75 billion ideas are in line, 10 billion recommendations per day are proposed.
- instagram, 500 million of people access the application each month including 300 million are active users;
- Social network and catalog of ideas, each is based on a distinct principle:
- Instagram allows you to take product photos and/or videos and to publish them to his community.
- Pinterest is different, here we don't take photos or videos by ourselves, we gather on boards existing content that can be found on blogs for example. You can also pin photos and images from community boards. To better understand Pinterest and its challenges, read our article”A second life for your product photos with Pinterest“
Where is the difference? That's how people use it.
On Instagram, it's about sharing your own photos, your universe, while on Pinterest, it's more about collecting visual content that you've found on the internet.
Specificities of Pinterest and Instagram for your e-commerce photographs
Pinterest was first created as a website and then a mobile application was developed. For instagram, it's the opposite: first the mobile application then the website.
By being natively mobile, Instagram reaches a target made up of teens and young adults, very attached to their smartphone. Pinterest is used by older Internet users. I should say older because users are mainly female users, however, men are taking ownership of this platform more and more in 2016. 40% of the new registrants are men.
Beyond this quick comparison, we are going to come back to the points that characterize them for an optimal use of your product visuals.
In conclusion, what to remember
If your business has to choose between these two platforms, what matters is to focus on your goals, your audience, and the content you want to share.
1. Objectives: increase engagement on your e-commerce photographs
If your goal is to generate traffic, Choose Pinterest. If your aim is to increase engagement with your audience and increase notoriety, instagram is probably a better choice. It's also a better option for sharing “moments” like conferences, behind the scenes at your business... while Pinterest is more suited to content discovery.
2. Audience
Instagram helps you reach an international, male and female audience (80% of the audience is located outside the United States), while Pinterest is a network of choice for women in North America and is bringing together more and more men. You can still reach men outside of the US, but there will be more of them on Instagram.
3. Contents
The main difference between the two platforms is definitely the contents. On Instagram followers want to see content about you, of your events, your personality and your business, with its human side. On Pinterest, they want to discover content in all its forms, be inspired, share and learn.
Not only is audience motivation different, but so is the type of content. If you're creating valuable content on your blog, and sharing content created by others, Pinterest is the right choice.
There you go. If you want to use your product photographs on Instagram and Pinterest, an internal photo studio will allow you to achieve it easily. If you want advice, Packshot solutionsCreator coaching, support, services and training allow you to get started and integrate best practices for all your workflows production of visuals in e-commerce.