Instagram Stories vs. Facebook Stories for Businesses: The Most Important Differences

Are you debating whether you should focus your business’s marketing efforts on Instagram Stories or on Facebook Stories? In this guide, we will give you tips for when to use which platform and look at the most important differences between the two.

Which is better for your business, Facebook Stories or Instagram Stories? Or, should you even use both? When it comes to Instagram Stories versus Facebook Stories, many businesses wonder which platform to focus on. The truth is, there is no right or wrong answer. Each platform has different advantages and disadvantages, so the best marketing strategy will depend on your individual business and your specific target group.

The first step in deciding which platform to focus on is to understand the differences between Instagram Stories and Facebook Stories.

Different platforms, different features

Even though Facebook Stories and Instagram Stories are both part of the Facebook social media group, and Stories on the two platforms have a lot in common, there are still some important differences between them.

Highlights

The biggest difference that you will probably notice right away is that Instagram Stories offers a lot more options. For example, instead of stories just letting stories disappear after 24 hours, which is the default setting, you can also save stories to your Highlights. Instagram Highlights appear right between your bio and your feed, and users will be able to access your highlighted stories from there.

Highlights can be very useful for businesses to emphasize certain topics, such as new launches, collaborations, social issues, or FAQs. On Facebook Stories, it is possible to archive a story, but there is no way to leave a story on your profile for users to see for a longer period of time.

Interactive Stickers

Also, Instagram offers more interactive stickers than Facebook, such as hashtag stickers, countdown stickers, and GIF stickers, just to name a few.

These features are not only very popular with users, they also give businesses more options to engage with their followers, direct interested customers to a website, or encourage followers to make a purchase.

Group Stories

However, there are also some features that you can find on Facebook Stories but not on Instagram Stories. Group Stories is one of these features.

If you are managing a Facebook group for your business, you can also post stories which will only be visible to this group, whereas on Instagram you can only post stories to a general story feed.

Since Facebook groups bring together people who are interested in and want to talk about a particular topic, they offer your brand a direct way to communicate with a specific target audience. In other words, people in your brand’s group want to hear more from your brand, and stories are a great way to start.

This is especially true since you can personalize your group stories to best fit the group’s interests. Groups also tend to be more interactive than pages on Facebook, so posting stories is a great opportunity to reach out to your followers and start a conversation.

You could even use group stories to promote exclusive offers, such as special discounts for group members or VIP tickets to an event. This will not only get users engaged and help your business; it will also attract more followers to your group, and ultimately, to your brand.

Facebook vs. Instagram: different engagement numbers offer different opportunities

Since stories are more versatile and offer more interactive elements on Instagram, user engagement with stories is higher on Instagram than on Facebook.

In addition, Instagram’s story interface is more intuitive to use than Facebook’s. Instagram Stories also blend in seamlessly with other features on the app, whereas Facebook’s home screen is busier. So, stories tend to stand out more on Instagram, while they can be easier to overlook on Facebook.

Due to higher engagement numbers on Instagram, in the past, many businesses opted to post stories on Instagram rather than Facebook.

However, especially if you are running a small business, it might still be worth it to consider Facebook Stories, because fewer businesses on Facebook Stories also means there is less competition. And with less competition from other brands, your content has a better chance of being seen by your followers.

Facebook and Instagram attract different audiences

Another key difference between Facebook Stories and Instagram Stories is that they attract people from slightly different age groups. Facebook users are on average older than Instagram users. Most Facebook users are between 25 and 34 years old, while most Instagram users are between 18 and 34 years old.

So, depending on your business and your target audience’s demographics, one platform might be more worthwhile for you than the other.

Facebook Stories vs. Instagram Stories: Try cross-posting

If you are still not sure which platform might be the better choice for your business, we suggest starting out by using both for a set period of time, and then compare the results. Set key metrics that you want to analyze, such as engagement numbers or website traffic, and then see which platform renders the best results for your business.

In order to minimize the time, effort and resources for creating content for two platforms, consider cross-posting your stories. While you can’t cross-post a story from Facebook to Instagram yet, it is possible to cross-post a story from Instagram to Facebook.

One easy way to do this is to use a third-party planning tool like Storrito.

With Storrito, you can create Instagram stories not only on your smartphone or tablet, but also on your laptop or desktop PC, and you can even collaborate with multiple users on the same story.

Storrito also lets you schedule Instagram stories to be posted at a later date. Finally, it is possible to enable a cross-posting feature, which will automatically post your story to both Instagram and Facebook.

It’s an easy way to create engaging content for both platforms and increase your business’s social media presence.