Social Media is becoming a necessity for businesses to succeed in this modern digital era. Without having a social media profile, businesses face a huge disadvantage in attracting new clients. With a host of options such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Twitter on offer, businesses need to figure out which platform suits them best. Instagram and WhatsApp have been growing rapidly but what makes these two apps stand out? In this post, we explain which platform is best for your business and how you can leverage both platforms for increasing business success.

How to Use WhatsApp for your Business

Businesses are now using WhatsApp to send and receive rich text messages like images, videos and files to their customers. WhatsApp Business also allows businesses to identify customer behaviour and understand which marketing and communication strategy works best to increase sales. In addition, WhatsApp also allows businesses to engage in superior social interactions with customers, which helps to increase brand awareness.

Businesses can simply create their own WhatsApp Business profile and start interacting with the customers as the interface is near identical to the regular WhatsApp application.

Read more: How Chatbots Are Making Life Easier For Small Businesses

How to Use Instagram for your Business

Instagram is fast becoming a popular platform for businesses to build their brand image. If you are a start-up, Instagram is a great platform to reach a wide audience. It can be used to reach customers who may have not taken an interest in the beginning as they had only heard about it but never seen your products or services. Instagram is more focused on images than text and this platform can draw a customers attention by the aesthetics of your brand. For instance, if you’re selling accessories for women, Instagram might be more appropriate than Facebook for attracting potential customers. Instagram is a visual social media network and, as a result, it’s a great platform to reach new customers. It has become an established way of connecting businesses and customers, providing insight into product and service usage, and creating engagement.

Five major differences between WhatsApp and Instagram

Now that we understand how businesses have been using both WhatsApp and Instagram, it is important to identify how both platforms differ from each other. The following are some of the differentiating factors between WhatsApp & Instagram.

Customer Support: WhatsApp enables direct communication

One of the main differences between both platforms is customer communications. Communicating with customers on Instagram can be difficult since the channel is more focused on image-based social interactions. Businesses have to make a deliberate effort to get their messages across. On the other hand, WhatsApp is a proper customer support channel that allows for much more direct communication with the customer base. Customers can send messages to a business and get immediate responses. This is not the case with Instagram.

Marketing: Influencers and Instagram's engagement rates

While both WhatsApp and Instagram can offer excellent marketing support, Instagram gives an edge to businesses because of its ability to help a business in delivering content to customers. Instagram posts can attract customer engagement which can help to increase brand awareness. Businesses can also use influencers on Instagram to market their products and services. This type of marketing would be more effective than the direct marketing strategies that can be used on WhatsApp.

Demographics: WhatsApp wins with 2 billion users

The demographic data for both WhatsApp and Instagram is also a differentiating factor between both applications. We can see this clearly when we look at the number of active users on Instagram and WhatsApp. As the most popular communication platform, WhatsApp can be expected to have more users and has attracted more than two billion users. As for Instagram, it is currently catching up with WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger in terms of user base and is growing more rapidly. The growth of Instagram is directly related to the way its content is generated by its users. Also, WhatsApp's demographic is more varied than Instagram, which is predominantly used by millennials and Gen Z.

Integrations: WhatsApp Business API is unrivalled

Both WhatsApp Business API and Instagram API offer superior integration opportunities for businesses. Instagram Graph API, Engagement Report and other API functionalities can be integrated to track the success of the content and provide insights into the customers. On the other hand, WhatsApp Business API provides greater integration opportunities. In some instances, WhatsApp Business API has been used as a standalone customer relationship management tool by businesses. With Facebook looking to integrate its messaging platforms including Instagram and WhatsApp, this might not be the case in the future.

Further Reading: All you need to know about WhatsApp Business API

Advertising: Target users with videos and pictures

There is no doubt that both WhatsApp and Instagram offer excellent advertisement opportunities for businesses. Instagram can be used as a platform to advertise products and services to a wider range of audiences. The image & video-based interactions allow businesses to attract customers who are interested in the domain. On the other hand, WhatsApp is more suited for direct advertisement strategies like promotions, deals & discounts. Businesses can also use the native language functionality in both platforms to advertise in a customer’s own language.

Instagram vs WhatsApp: Ultimate showdown

Here’s a table that sums up the differences between Instagram and WhatsApp Business:

How to Leverage Instagram and WhatsApp for your Business

After looking at the benefit of both Instagram and WhatsApp, you might be looking to leverage both the platforms to boost your business success. If you’re looking to link your WhatsApp Business to Instagram, the best way to do it is by adding either your WhatsApp Business to your Instagram bio or adding the link of your Instagram profile to your WhatsApp Business profile. This will allow your audience to view the account on the platforms they are most familiar with.

Suggested Read: Looking to direct your Instagram leads to WhatsApp

Place WhatsApp click-to-chat links in your Instagram bio

The easiest way to nudge your Instagram followers to text you on WhatsApp is to place a 'WhatsApp click-to-chat links' in your bio. When users click on the link, they will directly be taken to your WhatsApp Business account. If you want to create a link for your business, use this free tool! Gallabox's WhatsApp Link Generator helps you create a link in just 2 steps.

Here's our step-by-step blog on 'How to place a WhatsApp Link on Your Instagram Profile'.

How can you change your Instagram profile into a business profile on WhatsApp?

1.When you use the WhatsApp Business app, you can link your Instagram and Facebook accounts by going to Settings > Business Tools > Facebook & Instagram. This will let you open your Instagram page and let you log in to your account.

2. Once you log into your Business account, you can click Next and Add then click on Back to WhatsApp to return back to WhatsApp. When you return back to WhatsApp, you’ll see your linked Instagram Business profile.

3. By linking your Instagram profile with WhatsApp, you can also enable the Click to WhatsApp feature, which makes it easier for customers to connect with your WhatsApp Business account directly from Instagram.

Instagram or WhatsApp? With Gallabox’s omni-channel platform, you need not choose between the two.

One of the easiest ways to reap the benefits from both WhatsApp & Instagram platforms is by opting to use a communication platform that can seamlessly integrate the two social media platforms with your business communication needs. With Gallabox, you can create a dedicated account that allows you to interact with both your customers and suppliers, making communication in the most cost-effective way possible. The integration allows your business to direct all your Instagram leads into WhatsApp as you interact with your customers. You can easily send messages, links, images and so much more.

As your business grows, you can easily scale up your infrastructure to increase your customer engagement and increase productivity. You can easily upgrade your apps, change your messages, and update your business’s profile on both WhatsApp and Instagram.