Growing an audience on a social media platform is essential for bloggers. So should you get started on Instagram? Or is Pinterest the better option?
Monthly Active Users
When looking at monthly active users, Instagram is much bigger than Pinterest. According to Statista, Instagram has around 1.35 billion people using the platform each month. And by 2025, that figure is expected to reach 1.44 billion.
Meanwhile, Pinterest had—according to Statista—463 million monthly active users in the first quarter of 2023. This is down from its peak in Q1 2021 when the platform had 478 million. However, it’s still not a bad audience base, and you could argue that finding your target audience will be less competitive.
Learning Curve
When choosing a social media network as a blogger, you need to think about whether you can continue using it as your audience grows, or if it’ll reach a peak saturation point. You must also consider what the learning curve is like.
The benefit of a bigger learning curve is that you’ll grow more over the long run. But on the flip side, you might become discouraged if it’s too steep in the beginning. In terms of app usability, Instagram is arguably easier to understand than Pinterest.
Instagram is quite an intuitive app. With Pinterest, you’ll need to learn a few extra things—such as how to design engaging pins and create boards. If you’ve decided that you want to use Pinterest, consider learning how to design a Pinterest Pin in Canva.
Growing Your Account
Social media can benefit businesses in many ways, and if you’re planning to monetize your blog later down the line, using social media is worthwhile. It’s hard to grow on most platforms, but some are easier than others. So how do Instagram and Pinterest compare in this respect?
Pinterest operates more like a search engine. Users look for topics that interest them, and they can do so using the search bar or checking their home feeds. If you publish consistently on the app, you can increase your monthly viewership—which may lead to more outbound clicks.
Gaining followers on Pinterest is sometimes challenging, but your follower count doesn’t really matter. Statistics such as saved pins and outbound clicks are more important for bloggers.
Getting noticed on Instagram is quite challenging, especially as a beginner. Although you’ll see a lot of advice about how often you should post and the types of content you should publish, you’re better off being authentic and posting when you need to. In that respect, you might want to build your blog audience first and let them naturally find your Instagram page later.
Content Diversification Options
Before picking your preferred social media platform as a blogger, understanding what types of content you can share is a good idea. Not only will you be able to determine what you should prepare in advance, but you can also pick a platform with a form of media that you like.
Instagram has evolved from being a simple photo-sharing app. Of course, you can share still images—and you have the choice to include up to 10 in a carousel post. However, since the introduction of Reels in 2020, video content has become more popular. If you want to stand out on Instagram, consider trying a selection of Reels ideas.
On Instagram, you can also share Stories in the form of both photos and videos. You can add stickers, along with encouraging your audience to ask questions and much more.
Pinterest also allows you to share videos with your audience, but these aren’t as much of a core experience as they’ve become on Instagram. You can also share carousel-style posts, but you’re limited to a maximum of five images.
If you like still images more than video content, you might want to think about using Pinterest over Instagram. At a later point, you can expand onto Instagram if you feel like you want to explore video content more.
Character Limits
Even if you don’t start a blog on Instagram, knowing how to write engaging content both there and on Pinterest can help you build the audience you’re looking for. But prior to doing this, you should understand what the character limits are on each network.
When sharing a Pinterest board, you can only write a maximum of 500 characters. With that in mind, your descriptions should be brief and give users an idea of what to expect when they click on your link.
Instagram, on the other hand, lets you type up to 2,200 characters. But while you have more room to share your captions, you should still try to keep your writing as succinct as possible.
Adding Links to Specific Posts
The main goal of using social media as a blogger is to drive traffic to your website, and ideally, to also increase your newsletter sign-ups. Removing as much friction as possible can help in that respect.
Instagram lets you add links to specific posts, but you can’t use hyperlinks. As such, someone would have to copy and paste the link into their web browser. However, you can add links to your Stories and bio.
On Pinterest, you can add outbound links in each pin. Moreover, you have the option to include a link in your bio and claim your website.
Will You Choose Instagram or Pinterest?
Both Instagram and Pinterest offer several benefits to beginner bloggers, and you can scale with both of them as more people discover your work. Pinterest is an excellent tool for helping others find your content, especially if your site still doesn’t rank highly in search engines.
Instagram is arguably a better choice for more established bloggers, and it’s worth letting your audience find your account from your site—rather than the other way around. But you can build a close connection with your audience on Instagram, and you may find that it’s an ideal option for encouraging newsletter sign-ups.
By Danny Maiorca
Danny enjoys exploring different creative disciplines, especially photography. He has a degree in Sports Journalism and has been writing professionally since 2016.
