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Instagram vs TikTok: Which Should College Students Use To Grow Their Side Hustle?

Written by CB Community

Instagram and TikTok are two of the most popular social media platforms in the world and they both carry their pros and cons.

The question is, which is better?

Well, that depends on what you want to use this app for.

If you are someone looking to connect with loved ones and share your day-to-day life with them, Instagram might be the best choice for you.

On the other hand, if sharing quick videos of yourself doing something funny or silly is more your thing, then TikTok may be worth checking out.

Ultimately it all comes down to how much time you want to spend on the app, you must identify whether you want to use the app as a hobby or if you will be using it for your college side-hustle.

Keep reading to discover which you should use between Instagram and TikTok:

Instagram’s Audience

Instagram is regarded as one of the most popular social media platforms in the world. This platform attracts a diverse audience of all ages, countries, and walks of life.

There are over 1 billion users on Instagram and 87% of those users are outside of the US. Roughly 320 million global users on the app are between the ages of 18 and 24 years old and an additional 354 million of the global users are aged 25- 34 years.

These numbers demonstrate that Instagram is an app dominated by the younger generation.

And by using an Instagram growth service, you’ll get the chance to get your content in front of a great part of this population.

However, you should be careful with these tools, meaning you shouldn’t use bots, but only services that will get you real followers.

Instagram has also developed into a very powerful and popular platform for businesses and you will find more than 200 million business accounts of the app including popular businesses such as Starbucks, Nike, and Zara to name a few.

No matter what your interests are, you will find a niche that supports it on Instagram. Popular niches include beauty, fashion, travel, food, and lifestyle.

The Features of Instagram

Originally, users could only post pictures and 1-minute videos on their Instagram feeds.

Now, the platform has evolved and introduced new features and ways to share content including:

  • IGTV
  • Reels
  • Stories
  • IGLive

If you have a business account, you can also access cool advertising features including paid ads, story ads, video ads, picture ads, and many other ad options.

These advertising options are only available to users who have a business page and are a great way to expand your reach and boost your brand awareness.

TikTok’s Audience

TikTok is the latest social media platform to hit the scene and in a short period has managed to rival other veteran platforms and accumulate a massive audience of over 1 billion users globally.

Of this audience, 53% are male and 47% are female. An estimated 50% of the global TikTok audience is under 34 years old and 32.5% are aged 10-19 years old.

TikTok is dominated by the younger generations and because of the very strict community guidelines on the app, it has become a popular and relatively safe place for young teenagers as well.

Although TikTok is not as business orientated as Instagram, there are plenty of businesses that operate on this platform including the likes of McDonald’s, Spotify, and NFL to name a few.

TikTok has an assortment of niches including comedy, lip-syncing, dancing, lifestyle, food, and fashion amongst many others.

The Features of TikTok

TikTok allows users to film and edit short-form videos in-app and have plenty of features to make videos look very professional such as zoom, speed adjustments, filters, and audio attachments.

You can also go live on TikTok as well as duet and stitch videos from other creators if they’ve given the public permission to do so.

You can pay TikTok however, this is very expensive and usually only done by businesses who have a huge marketing budget.

Affordable advertising on the app includes user-generated content and hashtag challenges. Influencer marketing is also very popular.

Conclusion

Whether you want to use social media for personal reasons or side-hustle purposes, Instagram and TikTok are the two apps most popular at the moment.

By joining these apps, you will be exposed to a massive audience that mainly comprises younger people.

Instagram is considered the more formal of the two apps with TikTok being a fun and entertaining app that has captured many.

About the author

CB Community

Passionate members of the College Basics community that include students, essay writers, consultants and beyond. Please note, while community content has passed our editorial guidelines, we do not endorse any product or service contained in these articles which may also include links for which College Basics is compensated.