In the age of Social Media, having your platforms connected to one another is the best way to make sure that your online presence remains relevant if you’re into that sort of thing. This kind of connectivity means that anything you post on, say, Twitter, gets cross-posted with your other social media accounts like Facebook, or more importantly, Instagram.
Especially for brands, maintaining a link between your Twitter and Instagram accounts is a great way to keep potential customers within your sphere of influence for as long as possible. Twitter and Instagram are naturally complementary; while both are capable of posting all types of media, Twitter is largely text-based while Instagram is primarily image-based. Utilizing both, brands (and even influencers) would be able to expand their network and cater to different types of audiences more effectively.
In this article, we teach you how to link Twitter to Instagram, and how you can utilize it to your advantage.
How to Link Twitter to Instagram (And Why You Should Do It)
Like we mentioned, one can see Twitter and Instagram as two sides of the same social media coin. We won’t go into detail about what those two platforms are because c’mon. Instead, we’ll give you quick instructions on how to link twitter to Instagram, and more importantly, why you should do it.
First off: linking your social media accounts. You should know by now that you can’t actually link Twitter to Instagram; it has to be the other way around (linking your Instagram account to Twitter). To do this:
- Open up your Instagram
- Go to your profile and go to the settings page (three vertical lines on the top-right corner, then the gear on the bottom of that drop-down menu)
- Go to Account
- Go to Linked Accounts
- Choose Twitter
- Input your Twitter username and password (don’t use your Twitter Handle, use your actual login details)
- Tap on Authorize App
And that’s it, you’ve now linked your Instagram to Twitter. From this point on, all your posts on Instagram will be instantly reflected on Twitter, with images being displayed as a link to your Instagram post.
Twitter or Instagram? Why Not Both?
So why should you link those two platforms? Well, to get the answer, we first have to look at both Twitter and Instagram and how they’ve affected the industry they’ve helped create and shape:
By the end of the 2010s, Twitter boasted a monthly average user number of 330 million unique Twitter URL’s, with 77% of that demographic tweeting outside the United States. On average, Twitter was host to roughly 500 million tweets per day, with most of those users accessing the app via their smartphone.
But as impressive as that is, Instagram does have Twitter beat: by 2019, Instagram reported a whopping 400 million monthly average user number, with 80 million photos being posted on the platform per day, generating almost 4 billion likes daily, with the platform boasting 40 billion photos posted on Instagram since day 1.
On the surface, it does sound like brands should focus all of their social media presence on IG, and why not: it has a bigger audience and a wider reach. But let’s look even closer at those numbers.
Combined, the demographics of IG and Twitter are fairly split down the middle, from age and gender to social income and education level. So why is it that a huge number of brands still launch massive social media campaigns on Twitter, arguably the smaller of the two platforms?
Simple: engagement.
Of the two platforms, Instagram relies more on visuals rather than text. Makes sense: in the digital age, people’s attention spans are a lot shorter, so images and short videos will take precedence over text. In fact, over the next decade or so, digital experts are saying that the video trend will continue to grow, and will soon overtake images (maybe not memes, but hey you can’t beat them all) as the main type of content for all social media platforms.
But if there’s one thing that video content can’t touch, it’s engagement. You see, a curious thing happened when the digital and social media age went into full swing: it democratized the way we do, well, pretty much everything. Social media made it possible for people from all walks of life, of all genders, and races, and socio-economic status, to share their thoughts with an audience of thousands. But more than thoughts, people also started posting their personal opinions, unfettered by corporate sponsorship or influence.
This meant that the everyday person could, and often did, get their recommendation about a product, brand, or company, from social media reviews. This is what digital marketers call engagement: the active conversation between companies and their audiences. Yes, Instagram has a wider reach and uses the latest, most effective type of content to get their message across, but Twitter is the one that reigns supreme when it comes to actively starting conversations.
Think about it: how many times have we seen Twitter threads make and break celebrities (#cancelledt culture, anyone?), or start/end revolutions, or heck, be the source of whistleblowing on politicians and corporations? Video might be the next King of content over the next few years, but it’s engagement that’s going to keep it on the throne.
But Hey, Why Not Both?
When it comes to brands, interacting and engaging with your audience should take precedence over what type of content you churn out. That being said, one cannot and should not ignore the immense power that content has over people.
So, if you’re deciding whether or not your brand should utilize Twitter or Instagram, ask yourself: why not both?
Sure, both platforms will cater to different types of audiences, but instead of choosing one over the other, why not create a digital marketing strategy that could effectively capture audiences on both platforms? In this way, you’ll be able to capture both your audience on your main platform and entice possible audiences on your secondary platform. Not only does this widen your sales funnel, it also actively keeps your potential customers within your digital sphere of influence, strengthening brand recall and further implanting yourself and your brand into people’s POV.
So now that you know the how and the why, it’s time to do. Link your Twitter to Instagram (or vice-versa), and dazzle social media with your brand.
