In this world of social media, hardly a few people might not have an account on Facebook or Instagram, or any such social media platform.
Be it for sharing pictures and videos with our friends and family or for growing our businesses; social media can be of great help. We can connect to any person around the world through it.
Pinterest and Instagram are social media platforms that share pictures and videos. On Instagram and Pinterest, you can follow and unfollow whomever you want.
Both can be used to advertise and grow our businesses. Still, there are a lot of remarkable differences between the two.
Key Takeaways
- Purpose: Pinterest is primarily used for collecting and organizing ideas and inspiration, while Instagram is focused on sharing personal photos and videos with a broader audience.
- Content: Pinterest features more long-form content, such as articles and recipes, while Instagram is focused on short-form visual content, such as images and videos.
- Audience: Pinterest has a predominantly female user base, while Instagram is used by a more diverse demographic with a slightly higher proportion of female users.
Pinterest vs. Instagram
Pinterest is a visual bookmarking platform that allows users to save and organize images and videos, it focuses more on discovery and inspiration. Instagram is a photo and video-sharing platform where users can upload, view, and share images and short videos, it is more focused on personal expression.
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Instagram offers features like a boomerang, Instagram reels, stories, filters, and much more, but these features aren’t available on Pinterest.
Comparison Table
| Parameters of Comparison | ||
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pinterest is a social search engine where you can share or pin your ideas and browse other people’s pins as per your interest. | Instagram is more of a picture and videos sharing social media app where you can connect with your friends and family and see what they are uploading. You can even chat with your friends and follow your favorite celebrities. |
| Launched in | January 2010 | October 2010 |
| Viewers | Pinterest has fewer viewers in comparison with Instagram, with a large number being women. | Instagram is more engaging and thus has a larger audience than Pinterest. |
| Purpose | Pinterest is used basically for online content sharing and also for business purposes. It is a visual search engine. | Instagram can be used for business purposes but is mainly a platform for sharing pictures and videos. |
| Photo Editing | Pinterest doesn’t allow photo editing. You have to directly upload your content on the Pinterest site. | Instagram provides a variety of filters as well as features that you can use to edit your pictures. |
| Video sharing | On Pinterest, you can only share links to videos and can’t upload the video. | You can upload videos directly as a post or on stories on Instagram. You can even go live or create a boomerang, but you can not add links to your posts. |
What is Pinterest?
Pinterest was founded by Ben Silverman, Evan Sharp, and Paul Sciarra in December 2009 and was launched in January 2010. It is a social search engine where you can pin or repin content.
Pinning content means uploading your content in the form of images, videos or gifs, or links. Repinning means pinning some other people’s pins.
A collection of pins of similar kinds is called a board. You can also follow or unfollow any user or board per your interest. Pinterest can help you promote your business through ads.
The advertisements are displayed in the form of promoted pins based on your interests and the boards you follow.
What is Instagram?
Instagram was launched by co-founders Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom on October 6th, 2010. However, on April 9th, 2012, Facebook owned it for 1 billion dollars.
So many of us must have an account on Instagram, and we are well aware of its features. It is often abbreviated as IG.
Instagram has the following features:
- Sharing posts
You can share pictures and videos and use many filters to make your posts appealing.
- Instagram stories
You can add stories to your profile anytime you want.
- Instagram Direct
You can directly chat with your friends and family members. You can also send message requests to people you want to talk to.
- Reels
Instagram recently launched this feature after the ban on TikTok in India. You can share and view short videos on Instagram reels.
- IGTV
You can upload videos with a length of about 10 minutes on IGTV. Some popular users are allowed to upload videos for about an hour.
- Boomerang
It’s a video-creating app from Instagram on which you can collect some pictures, and it will be created into a short video that will play backward and forward.
- Hashtags
Hashtags make your posts easier to find on Instagram, and they can greatly help promote your content or grow your audience.
Main Differences Between Pinterest and Instagram
- Pinterest works well on a desktop and a cell phone, while some of the features of Instagram cannot be used when you use Instagram on a desktop.
- Hashtags are important in promoting your content on Instagram, while hashtags have nothing to do with Pinterest.
- Pinterest is better at sharing and saving links, while Instagram doesn’t allow link-adding features to your posts or stories.
- Instagram has many more features than Pinterest, like IGTV, Instagram Direct, stories, reels, filters, etc. On Pinterest, you cannot even edit the pictures.
- Instagram has a lot more users compared to Pinterest.
- You can edit your pictures and use different filters on Instagram, but you can’t do the same on Pinterest.
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563217300237
- https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/2470654.2481336
- https://www.sohamvc.org/_site/data/files/documents/student%20experience/internet%20safety/5526ABCD3B8FD67A0CB6F44207757F9E.pdf
I’ve put so much effort writing this blog post to provide value to you. It’ll be very helpful for me, if you consider sharing it on social media or with your friends/family. SHARING IS ♥️
Sandeep Bhandari holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Computers from Thapar University (2006). He has 20 years of experience in the technology field. He has a keen interest in various technical fields, including database systems, computer networks, and programming. You can read more about him on his bio page.
