EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT INSTAGRAM REELS AND HOW THEY COMPARE TO TIKTOK

By Leah Ross (Updated by Julia Wallace on August 15, 2023)

TikTok videos and Instagram Reels are the king and queen, respectively, of organic social media marketing right now. Their impact, reach, and potential to go viral are simply unparalleled. For that reason, we get tons of questions about how businesses should be utilizing these platforms.

Are they the same thing? Can you post the same content to both platforms? Are the aspect ratios the same? How are their audiences different? Does the same kind of content perform well on both platforms? Should you be uploading these to Facebook and YouTube too? The list of questions goes on and on! Let’s answer a few right now.

Are they the same thing?

Essentially, yes! They’re both videos shot in 9:16 aspect ratio. They often include text on the screen, background music, talking directly to the camera, storytelling, and humor. You’ll notice that a lot of the Reels on Instagram are actually videos that are already popular on TikTok.

One major difference is the video length. TikTok videos can be up to 10 minutes long. Reels can only be as long as 90 seconds.

Can you post the same content to both platforms?

Absolutely! We would just recommend posting to TikTok first. If their algorithm catches that a piece of content you put out isn’t original, it won’t push it out to the For You page.

If your video has music, you may want to change it based on what’s trending on either platform.

Are the aspect ratios the same?

Yep! For both Reels and TikTok you’re working with a 9:16 aspect ratio, or a file that’s 1080x1920 pixels. The one thing you’ll want to watch out for is that any text in your video isn’t covered by either app’s UX, which includes the display of the user name, caption, like, share, and comment buttons, etc.

For both platforms, keep anything important out of the 150 pixels at the top of the video, the 420 pixels at the bottom of the video, and the 50 pixels at the right side of the screen. Here’s what we mean:

How are their audiences different?

They’re very different! TikTok users are slightly younger, and generally prefer more authentic, less buttoned up content. Whereas Instagram users are more heavily Millennial, and prefer content that is generally more aesthetics-driven and polished. That being said, you can definitely connect with your target audience on both of these platforms!

Does the same kind of content perform well on both platforms?

Yes and no. Videos that are laugh-out-loud funny or have a real wow factor can go equally viral on either platform. However, we've noticed that videos that are edited in CapCut, which is affiliated with TikTok, often perform much better on TikTok. Along those same lines, a video that is edited natively in Instagram often performs better on this platform.

Should you be uploading these to Facebook and YouTube too?

You absolutely should! Facebook also has Reels, so this is a no-brainer secondary platform for you. And YouTube Shorts offer a huge growth potential right now.

What other questions do you want us to answer on this topic? Shoot us a DM!