Platform Comparison

Eventtia vs. Instagram Live: What’s the difference?

Victoria Rudi
August 13, 2020

Table of Contents

With an estimated 500 million daily users and 1 billion monthly users, it’s very easy for any marketer to see the appeal of Instagram and more specifically, its most engaging feature, Instagram Live.

It’s an effective way to boost attendee engagement and give your brand much needed visibility, all at a very low cost. So where does it fit in? Can you run a virtual event on Instagram Live? Let’s take an in-depth look to find out.

What is Instagram Live?

Instagram Live is a great channel for driving new followers, engagement, and even selling products. Why? Because it allows you to connect with your followers in a way that’s direct, transparent, and authentic, making it a valuable tool for any brand wanting to build a stronger connection with their community.

The main thing that sets Instagram Live apart from other pre-recorded content on Instagram like Stories and IGTV videos is that you’re creating a conversation. Everyone wants to feel that they are highly valued, and with Instagram’s comments feature you can do just that. Moreover, you’re also giving your followers a behind-the-scenes look into your company.

Another aspect worth discussing is the visibility that Instagram Live gives you. First, live stories are preferred over other content with Instagram’s algorithm. And second, live stories are push notification enabled, meaning that your followers will be notified as soon as the video starts.

What is Eventtia?

Eventtia is a virtual cloud-based events platform (live and physical) that makes planning and managing online events easy. With intelligent user interfaces and straightforward planning tools, Eventtia makes it easier to manage events with an all-in-one tool that covers each part of the event lifecycle. The events technology gives marketers and companies more control of their online events, and helps them to promote their brand, interact with leads, and strengthen their community.

Features:

  • Use website builders and email campaigns to communicate with your ideal audience.
  • Create your event in a few clicks and then manage all of your logistics through one dashboard.
  • Connect people and businesses with one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many networking formats.
  • Seamlessly integrate all of the major streaming and webinar tools into a main virtual stage and connect with a worldwide audience.
  • Scale your online events and make informed decisions with real-time data and analytics.

Eventtia vs. Instagram Live: The differences?

So now we’ve got a clear understanding of how Instagram Live and Eventtia work. Let’s take this a step further by comparing the main differences between the two.

No control over the platform

The first major difference is that with Instagram you have no control over the platform. In terms of your community this means that you’re never going to have complete ownership over it. And that you could also be susceptible to any changes made on the platform.

Over the years, Instagram has made tweaks to its algorithm which have had big changes in how people see and access your content. This means that you regularly have to readapt your content strategy to retain your users’ attention, potentially jeopardising all of the hard work you’ve put in.

With Eventtia, you can build and engage your community outside of any platform and actually drag them to your website that you designed and have complete control over. This puts the power back in your hands, giving you more control and flexibility on how you manage and engage with your community.

Instagram Live is designed for mobile devices

In April this year, Instagram Live was made available through the web, making the viewing experience far more comfortable. Instead of overlaying comments, the web version separates them to the side, providing a much cleaner viewer experience.

Additionally, this new feature on the desktop application offers URL means that Instagram Live videos can now be cross-promoted on other platforms with a direct link. Yet, despite these new updates, Instagram is still a mobile dominated application. This is how it was started and this is how the vast majority of users access the platform. The big point here is that this detract away from the viewer’s experience.

Eventtia on the other hand, offers a virtual stage in both mobile and desktop formats, although it’s primarily focused on the latter. Through this attendees can access everything from one place including the different sessions, the program, live chat, networking, and group meetings – providing a user friendly interface that can be done without having to fixate on a small screen.

Attendees don’t get the full virtual event experience

Instagram Live is simply a channel to broadcast your live event. You can stream anything from an interview to a product launch to a Q&A session. However, any successful virtual event will require more than just a channel to broadcast your video content.

Especially for your attendees, who will be expecting more than just a one-dimensional event focused on content. Because with Instagram Live the event experience isn’t there for your attendees. There’s no option to build a virtual stage, offer simultaneous sessions, or provide networking.

Yet these are all features that come with Eventtia. For marketers, this provides much more flexibility when it comes to planning virtual events. And for attendees, this gives them the complete event experience which offers much more variety and a closer representation of a physical event.

You won’t know who your attendees are

With Instagram Live it’s a lot harder to identify who your attendees are. During the live stream, you can track engagement but these metrics offer very little if you want to know more about your attendees.

Without the right data, this makes subsequent communications very difficult. Especially because you’ll have no option to email attendees with the end goal of integrating them attendees into your community. This doesn’t happen with Eventtia because the platform not only helps you to launch your event but it also gathers the emails of your attendees, so that you can continue to engage long after the event.

You can’t offer online networking with Instagram Live

Another really important, but often overlooked, part of a virtual event is online networking. Instagram Live is a channel to broadcast live video content so you won’t have the option to do this.

Eventtia on the other hand has its own online networking feature that allows attendees to book meetings as part of the virtual event’s agenda. By allowing attendees to engage in real-time chats and discussions with virtual meeting rooms and breakout sessions, you will add another dimension to your event.

Having engaging content is always going to be valuable to any event. But that’s ignoring the fact that attendees are always itching to meet and interact with each other. With Instagram Live the only way to do this is through the comments feature where the conversation is directed to the live stream host, as opposed to other attendees.

Deciding what’s right for you?

This is a big question and the reality is that it all comes down to you and your needs. There is no one size fits all approach, and that’s why it’s worth asking yourself a few questions so that you can identify what’s best for you.

  • Do you want to have complete control over your digital community?
  • What are the demographics of your followers? Is Instagram the best channel to engage with them?
  • Are your followers happy to watch video content on a mobile device?
  • Are you looking for a channel to broadcast your event? Is your event going to have a virtual stage with an agenda and simultaneous session?
  • How important is your events data? How well do you need to know your attendees?

To summarise, Instagram Live is great for broadcasting content to huge audiences, making it a great social media engagement tool. Eventtia on the other hand creates a complete attendee experience by providing you with everything needed to manage virtual events.

Discover how Eventtia helps world-leading brands digitize and scale their events

Learn more

Discover how Eventtia helps world-leading brands digitize and scale their events

Victoria Rudi
Senior Content Specialist
With a Master’s degree in Event Management and a keen follower of SaaS technologies, Victoria is an event content master, producing insightful and valuable for Eventtia’s blog and beyond

All-in-one event management software