YouTube vs Instagram vs TikTok vs Facebook: Which Platform Should You Post On?

Executive summary

Modern Millie tested short-form content on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Facebook, and LinkedIn over three months. The main lesson: choose platforms based on your business goal, create for your priority platform first, and treat cross-posting results as platform-specific rather than interchangeable.

In this test, Instagram led in follower growth and low-cost sales, while YouTube and email were stronger for higher-value conversions.

Experiment and results

• Test volume: 55 original videos published over three months and reposted across five platforms, for 275 posts.
• Formats: 49 talking-head videos, 5 voiceovers, and 1 video using additional footage.
• Audience: The test focused on educational content from one creator in one niche, so the results may not generalize to other types of businesses.

Follower growth

• Instagram: +50,000
• TikTok: Nearly +27,000
• YouTube: +36,000 total channel subscribers, but only about 1,600 were attributed to Shorts; the rest came from other YouTube content.
• LinkedIn: +231
• Facebook: +225
• Total: Nearly 80,000 across platforms

Views and impressions

• Instagram: 33.1 million views
• Facebook: 14.8 million views
• TikTok: 6 million views
• YouTube: Nearly 1 million views across long- and short-form video
• LinkedIn: Nearly 130,000 impressions

Caveat: Two videos received paid brand promotion, including one with 16 million views. This materially affected the reported totals, particularly on Facebook. Organic performance was described as broadly following the same platform ranking.

Short-form videos did not perform identically on Instagram and TikTok. Some did well on both platforms, while others were platform-specific.

Business and sales findings

• Instagram was strongest for email-list growth and sales of free resources and lower-priced digital products (up to $29). The creator attributed some of this to Instagram’s integration with ManyChat.
• YouTube was viewed as the stronger channel for building trust and converting customers to higher-priced products. Many students in the creator’s premium BSP program reportedly arrived after watching YouTube videos.
• Email marketing was a major sales channel. The creator reported more than $50,000 in revenue that year from ongoing email marketing and an email funnel, without launches or large campaigns.
• TikTok was recommended, based on the creator’s experience and student community, for lifestyle creators pursuing brand deals or affiliate sales.
• LinkedIn was used mainly to maintain a professional presence and potentially build future relationships. The test did not establish measurable long-term business returns.

During the experiment, Instagram used ManyChat comment automations that prompted people to comment for resources. One example generated 1,300 comments. The creator said these calls to action increased comments, views, and engagement. TikTok automation was added only after the test, so its impact had not yet been measured.

Frameworks and playbooks

Choose a platform by business objective

• Reach or grow an audience on a particular platform: Make content specifically for that platform.
• Build an email list or sell lower-priced digital products: Instagram performed best in this test.
• Convert higher-priced offers: Prioritize trust-building content, particularly long-form YouTube.
• Pursue lifestyle brand deals or affiliate sales: The creator favored TikTok.

Refine before repurposing

Creators who are still developing their content strategy—especially those with fewer than 10,000 followers—should first learn what resonates with their audience rather than spreading effort across every platform. Adapt and distribute more broadly once the core approach is working.

Set goals before publishing

Decide whether the objective is views, subscribers, newsletter sign-ups, product sales, or advertising partnerships. Use that goal to guide platform and format choices.

Review analytics regularly

The team reviews performance every 30 days. For weak posts, diagnose possible causes—such as the topic, hook, filming location, lighting, or packaging—before deciding whether to rework the idea or test a new one.

Prioritize the hook

The creator identifies the opening hook as a critical factor for short-form performance across platforms.

Use a cross-platform workflow

The team schedules posts and compares analytics from one calendar or dashboard rather than uploading and reporting manually on each platform. The video describes Metricool campaign dashboards and a Claude connector as tools for this workflow.

Practical recommendations and caveats

• Use repurposing to extend distribution, but do not assume a post that succeeds on one platform will succeed equally elsewhere.
• Instagram performed especially well in this test partly because the team researched and developed short-form ideas for Instagram first. The results therefore reflect both platform dynamics and the team’s platform-specific strategy.
• Treat views and follower growth as intermediate measures. Assess whether content contributes to leads, email sign-ups, and sales.
• Separate paid reach from organic results when comparing platform performance.
• These findings come from one creator’s experiment, not a controlled comparison across industries or content types.

Presenters and sources: Modern Millie (presenter and creator); Metricool analytics and scheduling data (sponsor/tool); ManyChat automation; YouTube channel analytics.