Our research shows that a channel-specific approach is the secret to a successful content marketing program. (More on that here.)

The brands that excel at content marketing craft a unique content strategy for each digital channel. Even the social networks themselves are investing in a diverse, channel-specific approach: Facebook is on Twitter, Twitter is on LinkedIn, LinkedIn is on Instagram, Instagram is on Google+, and so on.

As a competitive intelligence platform, we couldn’t help but wonder: how do the different social networks compare on one another’s channels?

So we pitted Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest against one another. We used our platform to measure each network’s content marketing performance over the past 365 days across two key metrics:

• Average Interactions Per Post Per 1,000 Followers: This metric is a measure of content engagement normalized across both posting frequency and audience size.
• Follower Growth (%): This metric shows us whether or not a brand is growing its audience on a particular channel.

Together these metrics help us answer the following questions: does the brand’s audience engage with their content, and is their audience growing?

The results of our Social Network Showdown are below! Find out which social network is truly performing the best on each channel:

Facebook’s Best Channel is….. INSTAGRAM

With 11.28 average interactions per post per 1,000 followers on Instagram, Facebook’s Instagram content sees 5X the engagement as the content on its own network (2.15 on Facebook).

Facebook’s Instagram audience has also grown impressively over the last year (110.15% increase in followers), while its Facebook audience grew at less than 1/10th that amount (9.35% follower growth).

Instagram’s Best Channel is….. INSTAGRAM (Plus impressive follower growth on Facebook!)

Instagram clearly knows its own platform best. With 6.83 average interactions per post per 1,000 followers, Instagram’s content is far out-performing on Instagram compared with Facebook (0.08) and Twitter (0.064).

However, Instagram’s Facebook audience has also shown impressive growth; Instagram’s Facebook follower count grew 81.32% over the past year, more than 3 times its audience growth on Instagram (25.54%).

LinkedIn’s Best Channel is….. INSTAGRAM

Impressively, LinkedIn has made a major Instagram play — and it has paid off. On Instagram, LinkedIn sees 10.42 interactions per post per 1,000 followers on average, far outpacing its content engagement level on its own network (0.25).

LinkedIn’s audience on Instagram also expanded rapidly over the past year, with 184.16% follower growth!

Twitter’s Best Channel is….. PINTEREST

With its quirky 140-character count, Twitter is not as visually-driven of a social network as some of its counterparts. Yet Twitter has found its grove on Pinterest, with 0.64 average interactions per post per 1,000 followers and 53.99% growth in its Pinterest audience over the past year!

With its massive Twitter audience, Twitter’s own Twitter content sees only 0.05 average interactions per post per 1,000 followers, perhaps preferring to let others shine on the network.

Pinterest’s Best Channel is….. PINTEREST

Like Instagram, Pinterest knows its own network best. With 0.7 average interactions per post per 1,000 followers, the engagement level for Pinterest’s content on Pinterest is nearly double that of its second-best network, LinkedIn (0.39).

For more on how a few top brands are getting the most ROI from their content with the least effort, get your copy of The Content Marketing Paradox Report!