A lot of personal and professional contacts of mine keep asking me the same question ‘So which is better for business…Facebook or Twitter?’ It’s a good question. As a communications consultant I could bore you with talk about tactics and channels and audience segmentation, but I fear you might doze off into your latte. They both form an important part of your marketing mix. So instead here’s a run down of the pros and cons…
Facebook:
A lot of small businesses make the mistake of:
– bombarding all their friends and family to join their group, instead target some of your ‘connector’ friends or family
(you don’t want to spam your contacts and have a load of people join your group that just hide it from their facebook feed do you?)
– creating a personal group, whilst this can seem like a good idea bear in mind it’s not a Facebook ‘page’ and so won’t have the ability to add other pages and network freely with other like minded pages. Plus consider if you really want to showcase your personal details or your freelance persona or business? If you’d like to promote your business brand create a page.
Twitter:
Common mistakes here are…
– not adding a picture so the Twitter account looks like spam and gets ignored by users (think one of those twitter ‘eggs’)
– not being personal and informal, Twitter is instant real time social media at its best so use it as such
– not adding a profile biog – you can make amazing new contacts on Twitter so sell yourself or your brand in a short and friendly way and other users will be more likely to click to follow you
The stats…
SocialTwist reports that Twitter users click through 6.6x more often than do Facebook users (that’s 1 point to Twitter).
However, Facebook is by far one of the most popular sharing platforms amongst users (so that’s 1 point to Facebook).
The ‘Tell a friend function’ within mobile phone apps and websites is evidence of the power of social media and viral marketing. If you want a message to spread easily to your personal circle and beyond then Facebook is a great tool.
Eventbrite reports that sharing event information through Facebook was 5.8x as valuable as doing the same through Twitter. So that’s another 1 point to Twitter. That report was based on mining months of sales data where they calculated that each time a user shared an event via Facebook it generated $2.52 in ticket sales vs. only $0.43 for each Twitter share.
Do bear in mind that Twitter has a powerful click through rate and is a great tool for speedily sharing nuggets of real time news, offers or insights. It can create chatter and buzz in a way that Facebook doesn’t. In a sense think of Twitter as here and now chit chat and Facebook as a conversation or story. That’s ‘even stevens’ so far for Twitter vs Facebook if my calculations are correct. Consider the use of Twitter in the recent General Election in the UK and during episodes of cult TV programmes like The Apprentice and Spooks. You’ll often notice that Twitter is used more frequently with short and snappy soundbites, comments or news. Twitter in a sense has become another broadcasting medium. This maybe because we often have a wider network on Twitter than we do on Facebook which tends to be more personal and targeted.
Yet the Evenbrite research also demonstrates that the personal networks we have within Facebook can be more valuable. Why? Well consider key purchases or services you have used eg buying a car or choosing a plumber. Do you run with a random search on Google or a more targeted discussion with one of your friends who is an expert on a topic? For example need to upgrade your PC? Well do you chat to your geek mate and ask for a steer as they’re knowledgeable or run to www.johnlewis.com? You may do both but the point is that we buy services and goods from people we trust and have built a rapport with, which is powerful in PR terms. So you can start to see the value of Facebook vs Twitter in some situations. Plus if your Facebook fans are sharing information on events there’s good chance that one will be able to persuade the other contact to attend. This is a useful communication tool for grassroots initiatives and is why Facebook is one of the key communication tools used for Campaigns.
Key points
You may now have lost count of the Facebook vs Twitter score. No matter, the key point is that like most communications you need to consider:
– what your key messages are?
– who you are targeting and why?
– which method (Facebook vs Twitter or both) will be the best tool for you?
– what your measure of success will be?
e.g. number of Facebook likes vs new fans? or Number of Twitter retweets?
Social Media: When to use…
This cartoon probably sums up the when and why to use Social Media in different ways:
Lastly don’t be scared of Social Media, just remember that for it to work well for your personal or professional Facebook or Twitter accounts you need to:
– Engage your readers
– Be approachable
– Have a personality – it’ll do wonders for their loyalty and word of mouth or viral recommendations of you
Social Media has many great communication tools. Yet like most communication it pays to know your audience and catch them at the right time with the right tool and messages.
Need to know more?
Here’s some handy links:
