The emergence of social media is what catapulted the web into the new age. Choosing the right platform for your audience can be challenging with so many options out there, and growing every day. Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Instagram, Pinterest, Vine, Google Plus…the list goes on. Where is your target market spending their time? What kind of messages are they engaged with on which platform? What is the most efficient use of your organization’s time and money in establishing a social media presence?
Facebook and Twitter are obviously the juggernauts of social media and have the largest online community for you to access. While there is a growing overlap between them, especially with Facebook’s new ability to organize information via hashtags, there are several important differences that set these platforms apart and can help you to differentiate which might be best for you.
Size
Facebook remains the largest, with 1.1 billion registered users, 656 million active daily users, and 751 million mobile users. Comparatively, Twitter has 500 million accounts with 200 million active users. Both are still growing, with Facebook’s numbers up 23% in 2013 from last year.
Community Vs. Messages
Facebook is community-based, while Twitter is focused on messages. Both utilize a home page, with live updating content from their friends and those they follow, but Facebook creates communities on organization’s pages. A company’s Facebook page is their home base, where they create content, engage feedback from their friends and followers, and create a community for their products and brand. Twitter, on the other hand, allows for the dissemination of targeted messages utilizing hashtags for easy and organized consumption. Things go viral on Twitter, and messages are engaged with on a piecemeal basis.
The below infographic from QuickSprout gives a great breakdown of how users interact on these platforms, as well as the growing online pinboard Pinterest.
QuickSprout
So do you have the choose? Not necessarily. Some market research will show where your users are and how they interact. While your customers may be on Facebook, it may be where they look at pictures of their grandkids, and not be where they want to engage with companies. A younger demographic, who is engaged with social media from a very young age, will be more likely to have their personal messages and advertising messages in the same medium. Older demographics may not be so willing. My company found that while scientists may have Facebook accounts, they weren’t talking chromatography on them, and we focused more on our efforts on Twitter. As I mentioned above, times are changing, and the new hashtag feature of Facebook is sure to change how content is consumed.
Classmate Blog Roll:
http://cstella2013.blogspot.com/
http://yeagerachey.wordpress.com/
http://emergingmediatrends.wordpress.com/
http://infinitelyevolvingmedia.wordpress.com/
http://ncjacobs.wordpress.com/
http://nzanussi.wordpress.com/
http://ericminorimc.wordpress.com/
http://erineblake.wordpress.com/
http://digitalcaveart.wordpress.com/
megekerr 
Recent Comments