Twitter vs Facebook: Which is Really Better?
Choosing the right social media platforms for your business to have a presence on is absolutely critical to the success of your online marketing strategy.
When it comes down to it, most businesses choose to incorporate Facebook and/or Twitter into their social media marketing strategies.
These are the two social media powerhouses with some of the highest numbers of active users.
But if you want to be more selective with the sites that you have a social media presence on, taking a deeper look at Twitter vs Facebook can help you determine which social networking site is best for your business.
Let’s assess 3 core components of each platform and see how Twitter vs Facebook performs in each of these areas–a Twitter vs Facebook matchup if you will:
Round 1: Growth Both Facebook and Twitter offer organic and paid ways to grow your online following. However, on Facebook, it has become nearly impossible to grow your audience without spending a penny in facebook page like ads.Contrary to Facebook, Twitter gives you the ability to grow your audience without any paid advertising, if you choose to.
Which is a major plus for those with little to no advertising budgets. Facebook is recognized for being a leader in paid social media advertising due to its wide breadth of targeting tools that makes it easy to reach and grow your audience. On Facebook you can target based on the following:- Location
- Age
- Gender
- Language
- Interest
- Behaviors
- And more…
Twitter, too, is very effective in fueling growth through advertising.
Here’s a peek at Twitter’s advertising platform to grow your following: On Twitter you can target based on the following:- Location
- Gender
- Language
- Followers
- Interest
- Behaviors
- And more…
On the other hand, Twitter has 316 million monthly users.
And here’s a breakdown of the demographic makeup of Twitter: That’s not to say that Twitter doesn’t offer any advantages to your business, though. 49 percent of all Twitter users choose to follow brands or companies on Twitter. Considering the massive number of Facebook followers, there is a very good chance that your audience has a presence on this popular social media platform. However, with so much content flowing through Facebook, your audience will typically only see less than 20 percent of the content that you share on Facebook. Therefore, in order to make sure your audience is seeing your content on Facebook, you really need to pay for advertising and exposure. In comparison, the content that you share on Twitter has the potential to reach 100 percent of your followers for free. Keyword: Potential Because the content shared on Twitter moves so quickly, there is a very good chance that your followers may not see your tweets. Winner: In terms of reach, we’re declaring Facebook the winner. Facebook has the largest audience by far in comparison to any other social media platform out there. Even though the typical organic Facebook post reaches less than 20 percent of followers, businesses can pay to use Facebook’s highly specialized targeting tools to help ensure that their content is being seen by the right people. While Twitter does get your content in front of your followers, it moves so quickly that your tweets can be gone in a matter of seconds. Round 3: Advertising With Facebook paid advertising, your business has ridiculous power over its targeting options. Facebook allows you to be very specific with the audience that you want your content to reach. You can narrow your audience down to the number of hairs on their head. Ok, it’s not that targeted but it sure feels like it. You can also factor in purchasing behaviors of Facebook users when building an audience for your ad campaign. Facebook has forged partnerships with huge data brokers like Epsilon and Datalogix that reveal much more about consumers than just how they’re spending their time on Facebook. For example, you can target specific purchasing behaviors by industry such as clothing, food and drink, and health and beauty. Basically, you can target ads to Facebook users that have purchased products and services similar to those offered by your business. Facebook offers a wide variety of ads that your business can choose from to best accomplish your objectives, and outlined below is a quick sampling: And a brief description of each objective:- Page post engagements: Increase engagement on your post and get people seeing, liking, commenting on and sharing your content
- Page likes: Reach people in your audience who are likely to take the action of liking your Page
- Clicks to website: Send people to any website you like
- Website conversions: Reach people in your audience who are likely to convert (purchase, signup, etc.)
- App installments: Create an ad with a link to the app store where people can install your app
- Event responses: Get people to see and respond to your event
- Offer claims: Create an ad with a coupon, discount or another special deal you want to provide
Of course, with advertising, most businesses are debating whether Twitter vs Facebook is the better social media platform to advertise on.
And a description of each objective:- Followers: Grow your community on Twitter
- Website clicks: Send people to your site (to purchase, signup, etc.)
- App installs: Get people to install or engage with your mobile app
- Leads: Collect emails from people who express interest in your offer
- Video Views: Get people to watch your video