Facebook or Twitter - which one is best for your business?
Does your business have limited budget and resources? Do you need help to decide which of the two top social media networks you should concentrate on to most benefit your business? Then read on……
Apart from the obvious questions such as, what network your target audience uses the most and which network it would use to research your product or service, there is the question of what you are trying to achieve? Are you after increased traffic to your site or increased engagement with customers/potential customers?
Let’s take a look at what each of the social platforms has to offer:
Size
Facebook is by far the bigger of the two, with 31 million users in the UK compared to Twitter’s 15million. However, Facebook’s recent algorithm change means that Facebook choses what content users see in their news feeds. This change has had a big impact on businesses as it has made it more difficult for your audience to see your content unless you pay to promote your posts. The purpose of the algorithm is so users see advertisements that are relevant and of interest to them, which ultimately is good for advertisers as their advertisements will reach people who are actually interested in their product/service, which will lead to higher engagement and conversion rates.
Twitter is different in that users get a stream of posts from everyone they are following, with no restrictions except for a 140 character limit to tweets. However, as users who follow you start following more people their streams become busier and so it's more likely that your content will get lost as it will literally only stay in their stream for a matter of seconds, depending upon how many people/businesses they are following.
Tweets vs Posts
Facebook keeps business and personal accounts separate. A business cannot connect with an individual on Facebook unless the individual has ‘liked’ the business, and cannot reach out to them unless the individual messages the business first.
Twitter is completely different in that there is no separation between business and personal accounts, anyone can follow anyone and tweets go to all followers. So if you don’t have the budget to promote your Facebook posts, Twitter is more attractive from this point of view.
On Twitter you can tweet links to your site, which is a good way of increasing traffic to your site, whereas with Facebook you need a budget to promote your posts. Although your tweets will become less visible as tweets from others increase, you can repeat tweets/links, but be careful not to clog up people’s feeds with your tweets. Tweet at intervals throughout the day and don’t make all your tweets about your business. Tweet about interesting things you’ve done/seen/heard about, and try engage in humorous exchanges with other users.
Facebook users tend to respond better to more engaging and less technical content, although images and photos are always popular on both Facebook and Twitter, or any social platform for that matter!
Staying Power
The disadvantage of Twitter is that a tweet can easily be missed if you tweet at a ‘busy’ time of day or if a user who is following you is also following a lot of others, meaning that they have a busy feed. Good tweets don’t rise to the top unless you promote them.
However, with Facebook if your content is good and a lot of people interact with it through likes, comments and shares, it is possible for your post to have a longer news feed shelf life.
Through shares on Facebook and retweets on Twitter your posts/tweets can be seen by people you’re not connected with, thereby increasing your brand awareness.
Photos always result in longer news feed staying power on Facebook. On Twitter it is always a good idea to engage with other users, by answering questions, sharing information not directly connected to your business, by being helpful, etc. as this can lead to people looking at your business profile and following your account.
Which is the best?
There really is no straight forward answer to this question, as obviously the differences between the two social platforms will make them appeal to different people and businesses. Realistically the best option for any business that wants to appeal to as wide an audience as possible is to use both Facebook and Twitter as otherwise, you are limiting your market, which no business should ever do.
