As the title says, it is a common misconception that Facebook is gradually killing Twitter. Why? Because not only does it do the same, but it also allows to do more. Well, it isn’t as basic as you’d think.
Yes, some people are shifting from Twitter to Facebook, but the fact is most users are actually keeping both accounts. Why? Because they serve two different purposes:
- Twitter is a much more simple and direct way to communicate. I doesn’t need a complex registration or building a profile page. It is also much more mobile compatible – due to it’s simplicity – and it allows users to directly talk and feed from each other without the crowd of multiple application feedback (try to set apart a Facebook tweet from a notification that the
user has been bidded on “Owned”…). It allows a more fluent conversation, while Facebook doesnt.
- Facebook is a social network per se – it allows multiple interactions and uses, from profile pages to applications to picture gallery. It tries to be everything at the same time. I could go on forever about Facebook, but why bother? If you don’t know it yet, then you need to seriously get out of the cave and join the online community.
So what does it come down to? Well, for starters, Facebook’s use is a lot easier to identify by the common user than Twitter. A lot of newbies or offliners are still wondering “just why the heck do people use Twitter for?”. This leads to the segmentation of the users of each site. Twitter users are, generally speaking, advanced social networkers, while Facebook users are middle-level social networkers. What about low level? Let’s consider Live Messenger as the basic networking tool.
User wise, Twitter has 3 328 420 registered accounts up till now, while Facebook has 120 000 000. It is a big difference in audience size, but we are considering effectiveness here.
The other point that sets Facebook and Twitter apart is the potencial for Brands. Twitter is an effective way to broadcast to your audience – as a lot of Brands already did – while Facebook is a good place to set up engagement with the Brand. If you want to simplify it, Twitter is a tool for the brands much like a giant microphone, while Facebook is like an offline Stand where you can spin the wheel and win prizes. While different, both serve a purpose – communicating with the target.
So is Facebook killing the Twitter star? Well, not really. Twitter is still an effective communication tool IF the brand has a purpose for it. Facebook, on the other hand, is becoming a MUST HAVE for the Brands. In the end, both are important – but the bottom line is complex SN Websites come and go – simple ones stay. Of course, if brands want to communicate massively, if you look at numbers, Facebook has a broader audience… but a lot more noise in the middle of the communication. Twitterers that are feeding from a Brand’s Twitter will only see what the Brand is saying.
So consider both in your communication – just do it in a sensible way.
10 Archived Comments
i think you’ve missed out a vital component in your arugment, that facebook is essentially a closed silo of information. the privacy settings are the other way around on twitter, you can chose to make it private from sight up, rather than in facebook you have to click a box to make it public from sign up.
I regularly send people to my twitter as they can get a brief but helpful understanding of me, as a person instantly. With facebook they’d have to go, wait til i added them as a friend, then delve and explore around my profile, there’s a lot there, it takes time and often people dont want to see what i got up to at a festival in Hungary during the summer. Twitter is an open silo of publically consumable personal information, facebook is a closed silo of personal information that i want people who are friends and who i trust to view and share with.
So true! I missed that bit of info in my argument. I mentioned a bit regarding the noise in the Facebooks feeds vs Twitter, but privacy and the adding people process definitely make a difference when comparing the tools.
Thanks for the input.
no problem! i was meant to say i also enjoyed the article :D
Uf! For a second there I thought this post would post would go off in a different direction. Indeed, Facebook is not killing Twitter because they are very different services – and that’s the bottom line.
Great article – even though I’m a bit more interested in the social implications, rather than just marketing, of networking services and online communities :)
Thanks for the comment. Yes, the title can lead a reader to a scary direction – that is an interesting point, which is the fact that we are aware of the misjudgment made upon the comparison of these two tools.
I also agree that the social implications are very important – the marketing perspective is what I wanted to show on a first analysis, but one can’t help but consider the social implications that the Web 2.5 is having upon the users. The way tools are evolving and how they are growing is beyond the reach of the creators. The question is – have we created monsters that create co-dependecy on one another; or have we created tools that perfect the social interactions on and offline?
i think the primary difference between facebook and twitter is that facebook can, occasionally, be of value. whereas twitter is an internal dialogue which no-one should have to endure.
I would guess that eventually Facebook would swallow up Twitter or a third party would grab them both and integrate them. In any case, the lines between them would become fuzzy.
I know bloggers and online networkers LOVE twitter… but i’ve never quite understood it. I might have to give it another look. But what I find crazy is that facebook is getting so big that even my mom and older people are signing up.
Yeah, I only started having a second look at Twitter latelly. I think Twitter requires some online maturing that the regular social network doesnt.
I think they will both disappear or become irrelevant. Most user’s are just trying to think of reasons to use them, Twitter talked about charging business’ and accounts dried up…