The 3 Big Differences between Twitter and Facebook

Which is best for marketing - Twitter or Facebook? Most CEOs don't know the difference apparently, and some predict there can be only one winner. That's clearly NOT the case, and the differences are marked and intractable (i.e. neither side can easily develop their applications to incorporate the good points of the other). Here are the 3 big differences:

1. Facebook focuses on the individual - Twitter focuses on the information.
For example, you get photo albums (and massive amounts of other information) on Facebook (but not Twitter) which means:
a) With Facebook you get a load of information about each person, with some fluff about how they've just eaten an oatcake and got a new cow on FarmVille - with Twitter you get what each person wants to say without the distractions
b) Facebook a voyeur's dream - the boys I know use it to goggle at the girls in their life - the girls to compete with how good / shit their life is and marvel / secretly cheer at other people's lives. It's like Hello! magazine for people you know...

2. Friends vs Followers. Twitter allows non-friend followers. This is essential for celebrities, and means they can broadcast without fear of instantaneous and damning reprisals all over their wall. I just can't get to be Bill Gate's friend on Facebook. This may seem restrictive, but it also means that Twitterers can have many, many more followers than Facebook users can have friends - meaning a Tweet has the potential to hit a massive wider audience - far wider than just your circle of friends - with retweets potentially going to the whole user base. (If you can get this away, it is a marketteer's wet-dream...)

3. Mega-store Model. Facebook is a one-stop-shop that covers users's email,IM,shopping,photo-storage etc needs - like Tesco. Twitter is simply bare bones 140 char messages that link out to the wider internet (apparently 1/3rd of all tweets contain a link of some kind) - more like a town centre. Many users prefer the simplicity of Facebook's one login one system approach - others prefer the power of combining every other cloud app on the web.

As you can see - both have their fans, and differences. There's always the risk of TESCO taking everywhere over - but can you see a day when it is the only shop? Other companies, although selling through TESCO, would much rather engage with you themselves. For marketeers I would plump with the power of the Tweet. For games developers, it's obviously Facebook.

I suspect that there will be a backlash against Facebook at some point - but not unlike the dislike of Tesco - people will still secretly use it.


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