RALEIGH – I have noticed a personal trend lately in my interaction with social media. It comes down to this: I get more out of Twitter than I do Facebook.
I have been on Twitter for what seems like a rather long time, and on Facebook for probably around three years. Don’t get me wrong, there’s probably a place for Facebook somewhere in my schedule, but I’m finding I interact with it less often. And I certainly don’t miss it if I don’t get to it.
I’m also hearing friends and colleagues express similar feelings about Facebook, that it can take up too much time, that if you really wanted to talk to that person from High School you would and so forth. I know several people that have just disconnected from it completely and say they are better for it.
In all honesty, my Facebook interactions are more tied to what I would consider “business” and less “personal” postings. Hell, I’m not interested in the fact that I’m at Starbucks, so I know you aren’t either. That’s not the kind of posting I do.
For those trying to navigate their way through the social media soup, I thought I would share our strategy for dealing with these various electronic outlets.
Here are some random comparisons for why I value Twitter more than Facebook:
Reading through my Facebook feed is very time consuming, and I usually don’t feel smarter when I’m done. It’s also hard to tell when I’m done. Where did I leave off last time? Oh yeah, I think I remember seeing that puppy before…….
Reading through a Twitter feed is fast and efficient. I can easily read new Tweets from where I last left off and be sure I haven’t missed any messages.
Only a percentage of our followers on Facebook see our posts on their feed. Sure, we could pay to increase the exposure, but where does it stop? Recent research shows that only about 17% of your “Friends” see a post. That’s not a great return on my time in terms of posting something.
All of our followers on Twitter are given the opportunity to read our Tweets. They aren’t randomly throttled from our Followers.
Twitter is (largely) advertising free, although that could change. The advertising that is present is very unobstrusive.
Facebook is more and more given over to advertising, and I can say for certain I have never clicked any ad on Facebook.
A majority of posts on Facebook are of little to no use to me. (Not yours of course, just those other people).
The people I follow on Twitter rarely post “just because” they can. They usually have content to deliver, a purpose for Tweeting.
Twitter’s character limit forces you to craft your message. Facebook posts tend to ramble and are less composed.
If I’m on Facebook, I feel like I’m wasting time. With Twitter, I feel like I’m getting something done.
I certainly don’t look to Facebook to get or read news items that interest me. I definitely do with Twitter.
When we come across data we want to share with our Followers, we easily do so with a re-tweet.
Twitter doesn’t have an instant message feature, and that, my friends, is a very good thing.
I can search my Twitter feed for content and for keywords, something I can’t do with Facebook. I can even search on Twitter using geocoding and a specific radius.
As an aside, I caution businesses, causes and similar organizations from relying on Facebook as their sole presence on the web. A Facebook page should not be a substitute for a dedicated website. You frankly run the risk of alienating too many readers.
That being said, our new strategy is NOT to post everything on our site on Facebook. Initially we saw a drop in the number of visitors because they consumed our content at Facebook. In the long term, that’s a recipe for disaster.
Those that don’t use Twitter might secretly detest our secret codes of hashtags (#), DMs (direct messages), and @ symbols. I can hear the legions of recliner dwellers now: “Why does the television have that dang #sundaynightfootball on it!”
The Twitter language is pretty straightforward once you start working with it, but I’ll admit it’s not really what I would label as intuitive.
To get the most out of Facebook, you have to join Facebook, and they immediately start compiling data about you.
To use Twitter, you don’t have to join anything, and you certainly don’t have to ever send one Tweet. You can simply visit a person’s stream on the web, such as www.twitter.com/FireNews orwww.twitter.com/CFPalerts.
I should probably also mention that I’m not on Google+ (too late Google), Pintrest (let the ladies have their own deal, guys), FourSquare (I don’t care that you are at the Airport) or Instagram. I’ll probably dip my toe in the Instagram pool eventually, but I’m in no rush. I am on LinkedIn, but again, for purely business reasons. It’s certainly the least social of the social media clan.
The only thing certain is that when I look back at this article in the future, the game and the players will have changed. We’re just trying to keep up.
Resources for Those Wanting to Get Started With Twitter:
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Don't be shy, please leave your comments HERE.