The Ultimate Click Battle: Facebook vs. Twitter over Marketing Power

Business owners living under a rock will soon wake up to the reality that they cannot afford ignoring the influence of social media over the general marketing scene. One needs not collect all the statistics from around the world just to conclude that social media marketing has become more than just an opportunity — but rather a necessity.

But you can’t just say, “Okay, let’s go out there.”

No, you have to have an idea where to put your energy into, and today there are only two frontrunners in social media marketing power: Facebook and Twitter. Now these are two entirely different platforms; Facebook is profile-driven, focuses both on exhibition and interaction (think Friendster but with 100x more things to do). Twitter is primarily a micro-blogging site — its focus is more on expression and individual activity, although recently it has continued to evolve into other things as well.

So why the need to compare both site’s influences on social media marketing?

Having said that the two sites are unique, the ways to use them to your benefit will also differ from each other. You need to know their strengths and weaknesses so you could choose the right site based on your goals and preferences.

Age does matter

Now companies would be happy to know that the consumer age group (36-49) is starting to eat up majority of the total social network. That group is where the money comes from, although the power to spread the news comes greater from the young professionals age group (23-35). Here’s how both sites fare based on age distribution and see how tight the competition is:                                                                    

                                                                                  Facebook          Twitter

Young professionals (23-35 y.o.)                    33%                   34%

Consumer (36-49 y.o.)                                      24%                   23%

It may also be noteworthy that Twitter users earn more than Facebook users (27% earning at least $75K a year). That’s understandable, since almost all music and Hollywood personalities use Twitter.

Networking Power: B2B and B2C

Now that the contest is even, let’s see where they edge out each other. The stats below reflect how they differ in terms of audience, successful referrals and purchases:

The Bottom Line Although there’s no particular criterion where one dominated over the other in a blowout fashion, there are specific areas that are just more “fit” for just one. Facebook wins in all aspects when talking about the response of regular household consumers. Meanwhile, because of the nature of the demographic that uses Twitter, more business people respond better to marketing tweets.

Facebook appeals to many audiences because of the variety of information you can see at one glance. It gives the marketing post enough space to present it in a way it will be most attractive. Twitter, on the other hand, boast the real-time and personal nature of a person’s tweet that makes it sort of a direct opinion of one person regarding a particular brand. This type of information is what business marketers like seeing.

Do you need to use both sites if you want to promote your business? Yes. Both of them are good solid grounds for cultivating business opportunities. But don’t plant all your seeds just yet – learn first where they will grow the healthiest. That way, you harvest more, and you waste less.