Facebook versus Twitter

Image from blog.websourcing.fr

Facebook and Twitter are two fascinating social media outlets with many similarities.

But they must have some differences.

Otherwise why would I love Facebook, but loath Twitter with everything in me?

I have a lot of friends on Facebook, but besides my fellow CreComms, (many of whom were dragged, kicking and screaming, to Twitter much like myself) very few friends of mine use Twitter. Making them useless consultants in my quest to find the difference between the two.

The best explanation I found came from Tiffany on Yahoo Answers:

"Twitter feels like coffee after the service at church where many people are gathered but the conversation is often passing and brief. Don't get me wrong, I have taken many of those brief conversations on Twitter offline and have formed incredible relationships.

Facebook, on the other hand, feels more like lunch with a friend where I can
leisurely be introduced to various friends and savor the time we have
to spend together. There is no time, or character limit, and many more
options to delight."

I like the options Facebook provides. I can scroll the newsfeed and see what everyone's up to, I can check out pictures from a fun night last weekend, I can carry on private threads with old friends and send messages to people from high school that I would never bother picking up the phone to call.

There are so many options besides reading the status updates, which some people use as space to share vague, personal, melancholic, melodramatic thoughts like "wonders why things have to end this way?" or "is enjoying the second day of the rest of his life wishing he'd done something yesterday."

But on Twitter, that's all you get. Less than 140 characters. And with the accessibility of Twitter from mobile phones, those updates turn into "is on the bus", or "made a grilled cheese". I know.

But in terms of public relations, the usefulness and the difference between the two becomes more clear to me. On Facebook, a PR practitioner can create a page on behalf of their clients and infiltrate other pages' friends lists to gain friends of their own. Whose friends will see that their friends joined this page and think they should too. And so on and so on.

These pages have room for product or company descriptions, pictures, videos and more, but more importantly, people can write on the page's wall giving feedback to the PR practitioner.

Can Twitter do that? No.

But essentially, Twitter can serve as an annoying, but constant reminder that your client exists. There are multiple 140-character messages you can make up about your client and share with the world. But more importantly, with retweets, your followers can share your message with their followers, who may then choose to follow you and see your link to your facebook page, which links with your website...

See how this works?