Facebook or Twitter, which works best for marketing?
I am generally too busy to spend much time on site likes Facebook and Twitter. In fact, I must confess that Facebook drives me crazy. I have become so tired of receiving messages like, ‘I have just taken the animal tests’ and I’m a dragon. ‘I have taken the film star test and I’m George Clooney’. Oh yes, I really needed to know that.
Then there’s the ‘a friend has sent you a shoe join here’ (and give all your personal details) and find out who, and ‘somebody fancies you’ (but tell us all your personal details before we tell you). Then there are the strings of adverts telling you how to make thousands of dollars at home, every week. Oh yes, I really believe them. (Please note that these advertisements are not endorsed by Facebook, but they don’t mind taking the advertising revenue.) Maybe it’s a generation thing but I really cannot be bothered with all that stuff.
So, I ventured on to Twitter, expecting to find it just much of a pain, but I was pleasantly surprised. I do feel in control of it most of the time and I like the clean, uncomplicated interface. Twitter is a fantastic way of following what is happening right now. You can follow news for your area, or on specific topics, events and issues, (a great way of generating article ideas), or just follow your friends. It is basically up to you and most of the time it works the way I want it to.
However, there have been a couple of occasions when I ended up following people I wanted nothing to do with and I did manage to get into the clutches of the spammers. I joined a site that promised to increase the number of Twitter followers I had and I thought this was a good idea because I would be able to tweet my articles to more people. Anyway I got inundated with spam from all over the place. Messages were going out in my name, telling everyone how good the spam site was at getting Twitter followers and I was getting quite aggravated about it all. Changing my Twitter password solved the problem.
Apart from the problem mentioned above, which was, I must admit, mostly my own fault for following what seemed a great idea without checking it out, I have found that Twitter is excellent for promoting articles. You can set up an automatic feed from your Triond profile page so that new articles get tweeted. Go to Twitter and tweet other people’s stuff, or use the tweet logo beside the article and they will return the favour.
Facebook brings a bit of traffic for me but nowhere near as much as Twitter. For me it has to be tweets all the time. I find Facebook cumbersome and time consuming and to be honest I get a bit confused with it at times (again a generation thing). So, if I made a choice between the two it would be Twitter every time. If you are not using it you are missing out on an excellent marketing opportunity for your articles.
November 29th, 2009 at 6:22 am
A very informative and useful article.
November 29th, 2009 at 6:52 am
Thanks for writing an article for Twitter. Though I’ve heard a lot of Twitter, I was still hesitant then to have an account but I am happy that I finally decided to have one this month. Triond tweet feed is very useful and posting is every to promote other things. Right now, I am starting to learn the trend which is monetizing your Twitter account.
November 29th, 2009 at 6:55 am
*about Twitter
November 29th, 2009 at 7:27 am
Yes you’re right about Facebook becoming a major pain, though it is rather handy for keeping in touch with friends. Twitter brings me a fair amount of traffic. Thanks for the article.
November 29th, 2009 at 10:45 am
Twitter has been a useful source of contact with writers for me. I have had positive times with it.
November 29th, 2009 at 11:13 am
Hi Jan
I have joined twitter but avoided facebook. I feel that I can be reading more than I am writing, so I am keeping most of my
friends to a certain criteria (Ones that are going to benefit from the readership as well as myself).
Good advice for those not already on it.
Tim
PS I haven’t done any reviews lately but hope to soon as soon as I save a few food wrappers and if the car breaks down.
November 29th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
Good article… Will have it eh… facebooked! (And will twitter about it too!) – Yes, I am more of a Facebookie than a Twitter-fanatic – you can avoid all those Farmville invitations easily… But if you are into Twitter, that’s all right with me!
November 29th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
twitter is really fast.
November 29th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
A very useful article, thanks. I use both, but I use them in different ways.
December 2nd, 2009 at 6:00 am
Twitter for me everytime! I love my FB also – but that is a girlie thing with my friends! Have a nice time Tweeting.I will look for you and ad you.
C
December 3rd, 2009 at 7:43 am
Hiho Louie. Another great article
As a fan and reader of your work I always learn something new and find your advice to be invaluable. Thanx
December 14th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Hi Louie, Like you, I try to avoid Facebook whenever possible (there’s a few friends on there that draw me in from time to time). However, another site I really like is LinkedIn. I enjoy the discussions that occur from the groups I join (they have a super writing group), I get to share my articles from Triond or my blog there, and I get to add my own words of wisdom.