Twitter or Facebook: Which is Right for Your Business?

HubSpot's Inbound Internet Marketing Blog posted this article on May 4th, 2010. It was really interesting to read because I have always wondered which one was "better" for the business world.

Marketers have been buzzing about Facebook since they (FB) announced their new social plugins - which are designed to become the web's identity system.

So, which is better?

According to this article, it is quite obvious that Twitter has way more followers than Facebook. However, I truly believe it depends which industry you are in.

This article focuses on the importance of engaging in both. The ambition of Facebook makes it a critical platform for businesses to participate in, however, you can't necessarily dismiss Twitter. (because in many industries, Twitter is a better way of reaching potential customers)

I don't think it really "matters" what industry you are in, as long as you are experimenting with social media. What is social media marketing? As Dan Zarrella stated in "The Social Media Marketing" book, "it is best defined in the context of the previous industrial media paradigm." New web technologies have made it easy for anyone to create - and, most importantly - distribute their own content. (such as a blog post, tweet, YouTube video, etc.) Posts on the web can be viewed by millions virtually for free - which is fabulous. (advertisers no longer need to pay publishers or distributors)

Social media comes in many forms including blogs, microblogs (Twitter), social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn), media-sharing sites (Flickr), social bookmarking and voting sites (Digg, Reddit), and several others.

I guess the "key point" of this article was not to assess the impact of Facebook and Twitter fans, but to compare the pure reach. Several companies today appear to be building traction (reach) on both Facebook and Twitter, which will be extremely beneficial for both of them.