Twitter vs. Facebook

I've noticed a change in the attention that Facebook is getting. I have recently been contacted by a few "old" friends and like yours - they are not into Internet Marketing at all.

Maybe I need to spend more time there - but finding more time is the hard part! lol

I'm exploring Facebook, but haven't got much time.

One profitable thing some might have not noticed is Facebook Advertising.

Advertising | Facebook

You can precisely target by age, gender, location, and more. This could be a great alternative to pay-per-click, although I haven't tried it yet.

Cheers,
Michael

Before I started internet marketing a little over a year ago, I was intimidated by Facebook and thought it was just for college students. I felt that if I joined it would be seen as weird and I'd be one of the older people on there.

I think Facebook has lost that perception and is getting more and more of a mainstream crowd. Yes, I know it was hugely popular before but that was more of a Myspace crowd.

In a lot of ways I like Twitter better because I find it less cluttered, and also you can have all the followers you want, as opposed to Facebooks 5000 friends, but that doesn't mean I should ignore a potential market.

Sean McAlister, who I work with on some projects, has had great success with forming a Facebook group and getting a TON of members to join really quickly.

Downside of Facebook - Joel Comm got BOOTED OFF Facebook!

Facebook Booted Me for Having 5000 Friends!

I've never had any trouble on Twitter. And I've gotten tons of clients from Twitter and none from Facebook - but then, as I said, I haven't worked Facebook the way I have Twitter.

I've kind of had poo-poo experiences with social networking
in general as far as getting business. I just use them in
a friendly way. A lot of my "friends" are bizop people so
all they want is to recruit somebody so my experience
as been like one long date with a girl who talks only about
herself.

I tend to think that Perry Belcher has it right - just be open
and have fun with it. He's positioned himself as the
most accessible IM guru on the planet and personally
I think that is very smart.

Loren, I know what you mean as far as selling - I don't like it when someone's first approach to me on Twitter or anywhere else is the hard sell. But if they are someone that I have chatted with, and then I see that they are on Twitter talking about their logo design business, and I need a logo designed for me - I'd go with them rather than go on Google and search for "logo designers". To use one example.

I've discovered that Facebook is not just for college kids anymore. Everyone is on it, but it is not easy marketing on it. I'm just discovering Twitter thanks in part to Dana, but it has great potential. Its not nearly as lame as I thought it would be when I first heard of it.

Facebook is great now that it's for everybody. Business wise, I have yet to see the benefits but that's only because my Facebook is more personal than anything. Twitter hasn't been to great for business either. I don't really know what will be that catalyst I'm waiting for.

Off topic: Since somebody mentioned Perry: he was arrested and there is a case going on (or has it been settled?). I don't want to post links here.

Some data for you: 85% of college graduates are estimated to be on Facebook. Yes, that is 85 out of every 100 of them.

Whether it is Facebook/Twitter or any place, marketing is fundamentally the same. Build trust, and get sales. One big difference is that in social media, any kind of sales pitch makes people run away from you. Another big difference: any negative news about you can spread very easily, through the same media.

I know, it's funny, neither Twitter nor Facebook talk much about their limits - you have to find out on your own. Twitter only lets you follow 2000 people until you have 2000 people following YOU, for instance.

Michael, what kind of business have you been able to do on Facebook?

On Twitter - when I discuss press releases - people contact me looking for press release writing services. When I talked about ghostwriting ebooks - people contacted me for my writing services. I never used it for affiliate sales.

It seems to me that facebook can be used much like twitter: as long as you are leading with value for others, and not pushing your product, I think it can be very helpful for building long term win win business relationships.

I've never gone the facebook route..

I don't care for it too much, dunno why?

Twitter, on the other hand, makes me sales every single day since I passed 1,000 followers, and some before that. I'm probably one of the most promotional yet social people on Twitter..

MANY of my tweets are promotional, but then again, MANY are social.. I spend so much time goofing off there, that my business falls right into it because I am usually goofing off from business when I'm there so I drop my daily workings into tweets..

Works a treat..

Peace

Jay

I love facebook and twitter, and its true the fact that facebook is more popular at least in my country, not many know about twitter.
And people offline and on TV much talk about facebook.

What I don't like is that I have to wait for the loading time just to do simple things, unlike in twitter.
Yea, I know I don't have that much speed for my internet.

In twitter I just like the simplicity of it, I've been promoting my services with both twitter and facebook, both give me good amount of clients.

Hi Dana,

I used to market on Facebook - however I must have done it ALL wrong because it didn't help me at all. I would be more than willing to buy a product off you which shows how to utilize facebook properly

Daniel

How exactly do you socialize on Facebook? I never really got the idea - maybe someone could explain?

I understand forums (being old school probably) - you read stuff, ask questions, see which people you seem to like, based on their responses, write them a PM and you go on from there.

But Facebook - what's the approach to meet people there? Based on their photo?! I'm not looking for dates...

If it's to keep in touch with old friends - I prefer phone and instant messaging...

So please shed some light on me...

I personally do facebook marketing.. i have released after reports on this as well.

The key to facebook marketing is to build relationship. Everyone throws a link in Facebook and expect to drive hundreds of sales. It dont work that way.

Important aspect is.
1. You connect with a client
2. You build relationship with that client
3. You connect with client's friends
4. You join their "buddy list"
4. You suggest a product, and then make sales.

I have a post in Warrior War room if anyone is interested in building Facebook subs the fast and right way in the shortest amount of time. Take a look there.. (there you go, another reason to join War Room )

just saw the post on Joel Comm's facebook limitation. You see, they dont suspend accounts becouse once you reach 5k friends. I have a number of 5k profiles and nothing is wrong with them.

Let me tell you what migt had happened. Joel might tried sending number of messages more than what facebook limits his account for. When that happens, they limit an account. Well, that fairplay, as they dont want anyone to abuse their system than normal everyday uses. In fact, even WF has the system on poct count and message timing for PMs. Same theory apply.

About Joel saying its "shoot then ask" policy, i beg to differ. I am pretty sure Facebook provided warnings when his limit was approaching. I know this pretty well, as i am a constant user of Facebook.

Hope this helps clear the air on Facebook, and make other Warrios dont get too concerned or worried about Facebook.

Joel Comm.. no offense to you too..

Well, I only have a couple hundred friends on Facebook, so no worries for me yet!

Here's an excellent free Facebook info resource by the way - love this site - Why Facebook? Social Networking for Fun and Profits! by Mari Smith

Hi Dana,

I just purchased your twitter report... Looking forward to the new followers (as of today I only have 66 followers and don't do much on twitter).

Just a quick question: how much time do you spend on twitter? Is it a time consuming thing to keep thousands of followers stay following you?

Thanks,

Daniel

Well, I only have a couple hundred friends on Facebook, so no worries for me yet!

Here's an excellent free Facebook info resource by the way - love this site - Why Facebook? Social Networking for Fun and Profits! by Mari Smith

I've been on Facebook for quite some time. It waned a little but has recently seen an burst of new faces.

For whatever reason a whole new crop of people are using it and signing on for th first time.

I host a radio show in Florida and I use Facebook mostly for market research and finding content. In an '
"IM" world it can easily be used for the same purposes.

Here's how:

1. Read People's Stus Messages: See what they are up to and what interests and hobbies they have.
2. Post a comment about a new product you have in your status message and try to get some feedback.
3. Check groups to see which have the most members. Adds great insight into popular niches as well.

I like facebook but I have never tried facebook ads, decided to give it
a go the other night only to have my entire account banned because
my ad was declined, strange that they would ban entire account without
giving me a chance to make changes and put the ad right.

I believe Twitter is the trend for 2009, Facebook was 2008, Myspace was 2007...

Twitter is BlueRay, Facebook is DVD, Myspace is VHS. Its good to stay up to date with Technology...



.

Yup most people wont unfollow other people unless because of the reasons as Dana said, especially if you got hundreds or thousands of followers.

And also another reason others would unfollow you is when you don't follow them back.

It seems to me the more effective way to network would to be to build a network of business associates, potential partners, and affiliate promoters. Keep them up to date, exchange ideas with them, and then let them endorse you to their client bases.

I wonder about the answer to questions like how long did it take some guru to make 5000 facebook friends?

Can't that same guru kick off a JV deal with a big list owner and capture 5000 new email subscribers in a day?

How much more responsive are email subscribers than facebook friends?

I got more than a 50% open rate on the last email I sent out.

I have been using linkedin.com for business contact networking which I like as well.

I wonder how much more effective time could be spent participating in a targeted specialized targeted forum in your industry than on some of these social networking sites?

Of course the main difference is the ability to establish your own publishing channel where people can come and keep up with you and people like the toys and communication devices these sites offer that make them "sticky."

I bet though that some people are just not interesting enough or cute enough and that their time would be better spent networking in other ways.

Hey Dana, For me it's all of the above, Twitter to Facebook to Blog & Youtube, then after they decide if they like me...to my business sites. I think too many people rush the process, It's like proposing marriage on a first date

Hi Dana,

yes also finding many of my non internet friends are now coming to me and telling me about " this new facebook site " Twitter, they don't know at all yet.

I actually cringed when I had friends from elementary school popping up and tagging photos of me from 2nd grade.. and worse.. proms..

I was only using Facebook for networking and connections until they "found" me.. but surprisingly, they have become a huge set of helpers, placing their own orders and spreading the word and asking for consultations.. so it just shows you never know how connections will come back to work with you.. even after 15 years and knowing what you looked like with bad hair and braces

I have a few people in my network that have been pushing me to get more marketing focused on my Facebook profile.. I guess I'll have to move that up on the priority list!

Well, there's proof that size doesn't matter - when it comes to number of followers, anyway. Ahem.

Facebook has many more members than Twitter, but in terms of making money it doesn't matter - Twitter is still a better money maker. I'm not saying I won't try to figure out a way to use Facebook for networking, but it still makes sense to concentrate more on Twitter.

Im a twitter addict but havent really got the facebook thing. But saying that i invited about 5 people to be my friend and now i have over 200 and ive had lots of orders from it so it must have something going for it!

I havent got into Twitter yet is there any good ebooks/reports on marketing on twitter?

Dana,

I agree... its seems like FB has hit a new threshold, and there are lots of new people popping up. Its a great place to be, and a great way to do some marketing under the radar!

Since I follow you on Twitter, I see your tweets... but you can also sync twitter and your facebook status to expand your reach! So, without even hitting facebook too often, you can take advantage of your current system to keep FB updated too:

Twitter | Facebook

Ron

I'm probably a prime example of the current state of Facebook affairs. I'm 41 and not tech savvy. I recently joined FB and have 365 friends. I have old friends coming out of the woodwork!
At the moment it is purely social, but I am about to launch my own site/brand and look forward to seeing the marketing possibilities. I have set up a Twitter account, but have done nothing with it yet.......

It's funny, Dana... I just joined FB about 5 days ago. I really thought it was for kids, even though IM'ers mentioned it here.

I think that Baby Boomers (like me) are joining to re-connect. While I haven't figured out how to make money on it, yet, I at least found people from my childhood as well as old friends with whom I lost contact.

It's actually pretty cool, too.

For a LONG time I felt like Facebook was just for college kids - because for a long time it was.

But if Baby Boomers are moving on to there it's a good place to network and market - it just has to be done right, in a non spammy way.

When I first joined facebook over a year ago, it was a blossoming social site that was geared towards people aged between 18-30. Since then I have seen a huge number of older individuals join and recently heard in the news that facebook members between 30-50 will be the largest crowd of new registrants in facebook.

To say that there are opportunities to market products, affiliate programs and whatever else you're selling is an understatement.

Shane

Good question. I personally prefer twitter to do all my posts. I have recently only started with facebook and a few old friends surprised me as well.

There is a huge difference between Facebook and Twitter.

Facebook is for social networking, making friends, social interaction.

Twitter is micro-blogging.

Why not Tweet, and send your Tweets to your Facebook?

It is great to have a lot of followers. I just got done developing a course on Twitter Lead Generation where I teach how to get 50-100 targeted leads per day using Twitter.

Salescopy not finished.

Twitter Lead Generation

Sometimes I use ping.fm to simultaneously update Twitter, Facebook, brightkite, and Friendfeed. I used to Plurk also, but I can only spend time on so many networks. So I am no longer a Plurker.

Oh, and I used to Pownce but Pownce shut down.

And I definitely don't Myspace, because my daughter has been on there since she was 11 and it seems too young teenager/middle school to me. Am I making myself sound old?

facebook and twitter are very similar - everyone is on there because of curiosity. i sync twitter up with facebook - because some people on facebook refuses to get a twitter.

both are valuable

For the record, my Facebook account was reinstated on Monday :-)

Joel

Hi Dana,

I would say that from personal experience that the facebook side is
a larger pie but for the im world twitter is pretty significant.

I like to follow what the successful folks have done and twitter has
really started to "come of age" recently.

I have heard them mention twitter during the election and on several
major talk shows as well as major radio shows.

Doesn't really hurt having a presence on both.

Using a tool such as ping.fm which is free you can really stay up to
date with all your social networks with one fell swoop.

On a sidenote the apps for both twitter and facebook are fantastic
on the G1 for t-mobile-LOVE THEM!!!

Great question,

Thanks,

John

Dang! Last night ANOTHER person I used to know contacted me on Facebook.

I also forgot to mention - the reason I was featured on TruTV a few months ago is because one of the producers there was looking for me to comment on a murder trial I covered...and found me on Facebook.

Facebook is awesome. I highly recommend Mari Smith, Facebook for Professionals Series. I use the Facebook pages route for my business and keep my profile personal with some mention of business at times because it's who I am..

It's funny how even Mari Smith told me that she's talked to FB about why it's so hard to find the steps to setup Facebook Pages but once you do, it's easy..When you are on your profile page, scroll to the bottom and click on Advertising, then you will see an option to create a page and go from there..I followed the steps from her blog. I haven't promoted them a whole lot yet but it's a work in progress..

On the side bars of FB, your page will come up and say one of your friends is a fan of this page, you can be one too. I've had people join my pages without hardly even highly promoting it yet.

The cool thing about the Facebook pages is that there is no limit to the amount of people!! That is why Mari highly recommends having a Facebook page because she can direct everyone to her FB page since she is already at her limit..

Good tip. That 5000 friend limit is a pain. Although I'm nowhere near that limit at the moment, if I were really trying to do social networking for business on Facebook I would find that constricting.

MediaPost Publications Women Over Age 55 Fastest-Growing Group On Facebook 02/03/2009 I KNEW it!!!

There is absolutely NO COMPARISON.

Facebook trounces the shit out of Twitter for both active user base and general usefulness, as J-Mo pointed out.

As he also pointed out though, Twitter can be very lucrative if you leverage it correctly.

But the bottom line is that in terms of viral effects, probable lifespan, and potential amount of actual traffic/sales that can actually be driven... there is no comparison. Facebook has 150 MILLION ACTIVE USERS! What?

Check a traffic comparison for Facebook and Google Damn close last time I checked... granted it was a month or so ago.

Another thing that needs to be pointed out is that Facebook can be used to promote anything. Generally speaking, you're going to have a more tech-savvy crowd on Twitter, and probably can't get away with pushing some of the ridiculous stuff being pushed on Facebook. I'd also really like to see some stats on what kind of device FB/Twitter users use... I know they both have a lot of mobile users, one thing I'd assume.... Most of the people who use Twitter on their phone probably don't ever login on the site to check it as they aren't missing anything, that's all there is... whereas FB users will definitely go from their phone to their computer when they get home, for the full experience. What I'm getting at is, what if someone follows your link from a phone... are they really gonna read some 9-page landing page, etc...

I see a lot of people talking a lot about being like, genuine, and making real connections, and that's what social networking is all about... sorry, but that's a bunch of crap ...generally speaking.

Yes, you are absolutely right about it when you are trying to do like the 'guru/IM' kinda thing, and you're promoting yourself or your business. Then, yes, without a doubt, you want people to be interested in who you are and what you're doing and to listen. When you're promoting yourself, you need to be honest with people and make real connections. But when you're the marketer out there pushing cheap viagra, diet pills, **** berries, ringtone offers and all that crap, you don't care about that stuff at all, you just need to reach people, and some of them will convert. And Facebook is still a great place to make it happen.

Why? Viral channels. Facebook has so many viral channels it's ridiculous. It's really setup nice. Basically every action that a user takes on Facebook results in a 'Feed' which is a short story of that action they took. These feeds ALL have a chance to make it onto the 'News Feed' of their Friend's accounts. This is the FIRST page they see upon logging into Facebook. As many of you know, a lot of people these days are turning their computers on in the morning or whenever and heading straight to Facebook when they get online. So you can imagine how powerful it can be to be able to know how to get what you want to show up on all of your Friend's News Feed Page, the first page they see upon logging in.

By the way, I should be saying 'Friends' with quotes

So, I'm sure you can see what I'm getting at... if you have a lot of 'Friends' across many accounts, and can harness FB's viral channels... you can sell a LOT of F'in **** berries :p

But it's completely different then promoting yourself, and a completely untargeted method unless you take the time to go through and hand pick to invite by like, what kind of groups they are in... (waste of time)

Now just to be straight, I don't do this. But I do know a lot about Facebook, and how it can be harnessed and abused. I have done things there I shouldn't have (not like this...) more than anything to see what's possible with the API and made a LOT of money very quickly. So the point here is I guess that, yes, you can make a lot of money doing that kind of stuff on FB, and not being genuine at all.... And I think this thread is about conversions and sales between the two

And that brings me to the next point... Applications!! Has anybody pointed these out yet??

Facebook lets third party developers create 'apps' that users can add to their profiles and interact with in a variety of different ways. Developers are free to advertise on the 'canvas' page of the app, which is basically like the inside, so obviously with the viral effects Facebook can create, even a simple application being passed around from Friend to Friend can make a TON of money before it's all said and done and it dies off, if it ever does....

Maybe some of you have heard that the FB application 'Mob Wars' was making around $22,000 EVERY DAY about 2 months ago?

Since that point in time, Facebook has gained 20 million more active users, (from 130 million actives to 150 million actives) and Mob Wars has gained an average of 500,000 more monthly active users. The point... It's making MORE than $22k each day now.

I also have to point out that Mob War's 2.8 million monthly active users only comprise around 2% of Facebook's total active userbase. Holy shit! There is plenty of room for more apps

So as you can see, FB apps are a VERY viable platform for what is basically passive income... It is a bit tougher to get started these days organically... You can still do completely organic promotion for an app and have it take off, but you're going to have to use some elbow grease to get it to that point. It's much easier to just buy users/installs to give it the viral kickstart it needs. Throw $1000 at an app and watch it start growing itself. If your app is good you'll make your money back the first day. And it really doesn't take much right now to be 'good', they're all pretty simple so now is the time to capitalize.



One last thing before I sign off on this epic tale :p


The thing you should all be looking towards is the future, and that my friends is Yahoo. They just opened up their API to app developers, just like Facebook did... They app show up on your my.yahoo page or something. 400 million active users. :O


Ok, time for a spliff after all that. Peace

In my experience for the non-tech savvy crowd, Facebook and especially Twitter are hard to understand. ...As in "why the heck would anyone want to 'follow me' on Twitter and see what I'm doing every minute of the day?!

I have to admit, the Twitter thing is a bit strange to me still but the fact is, it's becoming HUGE. That said, as marketers we'd all be wise to learn, understand, and use it more.

In fact, I'm interviewing a social networking expert on how to market via Twitter and Facebook on Wednesday at 8pm EST. I'd share the link with everyone but I'm not allowed seeing I'm too new to the warrior forum! ...but maybe you can find me on Twitter

For me both facebook and twitter are good. You just have to make the most of the benefits you can get from these two.

Just as an example for me. I created two how-to videos one for Twitter and one for Facebook. These show people how to create an account. I posted them on Youtube and twice as many people have view the Facebook one. Seems to me more people are looking at Facebook still.

Same here. I notice more visitors coming from twitter than facebook, as previously facebook was one of my high traffic driven to most of my website, but now its the other way round, twitter really helps alot more than facebook.

For social media, face book and twitter is the way to go.
I have yet to master them both ! Any quick tips ?

I like Twitter because I can broadcast when my site has been updated that a client may want.

Michelle:

You have a few options actually Although it's is against the TOS, you could make one account for your friends and family and one for business. Otherwise you can create a 'Page' for your business on your personal account and promote your business with the Page... it's kind of like having two accounts actually, check it out

For anybody that's interested in trying to run some Facebook apps and make some killer cash, we're giving away a FREE membership to our App Club here: Enter for your chance to win a FREE subscription to the Apps-R-Us App Club!

Membership includes access to over 36+ FB application scripts you can easily customize, launch, and get earning in minutes, as well as tutorial videos and a great member forum and costs $500, so it'd be great to be the one who gets it for free! Check it out

take care everyone