The following entry is a personal look at the relative effectiveness of Twitter vs. Facebook in getting responses from people — specifically, answers to questions. It’s based completely on anecdotal observation, and as such, solely applies to my own situation, and my own unique friend / follower makeup. So it’s probably completely worthless for anyone else (but I’m going to continue, anyway).
My experience over the past few months using both platforms is this:
* Twitter is better for getting clicks on links
* Facebook is better for getting answers to questions
The most recent example came when I threw out a question to the hive mind, asking, “Which replacement iPod I should get?” I posted it to Twitter, and it also got picked up and posted to my Facebook status (I almost never update it directly.)
I didn’t get a single response from Twitter, but did get a bunch of useful feedback on Facebook.
Looking at the Audience
In quantitative terms, I have more Facebook friends — 515 — than Twitter followers — 328. (I’m also following 275 people.) I’m not sure, but I don’t think this is a typical mix: my Twitter numbers seem to be on the low-end for someone in the social media / online community / social marketing / social self-promotion space.
There’s a good degree of overlap between the two audiences, though there are still a lot of folks in my personal social network who still don’t use Twitter (or use it reluctantly).
Also, despite the fact that I have more Facebook friends, I’ve generally exercised more discipline there in friending, as opposed to Twitter, where I’m following more people whom I’ve never met, or whom I’ve only met once at a conference or something.
So, in terms of the second observation, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised — because of audience composition, on Facebook, more people whom I actually know will see a given post of mine, and because I have more solid relationships with them, I’m more likely to get a response.
As to the clickthrough stats: bit.ly (which I’m pretty much using exclusively these days for URL-shortening and click tracking) is a little inconclusive. Generally, I’m seeing a 3-to-1 ratio of referrers from apps vs. Web pages. So I’m assuming that more of the bucket of “Email Clients, IM, AIR Apps, and Direct” referrers are coming from Twitter apps than Facebook apps. But that’s just a guess.
What’s It Mean? I Dunno — What Do You Think?
Like I said at the beginning, this just applies to my own friending style and follower composition. (Also see this Webmonkey entry looking at friend / follower relationships at Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.) I’m curious to see what your own experiences are. To put it in question format, I guess it’s:
* How many Twitter followers and Facebook friends do you have?
* In your experience, which is better for generating clicks, and which is better for getting answers?
* What else do you expect when you publish a Twitter post or Facebook status update?
* How do you think your friending style (i.e. selective vs. open) has influenced the type of responses you get when you post to either platform?
If you like, leave a comment below with your response.
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