When you’re putting together a social media marketing plan, you must prioritize and define your ultimate goal. Once you identify your plan’s objective, determine what strategy will work best for you.
Researchers at the Internet Marketing Firm Irbtrax studied the advantages of different social media channels. This summary of the findings should help you determine where to start.
Category: Overall Traffic and Users
Advantage: Facebook
Reason: Facebook is the #2 site in US and global traffic, and users spend a daily average of 32.2 minutes on the platform. It’s well ahead of Twitter’s #12 ranking in US and global traffic with a user daily average of 7.8 minutes a day.
Category: Online Destination for Online Users, B2C
Advantage: Facebook
Reason: Facebook’s format is designed for detailed descriptions and it allows your viewers to see photos. You can also post videos and outgoing links on a Facebook Fan Page. The study suggests that Facebook can build a fan base faster than Twitter.
Category: Online Destination for Online Users, B2B
Advantage: Twitter
Reason: The study indicated that business users on Twitter are more likely to re-distribute information than Facebook users. Viral marketing is very helpful in B2B marketing as someone else relaying your information will help you find a new audience.
Category: Product Research
Advantage: Twitter
Reason: Twitter’s search application can allow you to see what people are saying about your company and product.
Category: Internal Viral Marketing
Advantage: Facebook
Reason: Facebook’s wall acts as an ad hoc message board, and it allows you to interact with your followers more efficiently than Twitter. Facebook pages can build a large audience quicker than Twitter as well.
Category: External Viral Marketing
Advantage: Twitter
Reason: The study concluded that articles are shared more often on Twitter than are linked through Facebook.
Category: Direct Internet Communication
Advantage: Facebook
Reason: The advantage is simple. Facebook has instant messaging. Twitter does not.
Category: Breaking News
Advantage: Twitter
Reason: Information can be rapidly re-transmitted on Twitter and can be tracked by third party monitors such as Social Mention.
Category: Prompting Readers to go to Your Website
Advantage: Facebook
Reason: The study determined that since a Facebook page looks more like a website, this gives you a greater ability to call people to click on the link to your website.
Both platforms have their strengths, and it is advantageous to utilize both in your social media marketing. However, this study should help you figure out where you should focus your energies and where to get started.
Checkerboard Strategic Web Marketing can help you determine what social media channels and strategy will work best for your business. To get started on your new media marketing, call (612) 798-7200.
