We’ve heard it all before: social media is providing a new means of effective internet marketing that is able to connect the business to consumer in the most efficient ways. You have probably read enough articles, ideas and theories into the varying levels of effectiveness that social media provides your site and business.
Undoubtedly, the most widely used social media communities are Facebook and Twitter, and the sites themselves are continuing to cater more and more to marketers. Now more than ever have they been optimized fully, yet some have seen it the changes as evolution and deconstruction.
Which time do you spend more on when trying to push your business? It’s hard to make a universal decision over which one is better than the other, since each person locates varying benefits. However, advantages and disadvantages for both are pretty clear, which is what we’ll point out here.
Much like a website, every business now has a Facebook fan page, and for very good reason. Such a platform allows a business owner to directly speak with would-be consumers and loyal patrons about their needs and wants, and the return is pretty visible. The brand of a business is also extremely transparent, due to the heavy use of media that the network allows, which many should be aware of how to use right.
Some people have not been a big fan of TimeLine for some reasons or others, but it really should have been seen as a golden opportunity for businesses. With the richer live updates and higher media integration, TimeLine has definitely been one of the best additions for Facebook marketing since it began. It is basically a secondary website for a company on top of their own already, but more communally focused.
The one main issue with Facebook – especially this year – is how more viruses and bots have spread through the website, which has done everything from spread fake promos to fake profiles. This can be extremely misleading for businesses that are trying to weigh out the overall effectiveness of their Facebook operation.
This was a big story during the middle of the year when Facebook had to file a fact that 83 million profiles on Facebook were some sort of fake setup, and not actual people.
Admittedly, I didn’t get a Twitter until recently since I failed to recognize any real benefits that it delivered for branding. I’m still pretty much on the fence about it, as my interaction with the network is meager at most. Probably one of the better things about Twitter over Facebook is that the visibility of all content that comes off of one’s account can be seen by anybody, so there is no requirement to have to “like”. Sure, if you want to follow for more consistent updates, it’s an easy option.
The problem with Twitter is that it is hard to see what all of the followers and tweets really do in the long run for potential business. Someone might decide to follow you on a whim, and not really pay attention to any of the updates that are being offered. Plus, it can be difficult to fully brand and speak to the audience in a limited amount of characters. It could be said that there are more barriers that one has to deal through Twitter.
There is great hope that the two websites will continue to develop the nexus between the business and consumer. There are still plenty of barriers to entry that must be dealt with, but the continuous prospects have shown promise as the website mature more and more.
