The whole area of 'Social Networking' is still quite new and is developing all the time, some call it a fad, others say it is the shape of things to come. Whatever, it certainly has the interest of businesses, especially those who want to make a bigger impact on the web.
First a bit of history on marketing.
In the 'old days' businesses 'pushed' their way into people's lives, using Radio, TV and newspaper adverts. Then, in newer times came the Telesales boom and more recently Email Marketing.
Then when the Internet got established and the Search Engines got their act together, people started Looking [Searching] for what they wanted. Businesses had to react by first getting themselves on the web (easy) and then making sure they were found (not so easy). Thus was the Search Engine Optimisation profession born.
Now however, things are changing again. That is not to say the old forms of advertising are dead (although they are not very well) but they have been superseded, first by the Internet and it's Search Engines and now by the latest form of buyer behaviour, that of subscribing and sharing.
Subscribing and Sharing.
This new Internet is called Web 2.0 and at it's heart is the notion to share news, views and thoughts to all that are interested. Hence the birth of Utube where you can see videos, posted by all and sundry on just about anything. Facebook and its like came next, places where you could go and chat and ask each other questions. Along with this change came the ability for people to subscribe to the 'news and views' that interested them.
Buyers today can therefore Search, Subscribe and Share (info going both ways in the latter case) to find the information they need before making a purchase. This is one of the reasons that 'Review Sites' are becoming more important (yet another story).
Where we are Today.
Whether the web drove the user or the user drove the web is immaterial, but today businesses wanting to make that 'impact' on the web have little choice but to embrace Social Media and that means Twitter or Facebook (at least today).
Twitter & Facebook - The Basic Difference
The basic difference beteen Twitter and Facebook is that the former is really a platform for saying 'This is what I'm doing today, or See this interesting thing' whilst Facebook is more like that cocktail party, where you mingle with whom you choose and have 'conversations'. In other words you have to engage more with others on Facebook, rather than just 'talk at them' like you do with Twitter.
This basic difference has a huge impact though. You see, whilst you can run a Twitter account with just a few minutes a day, running a Facebook account and 'talking' to all those potential buyers could and does take hours and hours. Yes of course you can always use it in a half hearted manner, but will that do any good if people are expecting more?
Whatever, using any type of Social Media is more time consuming than the other types of Online Marketing (yes, even more time consuming than SEO and that is saying something I can tell you), so if you are one of those looking to join the party, be aware of the time you will have to put in, at least if you want to be truly successful.
More Tomorrow
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