This is actually a question that has no ‘one size fits all’ answer – in reality it will depend upon the exact nature of your business and customer base. There are still a number of people that feel that Facebook is the only real choice, and others feel the same about Twitter, but companies will benefit from a little research and testing to see how their time can best be spent. ‘Time is money’ may sound like a ridiculous cliché in the modern business world, but it rings true if you are concerned about spending hours on a method that will only target a handful of people.
In spite of recent newcomers to the social media marketplace, Facebook still reigns supreme for a lot of people. It offers a good mix of text, photo and video-based opportunities, and popular fan pages can effectively have their content inserted directly into the feeds of their followers – this can be further enhanced with paid advertising (which is essential if you want posts to reach ALL of your fans). The right content has the potential to go viral in a matter of minutes, but this level of activity could also show that Facebook has become a victim of its own success – your message could be buried quickly.
Twitter may have a similarly large total base of users, but the short message length ensures that people are able to view a large amount of content in a relatively short time. Once you have a number of fans with a high level of their own followers, it is relatively easy for your message to spread around the world. If you take some time to learn how to use 140 characters efficiently (URL-shortening services can cut down weblinks), your tweets will have the maximum impact.
The rise of the ‘Selfie’ shows how photos have become just as important in online marketing, and photo-centric social media networks such as Instagram have a lot to offer people that want their images to do the talking. Overall, it is probably best to use multi-platform solutions that have the ability to post to multiple networks at the same time, and the returned insights and statistics will show you where your time will be better spent.
