Which is More Social? Comparison Between Twitter, Facebook
Last week I conducted a little experiment to between Facebook and Twitter to see which one generated more discussion. My hunch has been that Facebook provides more engagement and conversation, but I wanted to see if that would be true when I was intentionally comparing responses to the same questions.
To run this little experiment, I posed the following statements/questions to both Facebook and Twitter simultaneously. At the time of these posts, I had 1,920 followers on Twitter and 770 friends on Facebook, so theoretically, I’m talking to over twice as many people in Twitter as Facebook. Here are the results…
Tweet/Update #1 (posted Monday, Nov. 2)
“Well…we’re having a boy. After two girls a boy is on the way. Looks like I won’t mow my lawn forever after all!”
Response:
- 25 followers replied from Twitter
- 10 people commented and 9 people “liked” the update on Facebook
Tweet/Update #2 (posted Tuesday, Nov. 3)
“Saw someone with Christmas decorations on their house. Can we throw a premature celebration flag? Is it too early or that just me?”
Response:
- 4 followers replied from Twitter
- 6 people commented in Facebook
Tweet/Update #3 (posted Tuesday, Nov. 3)
“Good comments re: Christmas decorations. What about the music? Anyone listening to it yet? I don’t start until after Thanksgiving.”
Response:
- 5 followers replied from Twitter
- 5 people commented and 1 person “liked” the update on Facebook
Conclusion
After taking a look at the numbers I have to conclude that Facebook is more conversational for general discussion. Twitter has shined, however, when I’ve talked about more professional things, but when it comes to anything personal, fun, cultural, etc. I have seen time and time again that Facebook is the place where more conversations happen. I’m not sure what to make of this as it relates to businesses using either of these tools and I’ll be curious to see if others have similar experiences, but for now I think I’m seeing Twitter differentiate as a largely professional social network whereas Facebook continues to hold steady as a more personal social network.
On an interesting sidenote, a few days ago I Tweeted that I had run this experiment and asked people to guess whether Facebook or Twitter was more conversational. Everyone predicted Facebook, including the four people who responded via Twitter.
Tags: facebook, Facebook engagement, twitter, Twitter engagement
November 11th, 2009 at 10:23 am
I’d have to agree. I handle the Twitter and Facebook page for my organization, and I’ve had more success interacting with people on Facebook hands down.
However, Twitter’s been more effective for engaging people during conferences. I think it’s because of the # hashtags, and the fact that you don’t have to be someone’s friend to see their updates via the hashtag feed.
Thanks for doing this experiment and writing about here. Very interesting stuff to think on!
November 11th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Thanks for the comment Lauren. Good point about conferences. I’ve used Twitter for that purpose as well.
November 15th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
It’s easier to meet new people via Twitter because the barrier is so low. I’ve done some extensive testing of the two strictly from a business point of view. I found that Twitter generates more clicks and Facebook generates more sales. I’d personally rather have the sales
On Facebook people connect with their family and friends. As a business owner you want to be a part of that. Most marketers and entrepreneurs prefer Twitter, most likely because it’s faster paced. But Facebook generates better results. At least in my tests, and in some of my clients results.
Great post Bill!
November 15th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
Thanks for the comment John. Sounds like we’re all discovering the same things.