Sure, you can easily lump all the different social media
platforms into a large bucket and call them “Social Media,” but to truly reach
your target audience today, it means tailoring your messaging for each
platform. While a “spray and pray” method used to work in the past, it doesn’t
anymore. Consumers talk about content fatigue, and are getting much smarter in
their abilities to tune out “bad” marketing.
Now, to really speak to THAT consumer you are writing each
piece of content for, it has to be relevant. And relevance isn’t limited simply
to the topic; the platform and method of content delivery is equally important.
I have a few friends that will write something they are proud of, or think is
great for who they are trying to get in front of, and they will post the same
piece, word for word on both Twitter and Facebook. Here’s why I’m already tuned
out – if I were to see it on only Twitter or only Facebook, I might feel it’s a
bit more tailored to me and my needs. But the second I see it just thrown out
there, my mind has become trained to begin ignoring what the piece is about,
even if it is exactly what I’m looking for. Social media has trained my brain
to look at marketing messaging cast out in a huge net and phishing. Also, and
here’s the catch – if you are posting the same thing on both Twitter and
Facebook, what is my (and countless hundreds of others) incentive for following
you on both sites? While personalizing your marketing is important, if you are
posting identical content on both of those platforms, you are losing out on
potentially millions more people seeing your content.
Unfortunately, these friends of mine that are doing this
aren’t necessarily “new” to marketing, or “new” to using social media
marketing. Nor are they alone – I am surprised almost daily at people I used to
think of my go-to’s for “best practices” doing this exact same thing. I like to
think that it’s not a misunderstanding of how to use social media platforms
correctly, but then what am I left with? Are they simply lazy? Or do they truly
not recognize that each social media site is different? WHO you are writing for
needs to be just as much of a focus as WHERE you are writing for.
For brevity, let’s focus on just Twitter and Facebook here.
Both are necessary for businesses and brands to garner attention, new
customers, and deepen relationships with existing customers. Those current and
potential customers, as well as you and me (and millions of others) go to each
of those sites for different reasons. It is our job as marketers to learn what
those reasons are, and what drives people to one site for certain information
and sharing, where they are most receptive to information we are aiming to
provide for them, and where ultimately, we can convert them.
Twitter vs Facebook:
What’s the Big Difference?
There are generalizations we can make about who visits each
site, and break those down by demographics. When we understand who is going
where, we can begin to come up with strategies to get in front of those people,
to achieve each of our goals.
The statistics seem to change daily, but it appears that
Twitter users skew younger than Facebook’s average users. That makes a
difference when you think of what content to share on Facebook. Many articles
have recently been written that the biggest growth in users that Facebook is
seeing recently is within the 65+ crowd. So while emojis and gifs may be all
the rage on Twitter, they will most likely not be as relevant on Facebook.
We can then generalize and say that content written for
Facebook needs to go a bit deeper in information and topic, and be written for
a more mature audience.
Working off personal knowledge, (as marketers need to be
able to do) Facebook friends are more often people you know in person, as
opposed to Twitter, where you are more likely to have “Twitter friends” you
have never met. Think of the people you engage with the most on Twitter – if you
are like me, they span the globe more than the people you are friends with on
Facebook.
This is important to keep in mind for writing content –
content for Twitter may need to have a more global feel than Facebook posts. If
you are a brand, odds are that the people that have liked you on Facebook are
more concentrated in where they live – that would make sense, since people are
more likely to like a brand they can purchase. If you only sell in the US, it
follows that you will not have many likes coming from the UK or Australia,
while on Twitter, people from another country may follow you more for your
content, than for availability, coupons or deals.
How do topics differ
between Twitter and Facebook?
Right away, you can see that with the character restraints
currently on Twitter, content must be written to grab your audience much
faster. Facebook allows you to write more in a post, whereas on Twitter you
would have to send someone off the platform via links to get your full message
out.
As we mentioned with friends vs people you haven’t met,
Facebook topics tend to be more personal in nature. Twitter topics are less
personal, focusing more on trending topics, news and opinions.
Twitter moves much faster than Facebook. The average life
span of a tweet is under an hour, where on Facebook, posts are seen for much
longer (depending on how many friends you have). Because of this, you will want
to repeat certain tweets during different times of the day, where on Facebook,
you will only post the same post once.
On the flip side, Twitter is like a raucous soiree in which
everyone is talking over everyone else. Therefore, the relationships are pretty
superficial and all about the fun they are having at that moment in time. You
may find that Facebook is better for your brand for converting casual consumers
to more loyal buyers. I believe this is because with the more personal nature
of sharing on Facebook, influence amongst friends recommending products to one
other is stronger, because people are more connected and personal.
However, because of hashtags and Twitters search functions,
people that influence others will tend to influence many more people than they
do on Facebook.
What do we do now,
with this information?
We begin by learning to write for Twitter and for Facebook,
but not with the same content at the same time.
Let’s start with
Twitter
Twitter allows you to post 140 characters per Tweet.
However, it is recommended to use much less, so that people can RT your posts
and still have space to include commentary, as well as allowing yourself room
for hashtags that will help each Tweet
reach the people you are writing it for. Hashtags will also allow you to
encourage conversations between people around those terms. I would suggest
aiming for no more than 100 characters/tweet.
You will want to have something compelling and relevant to
say in the beginning of your tweet to grab followers’ attention and stand out
in an increasingly busy stream. Images are perfect for attracting people to
your tweets and can say much more than your allowed 140 characters.
And now for Facebook
If we researched and learned that Facebook is more personal,
posts on this platform will need more emotion tied to them. You have more room
here to tell more stories from a personal point of view, so take advantage of
that time and space.
Images are just as important on Facebook as they are on
Twitter. They still help grab attention on the News Feed and give people more opportunity
to connect with your visual and your words. Now, you even have the option of
adding a personal video or even live stream without having to take users off
the platform they are already looking to connect with you on.
Know Your Audience
No matter the platform, you will need to know who is going
to see your posts and when, and what their preferred method of receiving your
content is.
The better and more personally you can get to know your
target audience, the better you can craft posts for them, no matter the site.
It takes time to listen, chat and engage with all the people you want to, but
without doing so, you won’t have the edge on knowing what types of content they
are seeking, and where they are most likely to see it. The time you spend
getting to know your audience will definitely pay off.
