Twitter or Facebook?

Online Surveys & Market Research

According to Steve Thornton, one of the most pressing dilemmas of the digital world today is "Twitter or Facebook?" He has some interesting points to share:

Twitter Pros

1. Easy to navigate and update, link to and promote anything
2. Reach far beyond your inner circle of friends
3. One feed pools all users; anyone can follow anyone else unless blocked
4. Pure communication tool, rapid responsiveness
5. You don’t have to be logged in to get updates; you can just use an RSS reader
6. Very interactive, extensible messaging platform with open APIs
7. Many other applications being developed (Twitterific, Summize, Twhirl, etc.)
8. Potential SMS text messaging revenue from wireless networks (although Twitter states they are not currently getting any cut)
9. Potential future advertising and/or enterprise subscription-based revenue streams
10. With its “thin” overhead, Twitter is probably more scalable than Facebook, giving it a cost advantage

Twitter Cons

1. Limited functionality; find people, send brief messages, direct replies
2. Limited to 140 characters per update
3. Not all people find it immediately useful
4. Over-emphasis on follower counts
5. Easily abused for spam and increasing the noise level
6. Relatively smaller installed user base
7. As yet no readily apparent monetization strategy

Facebook Pros

1. Application mashup; find people, make connections, email, instant messaging, image/video sharing, etc.
2. Most people can quickly grasp the value of connecting with friends, family and established contacts; some people report they use Facebook instead of email and IM
3. More emphasis on deep connections with others vs. who has the most connections “True Friends” feature increases your transparency to selected connections; almost like having private and public profiles
4. Huge, rapidly growing installed user base
5. Inherit stickiness, third party applications, “gift giving” and personal data collection make Facebook a powerful advertising platform

Facebook Cons

1. More difficult to navigate and update
2. Requires investment of time to realize sustained benefit
3. Opt in model requires a user to allow others to connect
4. Less immediate responses; unless you stay logged on continually
5. Overhead of mashup and “thick” applications could limit scalability, bloat cost structure

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