The social media revolution has taken over.  If you thought it was just a fad, you couldn’t be more wrong.  Today, individuals and brands use social media to get their message across to hundreds, even thousands of people.  It’s a great way to make new connections in your business & personal life.  Social media is a great concept but it has its downside.  You’re also opening yourself up to the scrutiny of all those people who now follow or friend you.  Make a mistake and it’s sure to cost you somewhere down the line.  Just look at the mess with the Healthcare.gov website (see additional links at the end of this story).  Do you think you would know what was going on, up to the minute, without social media?  So, which social media site do you choose to make your point?  Today, I’m going to concentrate on two.  I’ll give a rundown of what I think works best and why.

Facebook – Facebook is great for visuals, sharing photos with your friends, for brands launching new products.  However, Facebook has changed quite often over the past few years.  At one time, a brand, using FB pages, could easily promote their latest entry in their line of goods.  Not so anymore, unless you’re willing to pay for Facebook Ads to reach a broader viewing audience.  Posts with links to outside sites or photos are now seen less in someone’s feed than ever before.  If you have a business page you know this by looking at your insights.  But you still need to make your post one that will catch someone’s attention and make them share.  This is a huge plus when companies want the world to know who they are. On a personal level, Facebook becomes a playground.  A place to catch up with high school friends, past coworkers, and even long lost family members. A place to write your feelings at that particular moment, a diary of sorts.  If you’re a rather verbose individual, then Facebook is the place for you.  But don’t be too wordy or you’re likely to lose some of your following.

Twitter – 140 characters or less.  Sounds easy, right?  It’s not.  You can join twitter, pick a user name, start following people and tweet away.  Is what you’re saying making an impact?  If you’re busy telling others what you had for lunch, chances are no one will care unless they’re a foodie.  The impact that Twitter can have on any given subject is limitless as long as you know how to get your message across the right way.  And you need to tag your tweet the proper way.  Twitter lets you know what the popular hashtags are, as you type it in, they may give you a drop down.  For example, I wrote a piece about the Nevada school shooting.  The tweet I sent out included the link to the story and the hashtag that was trending  with that story, according to twitter.

Ex: Would love to know what you think..please share your thoughts #TragedyinAmerica #NevadaSchoolShooting

It got attention and it got people to my blog to read the story.  If I had simply written the tweet without the hashtags, you may not even know what I was talking about, and you would 1) give me some random thought in your head or 2) just pass right by it.  More than likely it would be the latter. Twitter gives you 140 characters (I suggest you use roughly 120 or less so there are no issues with retweets) to make a point.  Don’t waste them by telling me you’re having a caramel mocha latte from Dunkin.  While America may run on Dunkin, most of us don’t really care. Honestly, not worth a RT in my book.

Those are just some of the differences and likenesses between Facebook & Twitter.  Most people can master both apps, some will find they’re more comfortable with one over the other.  Whichever way you choose to get your message across to the minions, make sure your words matter.  Having thousands of followers means nothing if they’re really not hearing what you have to say.

Copyright 2013

dorindaduclos.com

All Rights Reserved

Original photo via marquettejournal.org

You can follow additional stories about the Obamacare disaster & Twitter by visiting http://pauljpannone.com/2013/10/21/obamacare-glitch-becomes-a-botch-what-a-bitch/ and http://pauljpannone.com/2013/10/17/so-you-dont-get-twitter-maybe-its-time/