Facebook and Twitter

Facebook v. Twitter - A Marketing Manager's Perspective

Facebook and Twitter are the two most popular social networking sites in the world. While both social media giants cater to everyone and are about opening up the world through sharing, one might tend to favor one over the other. As Jayson Demers wrote in The Huffington Post, “Facebook’s most common use is to keep people informed of what’s happening. It’s become a scrapbooking site, where people archive important moments in their lives. Twitter focuses on speeding things up, often becoming a source in and of itself."

Learning From Twitter

As communication is continually growing more towards smart phones and tablets, Facebook is having to find ways to remain competitive among mobile-friendly platforms like Twitter. In a recent article published on pando.com, one would assume that Mark Zuckerberg is recognizing acknowledging some of the challenges Facebook is facing in the following statements:

". . . we're really at this point where we can take a step back and think about the next big things that we want to do."

". . . the shift to mobile was not as quick as it should have been, but one of the things that characterizes our company is that we are pretty strong-willed.”

While I am in no position to offer marketing advice to Facebook, I would strongly encourage for the company to be consistent with their marketing efforts in terms of quality and delivery. Since Facebook has become a public-traded company, Mark Zuckerberg must be cautious in determining what strategy will be used to counter competing companies as there is a much larger sense of accountability and answering to investors.

I find his statement about stepping back to evaluate Facebook's next move a wise response to critics questioning. With the rapid growth and deployment of new mobile apps over recent years, one might even question whether Facebook should continue developing a strategy solely towards social media. After all, the effects...