With social networking sites competing to extract the best features from one another, Facebook and Twitter are the ones still holding the most members.
Global Leaders Twitter and Facebook
The BBC released an article “ Facebook more popular than porn for UK users ” - once upon a time this would have sounded unrealistic but nowadays people have directed their surfing interests to social networking sites, increasing the number of page hits to that of pornographic sites.
On 21 March 2011, Twitter celebrated its official fifth birthday. Twitter's rise has been impressively quick, with the site now hitting a billion tweets a week from your Average Joe to celebrities such as Lady Gaga.
It gained popularity at the South by Southwest (“SXSW”) Interactive conference in 2007 by winning the Web award, but its attraction works hand in hand with the likes of Facebook, as where one creates distinctive new features that will surely pull in the crowds, the other simulates that idea and strives to create a better feature. This however is not a new tactic as social networking sites have been doing this for years.
The differences between the two is that where Facebook allows its members to use several objects to share news with friends, its more personal, where Twitter is primarily a posting site. Its members instead of having friends, have followers which being a real-time information network removes the rapport building and just lets the user automatically post.
Twitter Facts
Twitter was born on 21 March 2006, as of 14 September 2010:
- it had 175 million registered users;
- 95 million tweets are written per day; and
- the company itself has 200 employees.
This and more information can be obtained directly from the Twitter website.
Facebook Facts
Facebook was born on 4 February 2004, their goal is to “give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected”. They have:
- over 900 million objects that people interact with;
- the average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events;
- more than 30 billion pieces of content web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums and so on, are shared each month; and
- they have more than 200 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.
This and more information can be viewed from the Facebook information page.
Social Networking for Business
Both of these global leaders realise they have gained popularity through sharing information whether it is with the general public or friends, but both companies have also discovered that the next project is to aim for businesses to maintain profitability.
Facebook makes their money through banner displays and selling advertising space on their site, but both too have their own guides for how a business of any size can profit through networking. Twitter has its own Twitter for Business guide including a glossary of terms, best practices, case studies and tips on optimising Twitter activity and Facebook has something very similar, leading to the notion that their next market takeover will be professional networking possibly endangering sites such as LinkedIn.
Whilst Twitter and Facebook are topping the social networking charts, MySpace which was once a global leader of social networking and also enhanced the careers or several musicians, has had to take a back seat as it was reported on 27 March 2011, that the social networking site had lost millions of its members. This could be due to a number or reasons, namely the site does not offer the same interactivity as Twitter and Facebook, or people have come to the conclusion that they would rather spend time promoting themselves rather than being fans of artists.
Battle of the Social Networking Sites
The BBC reported on 17 March that Twitter was shunning their developers to make money, as Biz Stone, Twitter chief, had been tweeting a few problems.
The film the Social Network whether fictional or not, showed its audience the reality of what a good team of developers could bring to a social networking site. Office Politics come hand in hand with the coffee dispenser, it is very rare to find an office without either, but it is clear that any sign of weakness on either of these companies could mean benefit to the other.
If the members of these two titans were to go to either sites they would see that Facebook has a Twitter page and Twitter has a Facebook page so surely there is no real harsh competition, especially as Mark Zuckerburg is still promoting Facebook connect.
Social networking sites are like an other company they have their highs and lows, but Twitter and Facebook in particular take care of their communities, whether you wish to share some news publicly or privately, or advertise your work or event on a more commercial basis both offers something for everyone.
Sources
- “Twitter boss on application snub” 17 March 2011 by Maggie Shiels, BBC Website FB info page.
- Twitter infomation page.
- Facebook information page.
- “Facebook more popular than porn for UK users” 18 March 2011 by Dan Whitworth BBC Website
Kelly Foxhall - Kelly by trade is an IT Training Manager at a London law firm. She is also an Internet Journalist that writes about technology, law and ...
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