UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging

Chapter 10. Twitter versus Facebook versus LinkedIn

SO I'VE CONVINCED you to give it a try. The problem, or the great thing—depending on how you look at it—is that there are many options for where and how to start building your social currency.

How do you choose where to start? The main players in social networking for business are currently Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. They all have their pros and cons and can all be beneficial for your business, depending on your market and needs. Here is a little bit of information about each one.

Facebook

Facebook is the biggest of the three social media sites we are going to discuss. It was originally started as a U.S. college-based networking site and now has more than 400 million active users,^[25] with 70 percent of them being outside of the United States.

Common Terms:

• Friend – The name for the people you connected with.

• Wall – The hub of your activity, where people can read, post, and comment.

• Tag – Connecting pictures, articles, and videos to specific friends who appear.

• Poke – A virtual poke in the shoulder to say hi. Never, ever do this to people. It's not only awkward, I am not sure that "poking" people is something you want to associate with your brand.

The Good:

• Facebook not only has a high number of users, over half of them login every day.

• Ability to create fan/business pages and groups. This allows companies to have a hub within a community that is already established.

• One of the great things about the newest version of Face-book^[26]