"Twitter vs. Facebook vs. Google+": Pros and Cons as Corporate Marketing Channels
Over the past two months, Twitter and Google+, like Facebook, have also added company pages. The usefulness of each service will vary depending on a company's needs, but to help decide which service should be prioritized, it is worth looking at the strengths and weaknesses each one offers.
Twitter's strengths for building powerful brand awareness
Last Thursday, along with a site redesign, Twitter announced that it would strengthen profile pages for companies. By expanding the header so that a company's logo, slogan, and other graphic elements can be used, and by changing the pages users visit, companies can reinforce brand awareness.
The Promoted Tweet feature displays one favored tweet on the screen in chronological order, and the photo and text of that tweet are automatically enlarged.
Weaknesses
Most people I know browse Twitter through clients such as Hootsuite or Seesmic. Many of those users tend not to spend time looking at branded company profile pages. The new company pages will be available only after the new version of Twitter is released, but for now it is still possible to use the image area on the right side of Twitter Ads profiles.
Nothing has yet been announced about when the new company pages will expand beyond the initial 21 brands. Twitter said it would "slowly roll out enhanced profile pages to more brands over the coming months," suggesting that this will not be a rapid large-scale rollout.
Analysis
If you are building a brand image for a product or company, refreshing your current Twitter page with the new features is a good idea. If you are a small business, creating a Twitter company page is part of basic social-media direction. It is more of a good thing to do than something absolutely essential. More important than decorating a pretty profile page for potential customers is actually engaging with them.
Google+ strengthens a company's presence
Google+ is still a relatively new social network, but from the start it has also been a network optimized for business use. Google+ company pages are easy to create and manage. Creating a Google+ page does not automatically push a company to the top of Google search results, but at minimum it ensures that the link to the company's homepage is not broken.
The real potential of Google+ is the confidence that Google will continue developing useful things. At the moment Google+ does not provide many functions, but over time it is almost certain that Google will add e-commerce and other capabilities. Its user base still does not match Facebook's, but in 2012 both the user base and the feature set of Google+ were expected to continue expanding.
Weaknesses
For business promotion, Google has been pushing a naming rule that attaches a plus sign to the company name rather than providing an easy business-friendly URL. For example, entering +CocaCola in Google would take users to that company's Google+ page, but that capability has not yet been delivered. In addition, Google+ currently allows neither contests nor promotional activities.
Analysis
Small businesses can launch a new Google+ page in only a few hours. By using posts that can also be sent simultaneously to Facebook and Twitter, the Google+ page can be kept fresh and gradually improved over time.
Facebook pages strengthen interaction with consumers
Creating a Facebook page for business use is easy, but dealing continuously with customer-service issues and customer questions takes a great deal of effort. Before opening a Facebook company page, a company should first decide who it intends to sell to. Because Facebook is a place for interaction with general consumers, it may not be appropriate for a B2B company. For the B2B market, LinkedIn is often more suitable.
Strengths
Facebook company pages provide a wider range of functions than other social networks, including apps developed for customers, contests, and promotions. It is also possible to add e-commerce functionality to a Facebook page.
Weaknesses
Because user participation is high, operating a Facebook page requires a great deal of daily effort in order to interact with customers and resolve their issues. If negative comments are not answered or questions are not resolved in a timely way, a company's online reputation can be damaged very easily. As Google+ grows, the same may become true there as well.
By contrast, on Twitter it is at least possible to ignore negative tweets from users on a company page. To get consumers to click Like on a company page, a company may need to buy Facebook ads in order to make target customers aware that the page exists. In addition, Facebook contains many attention-splitting elements, such as games, other applications, and status updates, which can reduce the chances that a company page will stand out.
Analysis
For companies that sell products to consumers, Facebook offers the most mature feature set among the three social networks mentioned above. Facebook makes it possible to use contests and promotions and, more importantly, to interact with consumers who still use Facebook even if they do not yet use Google+ or Twitter.
Which one should you use?
Realistically, companies should create pages on all three services. If the business is B2B, such as an office-furniture supplier, LinkedIn may be a better choice than Facebook. Compared with the past, this is now a time when companies must establish an appropriate social-media marketing plan and make strategic decisions about which service to prioritize depending on what they are trying to build.
The most suitable service will vary by business type, but among these options Facebook remains the most stable and provides the largest user base.
editor@itworld.co.kr
2011.12.13 Angela West | PC World
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