Which among Facebook and Twitter is the better option for a brand to promote itself

1. In the modern era, people start their day either by a status update or a tweet. It has become a routine
or more of a daily chore of an individual. Morning news on television has been replaced by an
opinionated tweet or an informative status update. The migration from orkut to Facebook might only
resemble a mere baby step compared to the humongous demographic shift from traditional media to
the digital world. Brands could not afford to overlook this hysterical consumption attitude of people and
the only next logical step was to go digital.
Let us look into the merits of Facebook – Large audiences (practically everyone) can remain connected
and also reconnect with new and old friends, chat, like-comment-share, can create events and can also
upload pictures and videos. Apart from that, Facebook also gives the ability to create and like pages.
Brands can access a huge array of audience by creating a page and posting regular updates about its
products. It also enables an online discussion forum where the brands can actually come to know about
their positives and negatives. Running contests on Facebook enables large amount of audience
engagement and makes the brand more interesting and appealing, especially among the young crowds.
Facebook also allows apps where the user can actually interact with brands on a completely new level.
Having said that, every great thing comes with a price and Facebook is no exception. If a small business
needs to communicate and build an audience, it has to have a certain decent number of likes on its
page. It can make use of Facebook ads but they are quite expensive and creation of an app shells out big
money from the pocket. The younger audience, which is the prime target of every brand, can be
accessed significantly but it requires a high cost to reach out to the niche audience. When a brand runs a
contest, only the individuals who have subscribed to it can enter the contest.
Twitter has altogether given a new meaning to the term blogging. The microblogging concept spread like
a wild fire and each and everyone got caught up in this historical change. Audience on Twitter can have
a personal touch with their favorite brand and it creates an impression as if one is actually interacting
one on one with the brand. The trending topics on Twitter are discussed, with that topic preceded with
an hashtag which enables a large audience engagement on a more wider level. Brands can run weekly
contests and anyone can participate in it, leading to a huge amount of buzz which in turn helps in
creating brand awareness and/or engagement.
Although Twitter is more on a personal level and allows one to state one’s heart out in 140 characters,
there are a few shortcomings that act as a roadblock to its growing popularity. To name a few, Twitter
allows embedding of videos and images, but one has to click “expand media” to view it. So if a business
requires being more visually appealing, Facebook is the place where a brand should be spending time
on. One more pitfall adding to the list is the less number of audiences compared to Facebook. Although
brands on Twitter can easily find people and follow them, it requires a lot of patience and hard work to
understand them.
One cannot assume or predict which medium is best for the brands. Both the social networks are here
to stay and brands can target their audience according to the needs which best fits their objectives.