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January 16, 2012

More Useful: Facebook or Twitter? [Discussion]

Without a doubt, Facebook and Twitter are king and queen of the social media world. As you dive in, however, it becomes apparent that their audience and use are supremely different!

While the general view is that Facebook is more personal and in-depth, whereas Twitter is more timely and broad, both can be useful in advancing your indie author career. This leads us to ask the question: which is more useful to you? Tell us:

  • Do you use both Twitter and Facebook? Or just one or the other? Or neither? Why?
  • In your view, how are the services similar? How are they different?
  • Does your social media strategy differ between the two services?
  • Do you have separate accounts for personal and “career” (author) use?
  • Does the amount of time you spend on the services differ dramatically?
  • If you could only choose one service (Twitter or Facebook) to continue using, which would it be? Why?
  • What advice would you give to other authors considering one or both services?

Please leave a comment below addressing any (or all) of the above questions. Also, mention the discussion to your indie author friends — we’d love to get varied input!

What do you think?

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Also, if you have any favorite posts about Social Media, be sure to check back on Friday for our Self-Publishing Linkup on that topic!

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  • Do you use both Twitter and Facebook?
    Yes, but both for different reasons. I use Facebook to interact with my friends and for procrastination when I have an essay I should be doing. Twitter, on the other hand, also has a handful of my friends, but I tweet mainly about my writing. Using hash tags makes it a lot easier to get your name out there and you find that agents/publishers/other writers will start following you if you use it frequently enough. I follow quite a few agents and publishers, all of whom post useful tips about submissions, etc. I think if I were to add an agent on Facebook, they might consider me a stalker…

    How are the services similar? How are they different?
    I know that Facebook is considered more ‘personal’, but funnily enough I find following a fellow author/agent on Twitter a lot more personal. Sure, you can friend that author on Facebook (again, stalker?) or become a ‘fan’ of the agent, but nowadays Facebook is filled with so much junk whereas Twitter feels… More authentic? More real? Sure, there’s a lot more to do on Facebook, but that’s the thing – there’s so much to do, it’s not solely there for sharing your creativity. While Twitter isn’t there for that purpose alone, it doesn’t have Farmville or quizzes to distract you from sharing your work with other people who appreciate it.

    Do you have separate accounts for personal and “career” (author) use?
    Like I vaguely said before, my Facebook account is more personal, while my Twitter account is more oriented towards a potential ‘career’ in writing.

    Does the amount of time you spend on the services differ dramatically?
    Being a university student, I spend far too much time on Facebook. I could update my Twitter feed with amusing images or comments, but I’d rather keep than for my writing or for thoughts I don’t particularly want to share with 300 other people, over half of which aren’t even close friends.

    If you could only choose one service (Twitter or Facebook) to continue using, which would it be? Why?
    I would have to say Facebook, simply because I can continue to post my writing via my blog (which links to Facebook) and still maintaining the social aspect. Facebook makes it way too easy to stay in contact with friends and – because of the instant chat – you can ask someone if they want to grab a coffee when you know you’re both in the library. A lot of my close friends don’t have Twitter, so without it I’d feel slightly cut-off. Yeah, it’s sad how much we rely on modern technology nowadays, but that’s how it is.

    What advice would you give to other authors considering one or both services?
    Personally I’d say Twitter gets a 1UP (Mario reference, for non-game geeks) when it comes to writing. As I said, hash tags get your name out there and if you use them frequently enough, you soon build up a large group of followers, all working towards the same thing as yourself.

  • I use Twitter A LOT more often than Facebook and I enjoy it a lot more, too. I have 2 FB accounts – one is personal and the other is professional. The personal one is a bit boring to me, just silly little updates and silliness that doesn’t entertain me all that much. My professional one is even more unfulfilling to me but I keep it up because I’m supposed to.

    But Twitter is FUN. It is more direct and personal and it is happening NOW. I read something funny or enlightening, or get directed to interesting articles on a daily basis.

    FB feels static to me. I have over 1,000 FB friends on my personal account but I don’t feel that I really know any of them. I have 2,300 followers on Twitter and I do recognize many of them and I like to see what people are up to, whether it’s something funny or a personal struggle. I feel I can be the real me on Twitter. A professional consultant, yes, but I also feel comfortable to tweet about silly things like what my dogs are up to.

    Beyond personal subjectivity, I think Twitter hits an exponentially larger base of communications because of retweets and hashtags. I used to do an email newsletter but now I just Twitter because I reach a much larger number of people than I have on my email list and newsletters really feel like spam these days, sorry to say.

  • It’s interesting to note how many authors follow primarily other authors and constantly tweet sales messages. I wonder what percentage are non-writer followers? How useful is tweeting a link to your sales page on Amazon? To me, social media isn’t about pushing your product (in this case books) but in expressing who you are which draws people in and indirectly helps your sales.

    I use Twitter more because I chat regularly with a lot of friends. Plus, it’s easier to keep a group conversation going. Since Facebook allows more than 140-characters, it’s better if you have a big blurb to get out. All other things are posted to my blog – articles, reviews, etc.

  • Last month, after three years, I deleted my Facebook account. It would be dishonest to say their data mining practices didn’t concern me. But the truth is, few of my “friends” wanted to connect in any but the most superfluous ways. The games and apps got to be too much. Then the politics. Then the sweeping FB changes. I was a developer, so I had a longer time than most to evaluate the changes to the timeline and apps. Once I understood FB’s ecosystem I realized how tough it would be to grow a meaningful following without developing an app and constantly tweaking and posting. I don’t miss it.

    I use Twitter and must confess, many of my Tweeps are fellow writers. That’s OK though, I enjoy seeing them struggle with the same issues I do. One colleague describes the networks this way: FB is for people you used to know; Twitter is for people you need to know. So far, that has proven true.