Sep 10
16
Photographer: Francesco Marino
I don’t always use my blog to repeat news – but this item underscores one of my favorite points: you shouldn’t ignore Twitter in your marketing plans. Why?
According to a recent report by email marketing company ExactTarget (reported via eMarketer), Twitter followers are more likely to purchase from a brand they “Follow” than Facebook “Fans.”
Summing up the ExactTarge data, eMarketer says this:
Daily Twitter users who followed a brand were more than twice as likely as daily Facebook users who “liked” a brand to say they were more likely to purchase from the brand after becoming a social media follower. What’s more, Facebook fans were the most likely group to actively disagree with the question. Subscribers to opt-in marketing emails fell in the middle.
Twitter user are also more likely to recommend a brand (your business) than Facebook followers. This is supported by other studies as well. As eMarketer notes, however, Twitter users are a smaller base than Facebook. But that doesn’t diminish the fact that when they follow your business on Twitter – they are more interested/engaged than the average user.
Anecdotally I’ve seen with one client that traffic that came from Twitter spent far more time onsite and viewed far more pages. For small business users on Twitter, this is key: who would you rather have, lots of casual “Fans” on Facebook who are more skeptical and not likely to recommend, or a few who are really interested and likely to recommend your business to their friends.
You know the answer.
I'm Todd Hyten and I started my content career as a journalist and later jumped into web marketing with both feet. I like marketing that's direct, effective and efficient, like a good headline on a newspaper story. I also like marketing because it's about connecting interesting ideas to people. The point is, I love this stuff. Located in the Boston area and curious about working with me? Feel free to call: 617.208.8710 
