Facebook vs Twitter Difference

Do you know the 1 big difference between Facebook vs. Twitter?

When I’m training clients and friends on the differences between Twitter and Facebook, there is 1 important difference between the two tools that I underscore: the feeds: real-time (twitter) vs. delayed + filtered (facebook).

Understand how the feed works.

Facebook and Twitter’s feeds may look similar- but they’re very different. If you want to best leverage the “how” and “when” to use the channel(s), you must first understand how each are presented and read/consumed by its users (the context). When you look “under the hood”, you’ll see the data is organized very differently between Facebook vs. Twitter.

Delayed + Filtered (Facebook)

You may not realize it, but there’s logic behind your Facebook News Feed. What you see on your Facebook homepage is based on an algorithm (referred to as “Edge Rank“) that determines what you see from your friends and pages. This is a smart filter- so you only see relevent, valuable content from your friends based interactions (# views, likes, comments, shared). Furthermore, your News Feed has a “freshness” delay to what content to show you. Meaning, you are not seeing every up-to-the-minute updates from friends and pages. Instead, you’re viewing the results of a highly complex equation- that’s delayed and filtered just for you. It’s a custom experience. And you can bet Zucky designed (and continues to refine it) Facebook’s algorithms to best help users weed through the mess of seeing every action users are taking.

Real-Time (Twitter)

Your Twitter feed is like a never stopping, flowing river, with snippets of 140 characters of text and links. It’s unfiltered and raw. Meaning, the moment any of whom you’re following updates on Twitter, you see it in your Timeline. It’s as simple as that.

So what should you do?

Twitter is a channel in which content moves fast. Minutes, not hours (and it moves fast in everyone’s feed, no matter the device they’re using). The speed and velocity is so quick- a study found the average lifespan of a Tweet is only 1 hour. The content and updates you post in this channel are very disposable. And I’m a firm believer that no one reads all your tweets. (so get over yourself).   But it also means Twitter is a great communication channels for live events and commentary about things happening right now. For example, you could ask your friends and followers what was the song just sung on American Idol? Or complain about the bad foul in the NBA Finals on the basketball game you’re watching. Tools like Facebook and Google aren’t best designed to help you with answers to these types of real-time questions.
Facebook is different. There is a much longer expiration date for content on Facebook. It’s more likely to “stick” to friends’ News Feeds longer (hours). Look at your own News Feed. When you scan it top to bottom, what do you see? If you look closely, there are time stamps ranging from “15 minutes ago” all the way to “18 hours ago”. This means, when you create and share content- understand the Facebook channel has a longer shelf-life.
It’s important to understand that users consume and view Twitter in real-time vs. Facebook, which is delayed and filtered. This context provides important considerations for [what] you should share and [how] you do it. Knowing this information, informs how you craft relevant, valuable content, and message it appropriately in each channel.