Why You Should Be On Twitter

I have a daily routine of sorts. Upon waking up, I’ll spend at least a few minutes perusing Twitter (along with a few other sites) to see if there’s anything important I may have missed while asleep. Occasionally, I’ll find something that interests me, picking it up to read, share, or write about. It’s safe to say that, although it’s certainly not my primary source of news and information, Twitter certainly ranks in the top five.

I’m certainly not alone in that.

You’ll be hard pressed to find anyone willing to argue that you shouldn’t be on Facebook. With well over 800 million users worldwide, it’s one of the largest communications platforms in the world. It’s effectively the king of the social network—most businesses are guaranteed to find at least a few interested consumers using the platform.

I’m here to argue that Twitter is just as important as Facebook—perhaps even more so in terms of marketing. It’s a strange concept, isn’t it? I can’t just leave such a statement hanging in the air. It won’t be a terribly easy task; I’ve never been fond of generalizations.

Facebook and Twitter are two very different beasts. On Facebook, you have a rich media experience. You’ve got people sharing their life stories and personal details. You’ve millions of people using the network exclusively to communicate. It’s cluttered with games, advertisements, pictures, groups, and noise. People more often than not use Facebook to keep themselves abreast of what’s going on in their social lives.

Twitter, meanwhile, is simpler. It’s sleeker, less personal, and as anonymous as its users wish for it to be. Compared to Facebook, Twitter profiles are Spartan, and games and advertisements are functionally non-existent. There is little to separate users from the tweets of those they’ve chosen to follow. Further, the content on Twitter tends to be far more streamlined, far more easily consumed and disseminated.

This makes Twitter an ideal platform for businesses. Tweets are easy and quick—they’re the perfect vessel for event or brand updates. I’d even go so far as to say the social network almost functions as something of a news ticker for many of the brands that use it; many of the biggest stories in tech found their origins in a tweet by an organization or an industry expert.

This is in large part due to the fact that Twitter makes it easy to provide and distribute information. While Facebook has more of a focus on friend-to-friend communication, Twitter is a public platform. Privacy settings notwithstanding, anyone can communicate with anyone; any user is capable of sharing a tweet from or speaking with any other user through the platform.

This has several effects. First, the direct dialogue between representative and consumer allows a consumer to put a human face on a brand, making them likelier to consider that brand favorably in the future. Second, through the use of Twitter’s search function it’s easy to get your Tweets out to users who might be interested in your organization (or to find out who’s been buzzing about it). Lastly, it allows you to quickly and easily provide interested consumers with whatever information they might desire.

I said in a previous piece that the best event planners are born storytellers, men and women who readily let their personality shine through as they weave riveting tales about their respective brands. Those storytellers, however, are nothing without platform in which they can operate: Twitter is that platform.

That said, Twitter should rarely be used exclusively. Facebook’s still the largest social network in the world, after all, and you’re going to need some sort of information hub for both your events and your brand. Think of it simply as another tool in your toolkit—one that you ignore only at your own peril.

New to Twitter? Follow @tweetwall!