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Facebook vs. Twitter: What's the difference anyway?

Addison

Auror
In the recent time, and that to follow, as I wait to hear back on job interviews, my step-father has taken it up on himself to become my manager and head of marketing. He's been spurring me to get a platform going, even as far as to go on both Twitter and Facebook. So here's the questions:

What does each site serve? What does Twitter do/provide that Facebook doesn't and vice-versa?

Overall, what's the difference? And which would you suggest as a starting point? My aunt, who is last generation, posed an idea that one site could promote the story and the other could promote me, as the author. Would that work?

So, Twitter? Facebook? Both? Difference?
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
You have some work to do. *You* are the one who is going to have to be present on both these platforms. That means *you* are the one who needs to have a sense of the nature of each. It's like getting dressed for a party and asking someone else what to wear. You're the one who's going to have to be mixing.

I would welcome the step-father's technical expertise. For example, you might wonder about all those hashtags on Twitter, or he might advise you how to use a tiny url. On Facebook, you may not know the difference between a feed and a page.

But you and only you will know how actually to talk in either place. You and only you will need to have something to say. And the only way to do that is to join those communities and be part of them. And then you'll be able to answer for yourself the questions you have raised. Because the real question is not what they do in general; it's what each does for you in particular.
 
C

Chessie

Guest
Hey Addison. I haven't used FB as a platform yet (because using it for personal reasons is difficult enough for me), but a lot of authors seem to have a fine go at it. There's more flexibility, meaning no word count restriction like there is with Twitter when you make a post.

Twitter is short and sweet. I love Twitter. I've got some interesting people on my follows/followers that are into the same nerdy things I love. It's been my experience that it doesn't work real well with selling books per say, but I'm sure other authors have had different experiences.

Authors appear to have more success on FB far as selling their work goes through FB adds and groups you can join in. This is one reason why I eventually want to get an account for my pen name, but been too lazy. -_- Facebook is perhaps the more useful of the two, where you can have a page for your work/author name and promote it whereas with Twitter, that is discouraged. However, you can still put links to your website, etc on your Twitter account so if people find your posts interesting they can look you up that way.

Now, far as which one is better for you per say? Only you can answer that question. I'll disagree with Skip here and say that it's fine for your stepdad to do your marketing so long as he's got a clear understanding of the target audience you aim to reach, along with how to market to that audience without seeming pushy. Honestly? I'd have him set up an account on both sites and go from there.

Just be aware that it takes time to get footing on social media sites, but it's a good way to build an e-mail list which should be your #1 priority as an author. The wider stretch you have on social sites, the better. You want your name everywhere you can get it, if for the simple reason that it takes time to build names and gain a reputation so the sooner you start on this, the better.

One last thing, with Twitter, I just looked up accounts of people who are into the same things I am, like writing fantasy, Dungeons & Dragons, mythology, etc. Although I have a lot of other authors on there, I also have regular people who are in my target audience but I don't market to them. Posting pictures of things you find interesting, or quotes, etc is a good way to go about it on Twitter. Good luck. :)
 

MineOwnKing

Maester
Facebook is better for friends and family.

Twitter is better for building a network of support to promote your books.

I came very late to Facebook and I opened my Twitter account the same day.

Facebook is really clunky and outdated. I spend zero time on Facebook. As far as book promotion, I find it to be a dead end.

Twitter is addictive.

Love it.

Tweeting keeps me in the loop with my peers.
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
I did a post on this on the Mythic Scribes blog a long while back. It's here:

How To Market Your Self-Published Book

In a nutshell, facebook and twitter are just social networking tools. You don't typically use them to generate original content but to share the content that you generate elsewhere.

Facebook is better for sales and marketing. Twitter is better at connecting with others who can help you in the long run.

But before you can really use them, you need an actual outlet. You need to find a place on the web that will let you do your best to say or post interesting things. In written form, that's typically a blog. You'd make something interesting on a blog and then link to it in your Facebook and Twitter accounts.

On Facebook, you should also share a handful of other super-interesting things that would also be of interest to people reading your work. On Twitter, you then look for interesting people, follow and retweet them, and hope that eventually they will do the same for you. It helps if you specifically reach out to people, which is a skill all its own.

Oh, and if you're selling a book, the fixed-portions of your blog website double as a sales page, and you need to design them accordingly.

But I firmly believe that going it alone with your own blog is a waste of time. The typical guideline is that, whatever you're doing on the web, it takes about a year to peak. If you post once a week on your blog and post it on FB/Twitter, it takes a year to see how far that'll get you. Which probably isn't far at all. To run a successful website, or build an audience, you need to keep finding ways to escalate your activities. If you go it alone, you won't be able to.

So, yes, get twitter, set up a facebook author account, do the social marketing thing. But the problem you need to solve is creating the content that you're pushing through these accounts. Facebook and twitter are easy once you have that.

I mean, 90% of marketing is just having something to say.
 
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Russ

Istar
I think Devor's comments both in the post above and in his earlier featured article have great guidance for you.

I would like to reinforce them and add to them for you, and tell you why.

At the moment I am in the process of building the marketing campaign for my wife's first book, and in upgrading the marketing for the law firm I work at. So over the last few months I have spent a ton of time dealing with experts in marketing on the internet and experts on marketing and promoting books. When it comes to FaceBook and Twitter I know very little, but I will pass along what they have told me.

Firstly, make sure your website is top notch. People today are very internet savy and know a good site from a bad one. It is your "face" on the internet, so don't scrimp or compromise on it and keep it up to date. Make it something you are really proud of.

We too have been told by multiple people that FB is a far better tool for marketing and sales than is Twitter. You will need to know the difference between a personal page and an author page (we didn't but we do now) and you will want to use an author page for your marketing purposes. Set yourself goals for how many people you want to like your page. We have developed target goals for my wife's number of likes or followers on FB and for our firm. Our goals have been developed with certain impacts in mind, but even just developing the goals virtually arbitrarily can keep you engaged on working on them which is a positive thing. Think of keeping your FB account up to date as part of your job that you should not neglect unless you absolutely have to.

Devor is dead right about having something to say that is not just selling your book or talking about your book. You need content on your site/blog/FB that is not all about you. You want content that will engage, entertain and educate your audience about things that matter to them. For instance on our firm FB page you will find articles about safe winter driving, or the impact of new laws on people's day to day lives and almost nothing about us or our services.

Twitter I understand requires a different approach. While your account will be useful to you in some degree for networking etc, when it comes to selling your book, it will be other people's accounts that make all the difference. To maximize the value of Twitter you need to identify influencers in that realm (ie people with many, many followers) who have an interest in your field and find ways to get them tweeting about you. That requires some creativity and people skills but is also worth the investment.

Good luck on your publishing and marketing journey.
 
C

Chessie

Guest
Addison, not sure if you're a visual person but have you also considered Pinterest or Instagram? I use Pinterest to help me visualize possible scenes and book covers. You can create boards with lovely pictures and interact with other people that have your similar interests. Something else for you to consider. :)
 

MineOwnKing

Maester
It's important to remember that to get your author page noticed on Facebook you will be required to run an ad campaign.

$300.00 should get you started.

After about 6 weeks on Twitter and Facebook, I have 13 followers on my Facebook author page vs 85 on Twitter.

If just one of my Twitter followers with say: 250,000 followers happens to retweet about one of my books, that's a potential free advertisement that can quickly snowball into a million views for free.

You can run Twitter ad campaigns too but I think for a newbie writer it's better just to build up a network of writer/readers with similar interests.

It takes time.

Authors that tweet nonstop ads about their books are just annoying and quickly get muted.

I follow only the people I find interesting, not just authors.

Fantasy bloggers, reviewers, bibliophiles, artists, gamers, etc......
 
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