Social Media Platforms Bring Home the Gold

The past few weeks have been full of exciting events in the news involving social media. We celebrated Facebook turning the big 10 and the Winter Olympics began in Russia with the controversial Twitter tag #SochiProblems.

Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Christ Hughes founded ‘thefacebook’ in February 2004 exclusively for Harvard students. Today, one out of every 12 people on Earth has a Facebook profile and if it were its own country, it would be the third largest by population!

Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams founded Twitter only two years later with the simple idea of sharing what you’re doing in 140 characters or less. As of January 2014, Twitter has 645,750,000 active users and an average of 58 million tweets per day.

So, how do these two platforms differ? They both serve as a way for people to connect globally; however, one succeeds far more than the other. The revenue for the first three quarters of 2013 for Facebook was $5,287 million and Twitter trailed behind at $422 million. Net income for Facebook during this time was $977 million and Twitter had a loss of -$134. Facebook users spend an average of 22.52 minutes compared with Twitter’s 12.51 minutes.

These statistics indicate any business trying to expand their reach and exposure should first establish and maintain a solid Facebook page. With high social visibility, Facebook allows businesses to tap into potential customers. They are able to read reviews, see recommendations, and purchase products via their website. A Twitter page should follow shortly after as a tool for building traffic and business promotion.

Facebook and Twitter are tools for networking any business to success. So, bake a cake in honor of Facebook’s birthday and tweet at them to show some love.

Photo Credit: Olga Popova / Shutterstock.com