Facebook vs. Twitter? For Gen Y, No Contest.
Brands and marketers who got all excited about using Twitter as a tool for reaching that 18-24 demographic may be sorely disappointed by a recent study that shows just 29% of young'uns on Twitter follow companies; most are interested in following their friends, and celebrities. (In that order, thank god.)
That is, if they're even on Twitter. Just 2 in 10 in that age group use it, compared to 9.9 out of 10 that have profiles on social networks, according to the Participatory Media Network study. Wait, 0.1 of a person? Does that mean there's three-quarters of a femur out there, floating around, without a requisite 'casual sexy' profile picture, eclectic-yet-mainstream musical tastes, and 'smart' literary quote with which to identify itself to its 700 friends? God forbid.
Michael Della Penna of PMN called it a "glass half full" scenario. "Clearly we're only touching the surface of its potential as a marketing vehicle," he says. "It's clear that Gen Y has an appetite for social networking, but still hasn't fully embraced micro-blogging. There is a tremendous opportunity now for marketers to develop strategies to get this important group active on Twitter too."
Yes, clearly. Let's keep telling ourselves that. And let's also keep them as two separate entities, shall we? Because that doesn't make sense – integrating the less popular medium into the one that the group is already gaga over. Ga. ga.
By the way – funny that a search for "facebook twitter," or vice versa, brings up Twitter's Facebook page well before Facebook's Twitter account. Did that just make you dizzy?
