If you’re wondering which form of social media is most effective you might have already guessed Facebook, but by how much? A new report by eMarketer finds that adults in the U.S. “with internet access use Facebook at least once a month.” Also, approximately 42.3% of the full population of the United States used the site in the last 30 days.
Twitter on the other hand would be considered the neglected child if the two were brothers. Twitter’s penetration rate is merely “7% of the total population and 9% of the Internet-using population.” Does this mean to stop using Twitter for your business? No. However, it does suggest that if you have to choose between the two, Facebook may be the better choice as far as reach.
Late in 2010, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg publicized that Facebook had around 250 million daily users and nearly a half billion user base. He pointed out that the attractiveness of Facebook is in its inherent ability to integrate all of its products – Photos, Places, Groups, and Messages – in a social manner.
The problem with Twitter is that only “21% of its registered users are actually active.” This follows the common 80/20 rule. 20% of its users account for 80% of its activity. The actual statistic in the report: 22.5% of users are responsible for 90% of all tweets. It is important to note however that Twitter has been growing substantially over the last few years. The number of users compared to Facebook may be small, but the growth has been steady. So which social media do you prefer?
Jason T. Coon
