Feb
13
3 Reasons Integrating Twitter and Facebook is a Bad Idea
There are a lot of online resources going into details about how to integrate your Twitter and Facebook accounts, but none of them mentions that it might not be the right solution, especially for a business.
Turning tweets into status updates for Facebook (or any other social network for that matter) and vice versa is likely to harm your online presence. Why? Here are a couple of reasons:
1. Different medium = different audience. Do the same people follow you on Twitter and Facebook? Probably not, because people like to consume information in different ways. Moreover, most of us simply don’t have enough hours in the day to keep up with multiple networks. This means that those who like to interact with you on Facebook won’t necessarily want to read your Twitter feed. And catering to your audience is a must in social media marketing.
2. Different medium = different content. Content is king. Your social media followers expect unique content from each medium. This is especially true for those who do follow you on multiple networks. Unique content is your way of rewarding your fans and giving them an incentive to keep in touch. Make your fans feel like they are getting insider information and deals exclusive to this medium only. Cross-posting your Twitter feed to your Facebook wall is clearly not the way to go.
3. Different medium = different communication styles.
Format. Facebook gives you more opportunities than Twitter for creating engaging content: posts that generate likes, shares and comments. That’s why it’s common on Facebook to ask questions, post pictures, initiate polls and encourage discussions. Twitter, on the other hand, is mostly for sharing timely info in a form of links and short messages. The point is that your Facebook fans won’t care much for 140-characters status updates packed with @s and #s.
Timing. Twitter is a lot more fast-paced than Facebook. It is not uncommon for someone to tweet every hour or even every 30 minutes. Now imagine what happens when you integrate your Twitter with your Facebook: you fans’ news feeds get flooded with your tweets. No one likes a business dominating their newsfeed, so you’ll most likely get blocked or even “unliked.”
Do you see why sharing the same exact content in the same format could be a bad idea? Although it may seem like it will maximize your social media impact by spreading your tweeted links to more people, it won’t.
Not only it communicates that you don’t care about your audience and their preferences, it frames you as a lazy marketer who is looking for an easy way to do things. Social media is not about broadcasting your messages to as many people as possible; it’s about engaging in conversations and building relationships.
