21 Comments »
Yesterday I began doing some research to determine if there was a shift taking place among top Twitter users and Facebook users given the new Facebook design. I was trying to determine the most effective barometer of user influence across both sites and the only thing I could come up with was a comparison of the top users on each site. After a couple hours I had broken down the top 50 Twitter users and top 50 Facebook public profiles to determine how the two sites stack up against each other.
I’ve embedded a copy of the tables below for your viewing pleasure, followed by a synopsis of a few general conclusions that I’ve come to based on this limited data.
Top Twitter Users
Top Facebook Profiles
What Is This Data A Good Indicator Of?
Honestly this is an extremely limited subset of data from both sites but I think there are some important things to be found from this limited segment. The first thing that can be determined is how large the top Twitter users and Facebook public profiles are relative to their user base. For example, the top Twitter user has over 600,000 users and if we assume Twitter has 10 million global users (8 million in the U.S.), the top user reaches 6 percent of the total user base.
Compare that with Facebook where the top user (Barack Obama) has just under 6 million users which amounts to just over 3.2 percent of the total user base (if we assume Facebook has 185 million users).
Twitter Has Serious Reach Considering Their Size
So the first conclusion is that Twitter has a large reach and their user base is almost twice as active in terms of following the top users. Is the number of people you follow a good indicator of your level of activity? Probably not but I have to make some sort of conclusion here, right? On Twitter, tweets or status updates are the only way to communicate which means that we see much more activity per user.
Compare that with Facebook where activities on other sites, the posting of various forms of media, and the use of applications each create their own feed stories. That means you don’t have to actively update your status on Facebook to be perceived as an active participant. Among brands though, the posting of status updates is the easiest way to reach fans on Facebook and on Twitter.
Twitter And Facebook Are Different Communities
Another takeaway from examining the top Twitter users and public profiles on Facebook is that the communities have different communities. While most Twitter users are on Facebook, most Facebook users are not on Twitter. As such, Facebook’s top public profiles are a better indicator of world wide trends whereas Twitter’s is a better indicator of trends within the Twitter community.
It also appears that the form of communication that users on each site come to expect are completely different. If Facebook users knew that they could communicate directly with Shaquille O’Neal via his Facebook public profile, do you think there would be a bigger following? I do. Right now many of the top celebrities on Facebook have huge followings because there’s a chance for two-way dialogue.
On Facebook, users don’t expect to be able to talk directly with the celebrities and brands. Instead they expect to talk with each other about those brands and individuals. While I’d expect that to change over time, the previous version of fan pages were much more conducive to unidirectional communication.
Facebook Has A Greater Reach Among Twitter Users
As you can tell by looking at the two charts above, having a large number of Twitter followers is a much better indicator that you have a large number of Facebook friends/fans rather than the reverse. With well over 180 million users, Facebook has a much broader reach which explains why the top public profiles are a better indicator of worldwide popularity.
While Twitter currently has a much smaller reach, the site will increasingly become a better barometer of what’s popular in the world. Between Twitter search and the Twitter API, media companies will increasingly turn to the site to get the pulse of global consumers. Facebook is clearly trying to become that center but the battle between the two companies will not be a short one.
Anything Else?
I’ve only grazed the surface of analyzing the two companies. Ultimately more through quantitative analysis would be useful for deriving more substantial conclusions. You could argue that due to the substantially different size in the two sites, it’s extremely difficult to conclude anything from the charts above. Alternatively, there may be some additional insight you have.
What do you think the primary differences are between the two companies? Do you think Facebook’s attempt to compete with Twitter will be successful? What other information do you think can be derived from the charts above?
So Nick, what I can see from this is that the big brands have taken over Twitter. Remember when Scoble and Leo LaPorte were big users? Or Dave Winer? Twitter has gone far beyond the tech community toward the mainstream. But I don’t think it will ever get as big as Facebook, because Facebook is a “real” app, and Twitter is a feature.
Hey Francine,
Thanks for commenting! I definitely agree that big brands have taken over Twitter but I think this is only the beginning of a continuing trend. As for how large Twitter will become, you may be right.
Nick,
What’s the difference between the twitter and MySpace totals.
You’re pretty much comparing apples to oranges here - If memorys serves me right, mySpace was where the brands/celebs/web2.0-b-listers went to “interact” and/or “engage” with their fans.
Same shit, different toilet.
Facebook wins. Again.
Interesting that there are many more news organizations and reporters among the top Twitter users than among top Facebook pages. Twitter more inclined as a news source?
The current problem that Twitter has, is that when an existing Facebook user checks out Twitter (and they will, or may already have done so) Twitter seems too basic and slow. Therefor boring.
However, the persistent or rather, the curious, will do research on how to better utilize the site to find out what all the hub bub is all about. In doing so, those users will most likely find software programs like TweedDeck for example.
Programs like that allow the user to receive updates on replies in real time, reply to other users, and take full advantage of Twitter Search.
I too thought Twitter was quite boring until I found this software. Now I cannot keep up with all the activity. Far more activity than just my few boring friends on Facebook. Not to mention I can talk with Martha Stewart on a daily basis. How cool is that??
We’ll see how it goes. I’m sure Twitter will win this battle! But not so fast
Nice analysis, though I have one little problem with it: your list of top ‘users’ of facebook and twitter does not contain a single real user … they are all product or fan pages.
I know that the new-new downgrade of facebook is blurring the distinction between who is real and who is an advertising front, but I (and hopefully a few other users) do make a difference whether I’m talking to a friend or a publicist …
I would say that Twitter is just getting started. I think it’s grown from something like 950,000 a year ago to about 10,000,000 now. That’s better than Facebook has done (percentage wise) in that same amount of time. Facebook is just the more mature of the two.
I also believe that because of Twitters super simple functionality, we’re going to see many new uses over the coming months. I think what makes Twitter such a powerful form of social media is it’s amazingly basic functionality. We saw MySpace get knocked off it high horse by facebook because of facebook’s cleaner, simpler design and usage.
That’s just my 2 cents. Thanks for that useful insight/stats. Eric
The reason for reach of the top users in Twitter is that they are on a recommended list by Twitter, not because twitter has such a far reach. Facebook doesn’t recommend celebrities like this. They let you choose you friends and family by name.
Twitter is GREAT for connecting with people that you would not normally know in every aspect of life.
Facebook on the other hand I use to connect with a more closer to home group of friends and family, and a few people that are big in social media.
This is a interesting article though, makes you think.
Jorin.
The reason the big brands took over Twitter is that the company handed Twitter to them. If you look at PageRank, a measurement that Google has never gamed the way Twitter has gamed their rank, it’s very common for a blogger to outrank a celebrity. Web juice is different from Ev-juice. I think ultimately this gaming will create a competitor for Twitter, maybe many. It was a huge mistake.
Great compiled info! I think Twitter and Facebook are different sets of audiences and people use them in different ways. Twitter is more to reach out to promote businesses, products, inspiration, etc. and to meet others in similar niche. Facebook is more for keeping in touch with friends and mentioning simple daily activities. That is how I view it and that is how I use both.
I do not know ONE single person on Twitter in real life, where 90% of my ‘friends’ on Facebook are people I have met in real life. My two cents.
Great info - thanks:)
I’ve stopped using Facebook for Twitter and so have many others I know.
i think a big thing to mention is the significance of this information in general. these are two lists of the most popular entities on the largest and the largest growing social networks on the internet!!! i know that this isn’t the focus of this post, but i do think that it’s horribly important. while there are many different ‘friending methods’ it seems reasonable to say that this reflects the interests of the population that are ‘into’ these sites(/have been for awhile).
i dunno. i don’t want to OVERstate it either, but that’s some crazy info there.
Interesting analysis. I find that the two are complimentary. You have to employ different methods of interacting with your friends vs. your followers. Ultimately, in the end it comes down to your ability to connect with people. Can you create meaningful relationships with people? That is the question.
This quick-and-dirty survey has quite a few holes in it. You’re assuming that “top” users are those with the most followers. Then you’re equating twitter followers with facebook fans. Then you’re using “top” users to represent the majority of users. You’re also using “top” users to generalize on use cases. None of these assumptions are valid; all you can really do with this information is make a few broad generalizations about the marketing and branding end of the spectrum.
There are many different use cases for twitter and facebook and most revolve around real individuals consuming or creating information.
If you decide to survey a cross-section of users from each platform, you’ll get much richer information.
Twitter is facebook for Gen-X and people who don’t want to join someone else’s zombie gang.
That’s about as simple as I can sum it up…
I’ll just echo what others have said, it’s like apples (individual Twitterers) vs oranges (fan pages). Following a person on Twitter is a lot more interactive than just signing up as a fan on a Facebook fan page or joining a group.
But even though you’re not comparing similar things, it’s interesting to see that data about Facebook. There are lots of websites that’ll tell you who the top names on Twitter but I wasn’t aware of the “leaders” on Facebook fan pages.
I’d like to know though where you got those figures of 10 million global users of Twitter including 8 million from the U.S. The last numbers I read with any official clout were 6 million users (location not specified) in December 2008. I’ve been trying to get ahold of more recent figures since Twitter has grown so much lately so please reveal your source. Thanks!
I agree with others that facebook and twitter are to different social networks, whether oranges or apples basically they produce the same effect tons of visitors.
Twitter win!
YEAH TWITTER WINS! I just don’t understand how some people think that Twitter is hard, or confusing, or intimidating. LOL, I’m sorry that’s just funny.