UnMarketing, 2nd Edition

12Twitter versus Facebook versus LinkedIn

In the original version of UnMarketing, this chapter explained three social media sites—Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (and later, Google+ in the original paperback edition)—all with basic terminology. It was definitely needed at the time, but today it would feel redundant and unnecessary, like explaining what the Internet is. We've decided to take that stuff out in our second edition and assume you all know what a “Friend” or “Like” is, and leave it at that.

Instead, we've broken down social media into three categories: Conversational, Visual, and Dark.

Conversational Social

Conversational social media includes the top sites with which most people have now become familiar: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Facebook

Facebook has become the front page of the Internet for over a billion people daily. Using their EdgeRank algorithm, Facebook decides what's relevant to you and pushes it to the top of your feed. Being seen on Facebook is all about relevancy, and brands work hard or pay to be seen. Every time Facebook makes a change, there is a cyber outroar, a geekalanche if you will, about Facebook dictating what we all should or shouldn't see. Make no mistake: Facebook has to serve relevant content to you to remain at the top of the social media ladder. Without relevance, users ask themselves, “Why are we here?” and stop going.

Facebook is not just a platform anymore; for many, it's the gateway to the Internet. A recent study¹