Twitter -vs- Facebook - Qual O Melhor Para Os Músicos?

Twitter -vs- Facebook - What’s a better site for musicians?

As a social media manager who represents numerous band and solo artists, I spent a countless amount of time working and playing on Facebook, Twitter, and the many other social media platforms which exist in the online landscape. Over the years, I have gained a unique insight into the various platforms out there in the context of music marketing.

So which one is the best for artists trying to promote their music?

In this article I will focus on comparing the two most popular and well known social media site, Facebook and Twitter. While both platforms have their own strengths and weaknesses, when it comes to marketing your music, one of them clearly stands out. That platform is Twitter.

Let me share with you some of the reasons I have found Twitter to be far superior

than Facebook when it comes to music marketing.

1. The ability to reach a wider audience - When it comes to reach, there is one important difference between Twitter and Facebook - Facebook limits the reach of your posts, Twitter does not.

Are you familiar with the Facebook algorithm called Edgerank?

What Edgerank does is it assigns a rank to each Facebook action that occurs (updates, comments, likes, shares, etc). It tries to ensure that only the most relevant and engaging content will be seen be your friends, fans, and subscribers - This normally works out to about 1% of your target audience. This helps to keep your Home Feed clean and relevant, but more importantly it gives Facebook the ability to tax you to reach the rest of your audience.

Twitter on the other hand, has no such limitations. Each time you send out a tweet, your post will be seen by everyone of your followers viewing their Twitter feed at that moment or by looking back at their feed retrospectively. Also, each time you get retweeted,  your reach grows further to include all the followers of the person who retweeted your post.

On Facebook, recieving a like, comment, or share on your post only means that a few more of your friends and a handful of your engagers friends will ever see the post.

So having 10,000 “likes” on Facebook really only means that about 100 of your fans on average are going to see your posts. 10,000 followers on Twitter means that potentially all 10,000 fans are reading each tweet. Now that’s reach!

2. Fan engagement - From my experience in working with Social Media over the years, Twitter is by far the more engaged platform of the two. In my opinion, Twitter is just a far more interactive and personal experience.

Whereas Facebook is great great way to mark important milestones in your musical journey, Twitter is more of a real-time journal documenting the day to day struggles and triumphs in the life of a hungry musician. The kind of insight that allows your fans to know you, not only as an artist, but as a person.

When it comes to marketing your music, the aim is to not simply to build your fanbase. You get the best value for your efforts by building an interpersonal relationship with each one of your fans. Twitter, way more than Facebook, encourages and fosters that one-on-one relationship. When you follow someone on Twitter you subscribing to every dirty little detail of their life. I don’t know about you, but when I find an artist whose music really resonates with me I want to know as much as I possibly can about them. Twitter allows for this in ways Facebook can only wish for. When it comes to fan engagement, Facebook only provides a light snack between meals, whereas Twitter rolls out an entire 5 course meal.

3. Facebook costs more - Let’s start with Facebook. Love it or hate it, Facebook is a staggeringly successful business. In the last 3 to 4 years Facebook has become more money driven than ever (I’m sure you’ve noticed the ever increasing amount of ads that have been showing up in your beloved newsfeed).

Let’s say you want to grow your audience on Facebook. You’ll need to first get to know your way around the Facebook advertising platform, then spend some time writing and setting up some enticing ads to catch the attention of potential fans. Next it’s time to fork out some cash (anywhere from 50 cents up to 2 bucks) to convert to coveted eyeballs that every marketer is fighting for into fans. But that’s not all. After spending a few hundred dollars building up a nice little Facebook fanbase, you now find out that only a measly 1% will see each post on average.

So how do you get the rest of them?

You got it - by promoting your post. A privilege that will cost you no less than 5 bucks a pop.

Cost is the number one reason why most music marketing experts love and swear by Twitter. Twitter all you to promote your music and grow your fanbase year round without spending a dime.

Now combine this with some relatively (or free)  inexpensive third party twitter tools and a good understanding of your target audience, and this form of promotion not only costs next to nothing, it has the ability to drives waves of new fans to your music. All at little or no cost.

Review

Twitter is a platform built around conversation. And as an artist looking to grow your audience and connect with like minded individuals, the world is truly yours for the taking. You can not only find people based on what they are currently talking about, but also what kind of music they are into - something easily determined by which artists and accounts a particular user is following. On Facebook the best I can do is to pay to run ads targeting people who “like” a particular page or interest.