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Benjamin K. from Florida asks: “I have a limited amount of time to spend on social media marketing for my apparel company. If I had to choose, should I spend more time on Twitter or Facebook? Which provides the best ROI from a time perspective?”

This is a great question! Since both Twitter and Facebook are free services, ROI is computed based on time spent as well as opportunity cost (what could have been done with that time). Many businesses are also paying staff or outside support to manage their social media presence using Facebook and Twitter. Both services have received a lot of press, positive and negative, especially in recent days. Facebook is growing into a worldwide phenomenon, effectively linking six degrees of separation together for the first time in history. Twitter has been criticized and raved about equally as much and it’s merits as a business promotional tool still have many confused despite the hype. So what gives?  Which is better?

To start off my answer, let’s first touch up on what these two services provide:

• Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read 140 character messages, known as tweets. Tweets are posted on the author’s profile page and are delivered the the author’s subscribers, known as followers.
• Facebook is a social networking site with over 250 million users worldwide. Users can create profiles and and send messages to friends. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school and region.

In my opinion, Twitter is more quantity-driven (it’s primarily about the number of tweets and followers a user has) while Facebook is more quality-driven (it’s primarily about connecting people that already know each other through two way and public conversation and the sharing of content like photos, videos, links, notes, etc…).

Time spent on Twitter would be spent creating a profile, tweeting messages from your Blackberry or computer, following other users, adding your profile to directories, promoting your tweets, making lists of users, attempting to consistently stay relevant, interesting and/or useful with your tweets (no easy task), etc..

Time spent on Facebook would be spent creating a profile, adding friends, posting content (photos, videos, notes, polls, discussion board topics, pages), managing wall posts by fans, managing ad campaigns, viewing fan page statistics, creating and/or promoting Facebook apps for your band, post on other’s walls, etc…

Facebook is usually a more personal medium while Twitter can be more ambiguous (or less, depending on what’s being tweeted).  If you’re a business or consultant, the additional layers of content and tools you can utilize with Facebook may allow you to better brand your product and more persuasively and visually communicate with your target audience.  Twitter, on the other hand, may be a better customer service tool (customers tweeting issues and receiving quick feedback) for easy two-way communication.

The Conclusion: Facebook wins!

Facebook currently provides more tools for businesses and brands to promote themselves in the way of tailored fan pages and profiles, pay-per-click advertising and the Facebook developer platform.  It also currently has the biggest user base (250 million+).  In my opinion, it’s also easier to use.  It’s nearly just as portable as Twitter (it can be accessed and managed on most cell phones).  It allows you to leverage yourself (through a personal profile) as well as your brand (through a fan page or business profile).  It has a great, cost-effective advertising system offering pay-per-click marketing that is highly targeted.  Facebook provides more statistics for businesses and brands to manage their efforts as well. If you have less time, Facebook can be more useful as in my opinion it is easier and more engaging to connect more with your existing network via Facebook than Twitter.  Plus, it is very likely that more of your existing friends, family and customers will be on Facebook than Twitter.  This is why for initially building your social media presence, Facebook is a good place to start and Twitter is a good place to expand to.  I think Facebook should be the backbone of your social media presence and Twitter your customer service and branding “skin”.

Twitter’s value shouldn’t be diminished because I’m choosing Facebook over it in this post. Twitter is a great tool and one of the most interesting and hyped sites ever made.  It’s helped Iranians organize rallies and President Obama raise money. But Twitter tends to work faster and better for established brands and personalities, not new wannabes.  If you’re a new company or have a new product, you have to start from scratch without name recognition, making your results slower to come by than, say, Ashton Kutcher or Coca-Cola would experience.  Facebook’s a bit more turnkey and provides more value quicker for the average company.  Too many small businesses and consultants brag about thousands of Twitter followers, but they don’t know any of them that well and most are junk or not in their target market.  Better to have a few hundred high quality customers, friends, family, and prospects than a few thousand random people that you don’t know and that doesn’t care about you.

I also think guys like Seth Guru are on to something when they limit the number of social media channels they utilize.  Seth Godin, a prolific marketing and web author,  has written previously about why he has limited his social media usage to one or two services.  The simple adage “jack of all trades, master of none” rings true in social media.  Try to do it all and you may end up simply managing a bunch of accounts instead of successfully building community and engagement with one consistent audience from your main social media presence.  Limiting your time to one or two main services doesn’t necessarily limit your reach, it can make your more effective!

The good news: you can use Twitter without using Twitter

If you are one of those people who doesn’t have the time (or willingness) to manage multiple social media profiles, don’t fret!  You don’t have to miss out on Twitter.  Turns out, you can tweet without tweeting!

You can (and should) still use Twitter even if you only have enough time for Facebook.  There are many free tools and websites that offer ways of hooking up your Twitter account with your Facebook account.  For instance, you can set it up so that your status updates on Facebook in addition to your notes and wall posts are automatically tweeted to your Twitter profile!  The reverse is also possible, where your tweets are sent to Facebook for promotion with your network there.  This makes it easy to post your content and messaging at one site and yet communicate with several.

- @RobbyBerthume