Twitter and Facebook Better for Branding than LinkedIn?

Believe it or not, more people think Twitter is more useful for business than LinkedIn, the business networking site.

Twitter? The site filled with “make money fast” spammers, people tweeting about watching Lost, and Ashton Kutcher racking up 2 million visitors and then threatening to quit? THAT Twitter?

Yah, you betcha.

Someone on LinkedIn wanted to find out which of the big social media applications were important for brands to master. And surprisingly, or maybe not so much, most business people selected Twitter at 30%, Facebook at 26% was second, followed by LinkedIn (22%), and then the iPhone(?) with 18%.

Think about it: the iPhone not being a social media app notwithstanding, think about where most branding is going to take place.

• LinkedIn is for business-to-business networking. Unless you’re promoting a B2B brand (like a copywriting service), you won’t get very far trying to market on LinkedIn.
• Facebook is ideally suited for meeting old friends from high school, keeping in touch with new friends from social networking groups, getting fans for your restaurant’s, band’s, or cause’s page, or creating your own page for your restaurant, band, or cause.
• The iPhone still isn’t a social media app. It’s just a really cool cell phone.
• Twitter is going to be your best bet. It’s a way to communicate quickly with people who are following you. And presumably they’re following you because they like you.

Branding is basically establishing an emotional connection between your company or product and your customer. One of the best places to do that is first by going to where your customers are. And they’re on Facebook and Twitter. They’re not on LinkedIn, and they’re not on iPhone.

So what has the LinkedIn Branding Poll found so far? Who likes Twitter? According to ReadWriteWeb:

1. Most appreciative of Twitter: Business owners, C-Level or VPs. People at large- or medium-sized companies. People doing business development, marketing or creative work.
2. Least appreciative of Twitter: Non-managers. People at very large or small businesses. Consultants, Salespeople and Engineers.
3. Most appreciative of LinkedIn: C-level and non-managers. At small- or medium-sized businesses. Doing consulting or sales.
4. Least appreciative of LinkedIn: Owners and managers. At large or enterprise companies. In creative or marketing departments.

So who’s using Twitter? Biz dev, marketing, and creative types. The same ones not using LinkedIn for marketing.

The bigger question for the unnamed LinkedIn pollster is are our customers using Twitter? Are they on social media at all? Can we reach them with social media.

Something tells me it’s going to take a bigger poll to find that out.

Hat tip to Kyle Lacy for the article.

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