Of course, first there was Facebook celebrating over 10 years, and then along came Twitter with its simple idealistic features.

Both were built out of the same philosophy … to be social!

To connect everyone.

Some would argue that it has done the opposite but that’s a whole different story.  Both have grown to be powerful players not only in the electronic social domain but also worldwide in so many different industries and businesses.

These two platforms have infiltrated just about every fabric of society – business, corporate, media, politics and industry.

There isn’t a day where we aren’t, at some point, exposed to either one of these social phenomena be it in directly interacting or through other means in our daily lives.

Those who have resisted the temptation are now almost forced to be involved.  A good friend and business acquaintance refused outright to use either of these platforms, stating it as a ridiculous use of his time and that we would never see himself lowered to such dribble. And then, only 3 months ago, up pops his name on Facebook and he’s now an active user (24/7). We are sure the novelty will wear off.

So what are the differences with these two strong platforms. The best way to explain this is to use a very common analogy …  Facebook is for connecting with the people you went to school with and Twitter is for people you wished you had gone to school with.  A simplistic view, yes, but still one that sums it up.

What does it mean to business using these social forms?

Well, what it does mean straight off, is that all businesses need to be using both forms of  “social”.  So if you haven’t then I suggest you get that sorted first. Because both have their purposes.

Facebook users connect with friends, family, colleagues and other acquaintances. They use the network to share commentary, post interesting content in the form of videos and photos, and engage in activities (like polls or games).

More importantly, most Facebook connections are founded in an offline relationship. This means users tend to have a stronger bond and greater degree of loyalty. Therefore, writing for Facebook usually has more influence.

That’s why in business it is important to form relationships and build trust with the people who are interacting with our business pages. You have to become them, befriend them and be genuinely interested in the lives they lead. That makes the content that you post and share very important because it is the basis of the trust you are building. It is a long and slow process but one that is critical when building the business around this platform.

While offline relationships are possible on Twitter, they aren’t as common. Therefore, the interactions on this social network tend to be less personal.

Twitter is used more as a listening exercise. Users listen in on what the target audience is discussing. That way, they can stay up-to-date on industry trends and give users what they want.

This social network is appealing to users because of its amazing search capabilities and being able to segment content based on topics. (A feature Facebook doesn’t offer). Twitter users can take advantage of hashtags, trending topics, and saved searches.

By taking advantage of these tools, Twitter users have a much larger circle of influence compared to Facebook.

Because both have their different uses, it is important to integrate both into your business social plan.

So what about the other social platforms like Google+, YouTube, instagram, pinterest and LinkedIn, well, there is an old saying “Crawl before you walk”.