Exposed: Facebook Sends More Traffic Than Twitter
Posted December 22, 2008 in Marketing 37 Comments »
Are you a freelancer, blogger or business owner with a website? Do you want to get more traffic?
This article will compare the traffic sent by Facebook VS the traffic sent by Twitter, and suggest some ideas that you may want to invest in — like building up your Twitter and Facebook profiles.
You may be surprised to know that Facebook sends more traffic (& comments) than Twitter, but here is the big crunch… You only need 1/3 of the ‘friends’ on Facebook than you do on Twitter to get the same amount of traffic.
Let me give you the findings from my own blog, Just Creative Design… I have 3400+ friends on Twitter & only 980+ friends on Facebook yet I still get more traffic from Facebook than Twitter. Go figure.
Here is a screenshot from my website stats by Google Analytics to prove it, highlighted in red. You may also be interested to know that Facebook is in my top 10 referring sites.
Twitter Traffic
Facebook Traffic
How to get more traffic from Twitter:
Set up automatic Twitter posts
For my blog / website I use the CMS (Content Management System) called Wordpress and every time I write a new blog post I have set it up to automatically send a Twitter message out to all of my followers.
I have done this by using the Wordpress Plugin called Twitter Updater. For those who do not use Wordpress you can Twitter Feed or if all else fails, manually Tweet. There may be other alternatives for auto tweets out there so if you do know please leave a link in the comments.
From these automatic Twitter posts I get a few hundred visits to each article over the space of about two days. I may also do 1 or 2 more manual tweets at different intervals for those people in different time zones.
Preschedule tweets
On that note, you should also know about the tool called TweetLater which allows you to pre schedule Twitter posts in advance. Very handy.
Self promote
In short, getting traffic from Twitter is based on how much your promote your article (be careful not to spam) and the quality of your followers… are they going to retweet your tweet? I suggest you check out the Ultimate Twitter Guide.
Do to others as you would like done to you
I always keep this in mind… do to others as you would like done to you because what goes around comes around.
How to get more traffic from Facebook:
Set up automatic Twitter to Facebook Status updates
Getting traffic from Facebook is directly linked to how you use Twitter. This is because what you write on Twitter automatically gets sent straight to your Facebook status (well after you set it up).
To automatically get your Tweets sent to Facebook please follow this short tutorial on how to set this up – it will take a whole of 4 minutes to set up.
After you have sent this up, every time you Tweet, all of your Facebook friends will also receive your messages which is handy because not everyone uses Twitter. You would also be surprised to know that more people reply on Facebook than on Twitter, ie. when you ask a question or want feedback on something, based on percentages, Facebook will yield better results.
Set up automatic import of blog notes
Did you know that you can set up your blog posts to be automatically updated on your Facebook profile as ‘notes’. This means that every time you write a new blog post, it will come up in peoples profile timelines & notifications.
To set it up automatic note imports just go here and set up your blog feed to be imported. To see my notes in action click here.
Set up a Facebook group for your website / blog
You know those annoying invites you get on your Facebook profile asking you to join another pointless group? Well you can use this to your advantage… Set up your own Group or fan club for your website. It really does drive traffic!
One of the major benefits of having a Facebook group for your website is the ability to mass message all members with a click of the button. Another benefit is that your group and brand will be displayed on every members profile which means even more exposure for your blog.
For an example of a Facebook Group, check out my Facebook Group for Just Creative Design.
To Do Now
- Automate your blog posts to be sent to Twitter. Install Twitter Updater or set up Twitter Feed.
- Pre schecdule Tweets using the service TweetLater.
- Set up Twitter to Facebook Status updates for automatic Twitter / Facebook integration. Tutorial here.
- Set up automatic import of blog notes in Facebook so your blog posts go into your friends feeds. Set up On Facebook.
- Create a Facebook group for your website / blog for great exposure & easy mass messaging.
- Build Up Your Twitter & Facebook Profiles
Obviously the information I have given you is directly related to how many followers / friends you have and how strong your profile is so I recommend you to check out this Ultimate Twitter Guide or this guide on how to get more Twitter followers – the same rules will generally apply to Facebook. - Add me (Jacob Cass) on Twitter, Facebook & Join the Just Creative Design Facebook Group. Also add Freelance Folder on Twitter.
What other tips have you got for getting Twitter or Facebook traffic? Are you surprised by the results? What are your experiences with Twitter & Facebook?
About the author: Jacob Cass is a 21 year old designer from Sydney, Australia, who freelances under his business Just Creative Design which doubles as a wildly popular design blog. Jacob also judges logos for the Logo of the Day website and runs the Logo Designer Blog - a blog dedicated entirely to branding & logo design. Jacob’s talent has brought him numerous international awards and his work has been published in books worldwide. Jacob is also in the process of writing his own book focused on logo design.
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37 Comments
Sandi
December 22nd, 2008 at 11:33 amJacob,
I’m not sure that I agree, at least in terms of the results I’m seeing in my stats. Granted, I have only recently started actively using Twitter and Facebook for my business, but my stats are showing just the opposite. I see a 2-1 ratio in terms of site visitors from Twitter vs. site visitors from Facebook.
However, my traffic from Facebook has seen a higher conversion in terms of requests for consults.
Interesting post! I use many of the tools you mentioned, and have heard of the others. I just haven’t had the time to implement them. Guess I know what’s on my to-do list for today. :)
Melek
December 22nd, 2008 at 11:54 amthanks for the info on all the automation! i didnt know you could do so much automatically. i’ll definitely check it out.
Kim Woodbridge
December 22nd, 2008 at 12:14 pmHmm … I was planning on disagreeing about Facebook sending more traffic than Twitter but decided to check my stats first. I get more visitors from Twitter but have 10 times as many followers. I think I need to spend more time on my Facebook strategy.
I’m not a big fan of the automated posts tweets – I prefer when they are done manually. But it seems that system is working out well for you.
Thanks!
Blog Expert
December 22nd, 2008 at 12:27 pmWow! I am still shocked by this. And people are spending all this time on Twitter.
Franklin Bishop
December 22nd, 2008 at 12:28 pmSuprised by this one.
Sandi
December 22nd, 2008 at 12:28 pm@Kim Woodbridge
I have to agree in theory that manual tweets are more “personal.” However, the reality is that when you have 15 gagillion things on your to-do list each day just to keep your business running, it’s not always practical to manually tweet your new blog posts. It becomes one more thing you have to remember to do.
One of the things I tell clients on a regular basis is to automate as much as possible (on and offline), especially if you’re a solopreneur, trying to do it all yourself. The less mental debris you have by way of “need to remember to…” to more time you have to focus on the core aspects of your business – like client work, creating those blog posts, etc.
In a perfect world, we would be able to do everything we do and do it all with personal attention. However, the reality is that once you have a full client roster AND marketing activities AND strategizing AND a personal life, you realize that some things just have to be made to take care of themselves so you can retain a little sanity. Even if its just tiny, miniscule things like automatic blog tweets.
dandellion
December 22nd, 2008 at 2:15 pmI cannot agree. Twitter sends me more than FaceBook… and Plurk sends even more than Twitter. It’s not the particular network as much the way you use it, quality of contacts on each (are they just passive contacts or are they really follow what you broadcast), etc…
Andy Beard
December 22nd, 2008 at 2:49 pmOther than comparing apples and oranges, this article assumes that referrals from a closed environment such as Facebook, compared to an open platform such as Twitter with a multitude of 3rd party apps can be tracked in a conventional manner.
Many of the URL shortening services have tracking, but are prone to massive errors.
The only effective way, though still prone to errors, is to use different landing pages.
crazywabbit
December 22nd, 2008 at 6:01 pmIt is traffic from graphic designers and not potential clients. We spend too much time in our own circle of friends who are of the same profession.
Meadow DeVor
December 22nd, 2008 at 9:48 pmThanks so much for this post. I think it’s all in the way that you use Facebook v. Twitter. I get a lot of ‘friend’ traffic from FB and more viable client traffic from Twitter.
Thank you SO MUCH for all the valuable Twitter info. I added the WP plugin – can’t tell you how valuable that is!
Thank you for taking your time to save me mine.
Meadow DeVor
http://www.meadowdevor.com
Jacob Cass
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:39 pmTo All,
I should have mentioned that I have two FaceBook accounts… one personal and one business.
Sandi,
In terms of your results, were you implementing all of the strategies I mentioned above? In terms of getting jobs from FaceBook and Twitter, I have only received 2 leads from Twitter and have received one job from FaceBook.
Melek, Meadow Devor,
You’re welcome!
Kim,
I was also surprised by the stats, however I have been focusing some effort on Facebook also as you can see my my friend numbers. But it is also interesting to note I have a few hundred more fans in my group than I have friends.
Like Kim said, automated tweets are much more time saving, plus based on me tracking people unfollowing me, the auto tweets are no problem at all, so why not implement them? The positives outweigh the negatives. But I have to admit I am not a fan of the auto tweet when I follow someone.
Blog Expert,
I was also surprised, especially considering I have 1/3 of the friends on FaceBook.
Dandellion,
Are you implementing the techniques as outlined in this article? Of course it also it also comes down to the quality of contacts but that also comes down to your marketing.
Andy,
Although no tracking software is perfect I still do trust Google Analytics to an extent to use it to measure my traffic.
Crazywabbit,
This also depends if you have two facebook accounts, one for personal and one for business.
MLDina
December 23rd, 2008 at 12:16 amI’m surprised you’re seeing more traffic from Facebook. I use both, though I think they’re pretty different and useful in their own ways. From both a personal and business standpoint, I prefer Twitter for it’s ease of use and optional applications (hate all those Facebook invites). I do think it’s good to be involved in both sites, as well as ones like LinkedIn.
Greg
December 23rd, 2008 at 12:22 amThanks for taking the time to put that together. Not sure how scientific it is, but certainly proves the point that traffic can be driven via these social sites if you do it right.
- Greg T.
http://www.getmecontent.com
Mark Richardson
December 23rd, 2008 at 2:17 amWhat is a good way to find quality potential contents on twitter/facebook? It seems just randomly friending people is just a shot in the dark. Most of the contacts on my facebook are just friends and probably won’t lead to client work.
Thanks for the post though, good ideas and tips!
http://kramman.blogspot.com
AVCr8teur
December 23rd, 2008 at 2:59 amThank you for publishing your findings. You have some vital tips here. I have debating whether or not to setup a Facebook site so now I know what I should do.
Will
December 23rd, 2008 at 5:30 amFor me, my Facebook and Twitter are two different things. I see my Twitter as a place for people with like-minded interests to me, whereas Facebook is a place for my friends and family. Not that people on Twitter aren’t my friends either!
I do import my blog posts as notes on Facebook, but that’s about it. I don’t think I’ll be using it as a marketing tool to drive traffic to my website. I’ll never have 980 friends on my Facebook, that’s a bit impersonal for me.
Hargate
December 23rd, 2008 at 8:00 amVery useful. I hadn’t realised how important these sites can be in driving traffic to your site. is the high bounce rate showing on the examples above anything to be worried about though? I have read that this may start being a factor for page rank etc
Andy Beard
December 23rd, 2008 at 11:16 amPlease show me your traffic from Tweetdeck, Twitteriffic, Twhirl, all the IPhone apps, etc etc.
You can’t because currently that traffic is impossible to measure accurately, and as I already stated the best you can achieve is to use individual landing pages.
The problem comes when you start feeding Twitter into Facebook, Twitter into Friendfeed into Facebook etc. You end up using the same tracking links on all platforms.
Also if you have multiple occurances of your content appearing on Facebook, possibly at different times, and only one occurance of a blog post directly on Twitter, that has a significant impact on the final results.
Conversely, driving traffic using a Facebook group also can’t be measured correctly without specific tracking links, as many of the members will receive an email notification which will include a link.
Ultimately you have “tracked” 4000 or so visits but you don’t have enough data to make the claim in your headline, and I don’t think you have even enough data to determine which of your activities are actually most worthwhile.
It is most likely the facebook group, especially if you broadcast every article, but that is a totally different type of traffic, much more akin to your email list, or even RSS feed.
If you are using Facebook in that way driving traffic to a commercial property, make sure you are CAN SPAM complient.
JBMovies
December 23rd, 2008 at 10:59 pmI would say that overall, the fast amount of traffic that I have received via a social networking site was Twitter. Not sure exactly why. I think it could be the rapidity of the coversing on Twitter. Part of it is alot that people who didn’t know me at all felt more comfortable in 140 charcters to comment and give suggestions. I also acquired friends faster, part of that was that Twitter was easier for me to figure out faster than Facebook. Myspace… almost a waste of time.
Manfred Ekblad
December 27th, 2008 at 7:40 amIt makes a lot of sense. A couple of months ago, we launched a brand new website for one of our clients. Using a simple Facebook group, and a “master group” coordinating the campaign, we got #1 on Google and about 500 daily visitors within 48 hours. Twitter gave almost nothing compared to that.
Maybe, when someone is visiting Facebook, they’re in a different mindset than on Twitter. If that is so, it all makes sense.
jami mullikin
December 27th, 2008 at 10:15 pmYou can also use ping.fm to select which social/blog/bookmark sites to post to all at once. It is a great tool.
Paull Hamilton
December 31st, 2008 at 9:57 amI have only recently set up accounts with both Twitter and Facebook. Time will tell which will perform for me the best. I have read all your comments with interest, and obviously this is a situation which can differ widely from person to person. I am waiting to see what they both can do for me.
http://www.paullhamilton.com
Micheil
January 5th, 2009 at 7:22 amGranted, yes, you get more traffic from facebook than twitter, however, I noticed that there was about a 10% bounce rate different. It’s good if people will click on your link and have a look at your website, but if they don’t stay or even ever return, does that hit really count?
Rhys
January 11th, 2009 at 10:06 pmAny business that want to automate Twitter posts or build any other applications around the Twitter API should check out Tweet-SQL a Twitter client for Microsoft SQL Server.
Jason Miller
January 13th, 2009 at 6:45 pmCan’t believe that no one has suggested yet that you must KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE. Know who they are, what they use and what they respond to. Craft your solutions to fit.
Twitter could be the answer for some. Facebook for others. Figure our what traffic-generating vehicles work best for your website .
~ jason
kookimebux
February 1st, 2009 at 2:40 pmHello. And Bye. :)
Jonathan Rezin
August 15th, 2009 at 5:52 amInteresting article… Though I am looking at the discussion of traffic from a slightly different angle. I want to drive people to my blog and my Twitter Accts. I have not found the statistical data yet but I assume that if I have my facebook and Twitter status linked than all real incentives to follow me on Twitter dissolve. I am usig Twitter with the musicians I am working with to provide added value for fans such as a Twitter conversation (which can’t happen as smoothly on facebook) and as a way to update minute by minute info such as 1st 10 people to the door of the club get in free… Am I accurate in my assumption that simply having everything linked will be a dis-incentive for people to follow my artists tweets?
JamesM
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:04 amI’m Slovakia Blogger, no freelancer and I hope not stumble. Recently I feel more Facebook readers then Twitter followers and I create Facebook fanpage is great solution.
I’m learning English, than please sorry my speaking.Thank you very much ;-) .
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