Comparison of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

I already have Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts and have used them for years. The following lists main features, as well as pros and cons of each platform.

Facebook:

Main Features:

*Subscribe feature allows users to follow people without becoming their “friends”.

*Personalities can post content with a personal voice to complement an organization’s official page.

*Emphasis on visuals; every profile is devoted to visual content, from the cover photo to photos within the timeline.

*Hashtags (with unique URLs) allow for content and conversation aggregation.

*”Facebook Insights” offers strong snapshot of user demographics and behavior.

Pros
*Go-to source of information for significant portion of key audience.

*Quality content to include visuals and video, with higher engagement.

* “Donate now” button, if widely deployed, can bridge gap between “likes” and donations.

*Analytics help take guesswork out of what types of content resonate and what times to post.

*Relatively inexpensive ads and promoted content.

Cons

*Brands and organizations compete with friends for attention in the news feed.

*It is difficult to keep up with rapidly changing rules for content.

*Content is only seen by a small percentage of followers when it’s first posted, which can make serial storytelling difficult.

*Most engagement happens on Facebook itself because users don’t leave the platform.

Twitter

Main Features:

*Only 140 characters or less is allowed on a Tweet.

*Powered by searchable/connected hashtags.

*Drives people to external sites.

*User has more control of how to view Tweets.

Pros
*Text-based, for easy on- the-go updating.

*Real-time engagement opportunities.

*Hashtags are easy to create.

*Trending topics are easy to tap into when relevant.

*Is fast-paced and works well with live events.

Cons

*Fast-paced, might be hard to follow a longer story told through several Tweets.

* More anonymous; less authentic in some cases.

*Fewer features for organizations (no events, apps, etc…)

*Pinned Tweets feature downplays relevance of being in real time.

YouTube

Main Features:

*Organizational channels allows for libraries of videos.

*Videos can be grouped into themed “playlists”.

*Nonprofit program gives customized and enhanced branding and fundraising opportunities, including “donate” button on video, annotations that link to a website, campaign goal bars, and on- screen banners and “calls-to-action”, among other features.

*Easy to use, powerful analytics help pinpoint who viewers are and where they’re coming from, and how they engage with videos.

Pros
*No limit to how many videos can be uploaded for free, but there is a 15-minute time limit on length.

*Nonprofit program has many useful, underutilized features for storytelling and measuring engagement.

Cons

*Because the amount of content available is so large, videos can be difficult to find.

*Distracting advertisements, questionable related video links at the end of each video.

*Any video can attract unwanted attention and/or comments from “trolls”.

Reference:

Meyer Foundation. (2018). Social Media Platform Comparison. Retrieved from https://www.meyerfoundation.org/sites/default/files/files/SWT-Platform-Comparison-090414.pdf

This blog is part of an assignment from American Military University for my "Web 2.0 Fundamentals" class where I am to review, then contrast and compare 3 different social media sites.