Facebook vs. Twitter: News War

So, I've had a Facebook for a while now and use it for mostly social networking and fun to pass the time, but I haven't quite gotten into the Twitter craze. And quite frankly I really don't understand it. However, I just recently made a Twitter account for a class assignment and I have to say, I still really don't like it nearly as much as Facebook.

The assignment for class was to compare the way news media sites utilize social media such as Facebook and Twitter, to get news out to people through different ways. Now, businesses like CNN, NBC, The Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times are all trying to keep up with the ages and expanding the way they deliver news. Already, most news programs and companies have fully interactive internet sites to reach the younger generations but that still doesn't reach everyone. A lot of college and high school students don't check news sites regularly or read the paper, so to try and reach those populations they have to bring the news to them. Most of those students do have either a Facebook or Twitter, so in attempts to make the news more accessible, they have created Facebook pages and Twitter accounts where students can see what's going on more easily.

I monitored CNN's International Twitter and Facebook page as well as The LA Times World pages for a week to compare and contrast the differences. I found that for both CNN and LA Times the Twitter accounts had many more posts and were updated much more often. I think the reason for this is because there is an older crowd that checks twitter pretty regularly and although older people have started using Facebook recently, it is still dominated by people between 17-28 years of age. On the both Twitter's the posts are short sentences designed to draw readers into the story and they are then directed to a link where they can view the full story. The Facebook format is a little different because they include pictures and videos in addition to links. It also allows users or (friends/fans) to make comments on each post which makes it a lot more interactive than Twitter.

In terms of improving either one- honestly, I cant think of much to do with the Twitter, simply because I'm not that familiar with it and also because the Twitter pages appeared to have much more updates and stories then the Facebook pages.

Surprisingly though, I found that I liked the Twitter better for stories because it wasn't so busy and filled with comments and pictures. I found that this was both a good and a bad thing for Facebook. On one hand the pictures draw the reader in, but they also made it seem more busy. With the Twitter I could read the quick teases for each story and decide which to click on. If I were to improve Facebook I might try to keep the updates in sync with the Twitter accounts.