Twitter or Pinterest?

I don't miss the old days of social networking. It was just more complicated when everyone was trying to get in to the space. The history of technology shows us that oftentimes there will be one major company, one major competitor and several, much smaller alternatives. The trend continues, though paradigm shifts can and do happen. So, how do you determine what is best for your brand?

When I first started work in the entertainment industry in artist management I could not understand why many managers felt their artist had to be on every social network they could find. It was a nightmare. People today may complain about updating two or three social sites with information, but imagine updating MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Virb, bebo, iLike, ReverbNation, PureVolume... you get the picture. If you asked an artist manager why they felt they needed to be everywhere they would say it was because their artists needed to be where the people were. Of course, this was disregarding the fact that a country artist had no business on a site like PureVolume, which catered more to the Panic! At the Disco crowd. When I became in charge of deciding what networks Dolly Parton would utilize, I even held off on Twitter until I could figure out a way to make it work for her. I didn't want her on the network just for the sake of being on the network.

Today, we normally see a trend of brands insisting they be on Facebook and Twitter. Facebook has almost 1 billion accounts, and Twitter just seems to go hand in hand with Facebook for many businesses. Perhaps though, focus should be less on Facebook and Twitter and more on Facebook and Pinterest. Pinterest is the fastest growing website in the history of the web. Now, Pinterest is beginning to send more referral traffic to sites than many other online properties. Not to mention, the activity on Pinterest itself is amazing. People can "like" a pin or add it to their own pin boards for their followers to see. Users can follow an entire account, or just certain boards of theirs, and really customize it to their own interests.

Twitter, on the other hand, just keeps trending as a way for information to spread extremely fast. It's great for periodicals and other brands that consumers may need time sensitive information about. If, however, your brand does not fall under this category, then more of your time may be better spent on Pinterest. Its visual layout provides a unique way to get your products and branding out to a mass of people in a fun, new manner.

But if you still want to hold on to Twitter, don't worry... it can tweet anything you pin.