I recently had an author in my office (let’s call her Angela) who wanted advice about driving traffic to her website. Angela’s book at the time was about two weeks from launch and with her blog underway, she wanted to know why no one was reading it.

Amy, my colleague and fellow Wise Ink blogger, had already mentioned to Angela our success using Twitter as a tool to help grow our blog. Angela was hearing none of it.

When I tried to explain how Twitter would help her book get out there, she was visibly uncomfortable. “I don’t want to spend my time doing that,” she said.

We understood exactly where Angela was coming from.

Twitter was intimidating to us too. It still is. When I see that some of my Twitter friends have more than 5,000 followers, I want to throw my hands up. Most times I do.

Yet, whenever I look at my Google Analytics for Wise Ink, it’s clear that Twitter is where most of our traffic comes from. Amy and I showed Anglela this and with the data in front of her, she began to change her point of view.

To prove our point further we tweeted Angela’s last blog post to our Twitter followers. I could see the doubt in her furrowed. The next day, Angela called to tell us that she received a huge bump in visitors to her site at the moment I tweeted her blog post link.

We’d finally convinced her.

The Truth about Twitter

It’s better than Facebook. I love Facebook. I’m a Facebook addict. But it only gets me so far. Why? Because Facebook is a community of people who know me, met me, or knows someone who knows me. It’s a limited circle of people I have made a connection with.

My Twitter followers are strangers who opted to follow my updates. They’ve chosen me likely because we share common interests: writing, publishing, and eating — not because we went to college together. Oddly, I have more in common with more of my Twitter peeps than many of my Facebook friends.

So why should you choose Twitter as your marketing tool over Facebook?

1. It’s more viral

Your links, posts, and updates have greater ability to go viral. If someone with ten thousand followers retweets you, it goes to all of their followers and then if one those followers retweets, you’ve potentially reached thousands of strangers. Facebook only works that way if all of our friends or fans share a post or if you purchase an ad. Even then, it’d be hard for your stuff to reach strangers organically.

2. Your audience is searching for your content there

Most people on Twitter search for interesting content for the purpose of learning and seeking. That’s where you and your book come in. Use Twitter to post relevant facts, tips, and intrigue around your book’s content. The more spreadable it is, the better.

3. You can rally supporters who will rally other supporters

The single best reason I love Twitter is because it’s a giant support group of people genuinely interested in my niche. I’m an indie author advocate. My book is about the indie author movement.

Thanks to Twitter, I’ve found friends, enthusiasts, and other advocates who have helped promote my book. I don’t scream “buy my book” on Twitter, but I do tweet my developments as an author, quotes from my book, and the things that I’ve found that others tweeted.

So what do you think? Has Facebook helped you more than Twitter or vice versa?

Dara Beevas – @darairene