First and foremost; Twitter is NOT in competition with Facebook, not at all! Both are totally different networks with different type of users. This is something I know for a fact. But that doesn’t mean that a lot of Facebook users wouldn’t join Twitter, as a matter of fact, I see great chance for Twitter to convert users from Facebook using the strategies below.
How can Twitter acquire users from Facebook?
Twitter Need to Play along the OpenGraph rules.
- GIFs: Facebook does not allow the uploading of GIFs, while Twitter DOES Allow it! if Twitter can respect the OG (openGraph) rules, and actually display the GIFs within Facebook posts, many Facebook users and pages will be using Twitter as the hosting network and Original Source of the media/GIFs — Some would argue, this will turn Twitter into Tumblr.
My answer is NO, this will actually increase the content being shared on Twitter, and even if the media is playable on Facebook (users doesn’t have to leave Facebook to View) — this would be something temporary, simply, users will eventually need to see things first, not wait until it’s being shared by some page or some friend, they will go to the source, they will want to see it directly from the original author, they will see it on Twitter and actually join Twitter if they aren’t already registered!
Many example available that Twitter can replicate or learn from, like Giphy, actually the OG meta codes are very simple and can be implemented within the tweets.
Here’s an example of Giphy GIF
<meta property="og:type" content="video.other">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://media.giphy.com/media/fBEDuhnVCiP16/giphy.gif">
<meta property="og:image:width" content="500">
<meta property="og:image:height" content="376">
<meta property="og:type" content="video">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://media.giphy.com/media/fBEDuhnVCiP16/giphy-facebook_s.jpg">
<meta property="og:image:width" content="480">
<meta property="og:image:height" content="270">
- Videos: Right now & Finally, video tweets are playable within Facebook posts (if you share the video tweet link on Facebook) but can be improved, and can have CTAs as well. Again, could take some time to convert users, but eventually it well. And even if it didn’t, it’s still very encouraging for creators to actually upload their videos within Twitter and share it on Facebook as it would save them a lot of time and would be cross-networks, which is something Facebook doesn’t not provide for creators yet.
Facebook is looking in every way possible to integrate Instagram within Facebook, this is an opportunity for Twitter to play along.
72% of Twitter users said they saw a video for the 1st time on Twitter, Twitter is already a place to discover new stuff, if Twitter can convince creators to use twitter as they hosting network, it only means
- More content are being shared on Twitter by Twitter users for Twitter followers
- Cross posting from Twitter To Facebook, making creators’ lives easier and definitely will pick Twitter to post their content every time (since Facebook Posts are not cross-networks friendly)
Also worth mentioning that Twitter announced today that they increased the video duration up to 140 seconds
Now, everyone can post videos up to 140 seconds long! We can’t wait to see the amazing videos you create and share.https://t.co/DFsuvnXkuL
— Creators (@XCreators) June 21, 2016