The Core Four: Differentiating the Largest Social Networks

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes, 26 seconds. Contains 1688 words.

There are numerous social media sites vying for clusters of users, but four in particular stand out as the most trafficked social networks in the U.S. They are, of course:

1. Facebook – 1.3 billion active users monthly
2. Twitter – 270 million active users monthly
3. LinkedIn – 190 million “engaged” users monthly
4. Pinterest – numbers aren’t shared publicly, but third party estimates place it at 50 million or so active users

Each aims to connect us with different people – our friends, our colleagues and professional acquaintances, and strangers with like-minded interests, and each site has a unique method of communicating and interacting with information.

Let’s first start with the behemoth: Facebook. In a decade, it has leaped from a dorm-room concoction to a multi-billion dollar service used by over a third of internet users. It is a key piece in the shift from physical to virtual communication and has changed human communication and even an individual’s behavior and mood. People spend a great deal of their leisure time on both the website and mobile app, accounting on average for forty minutes every day.

So what does Facebook do?

In a nutshell, the Facebook end-user experience allows people to share their thoughts, interests, photographs, events, and personal information with friends, who reciprocate. Content can be viewed on an individual user’s profile (known as timeline) and on a homepage which displays both the news feed (prominently in the middle) highlighting stories of interest, and an activity feed (a column on the right hand) with an instant stream of friend’s updates and actions.

In addition to commenting on activity, users have the option on posting on friend’s timelines and messaging/chatting with them privately. Also, there are public pages and groups for every brand and niche imaginable, where people who might not necessarily be friends can interact and gain information.

Another feature is the Graph, which is a social search feature and is also tied to an API which allows Facebook apps to have customized experiences. In addition, through the Facebook Login Software Development Kit, third-parties can create accounts and personalized experiences on their site based on information one provides on Facebook. Moreover, Facebook’s Social Plugins and Sharing features enable other sites to let users share content and track its virality.

Gone is flipping through a static rolodex or address book on your desk, and now all your friends (your actual friends plus the diluted category of “Facebook friends”) are in one dynamic place, where you can know where they are, what they are doing, and what they are liking. One study suggests, that thanks to Facebook, Stanley Milgram’s hypothesis that everyone is six degrees of separation away from each other isn’t true – we are actually 3.9 degrees away from rare-skilled professionals and just 3.2 away from any typical person.

It’s fairly clear that Facebook permeates our lives, and anecdotally, I see its usage engrained everywhere I go. Its success is predicated on our wanting to belong – we are a social species after all. The lingering question is, does Facebook truly fill that want or does it magnify our need?

Next up is Twitter, a service which is less an abbreviated version of Facebook, and more like WordPress on steroids. What I mean by that is Error – tweet is over 140 characters it’s fairly difficult to share lengthy, personal stories with other users. It’s a succinct social network for a world that has only the time and patience to read the thesis statement and not the whole essay. There is immense value in Twitter’s micro-blogging format, to be connected to the pulse of the digital world.

It fits into trope of how Millenials behave. Twitter is not sentimental, it is whatever is new and now and at the top of your feed. Twitter is no-strings attached, you can follow whomever without them being obligated to follow you back. A tweet is brief, bold, and begone by the time you can refresh the page.

So why do I and most internet users not actively use Twitter?

No social network is truly essential for being social, and Twitter isn’t a must-have on that front. Most of my friends don’t have an account – 69% of internet users between 18-29 don’t, compared to 16% of those who abstain from Facebook – and when I peruse my friend’s updates on the site once in a blue moon, I don’t miss much to be frank. On the other hand, a major advantage of Twitter over Facebook is that it exposes a user to a broader network of influencers and interests, plus like-minded users who never would have interacted before can begin conversations.

The problem is that to glean insight – to find the signal among the noise – you have to follow and sift through reams of irrelevant tweets. There are other, better ways of discovering content that is entertaining, timely, pertinent, and concise. I don’t have time for the Twitter experience. I don’t have time to build my online brand. I barely have time to complete my coursework, extracurriculars, work, party, read, exercise, and get seven hours of sleep. People who are actually doing things don’t have time to stop and tweet the roses. So for the sake of getting a full night’s rest I’ll concede that although I choose not to partake in it, some things – like my review of Twitter – should have probably ended after the first 140 characters.

Here is my LinkedIn profile. Notice that in my profile, I am both freshly shaven and not holding a beer can. There are no jokes about the smelly guy on the subway, or an update about the cool band I heard the other night in Williamsburg. And this is singlehandedly the most important page I’ve plastered my face and personal information on.

Why?

Anyone who is interested in career mobility and demonstrating professional expertise needs a LinkedIn. It is a quick snapshot of your professional accomplishments and experience as well as a way of keeping in touch with contacts in a businesslike environment. As a college student about to enter what is likely the most critical decade by transitioning from student to salaried employee (or entrepreneur), having an appealing online presence is essential. The facts are unambiguous, as this piece in the Washington Post shares:

A 2013 study by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 77 percent of employers are using social networks to recruit, a sharp increase from the 56 percent who reported doing so in 2011. And among the recruiters using social tools, 94 percent said they are using LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is the least social social network, but the most essential one in our lives. Although it sometimes promote trending articles from LinkedIn influencers or from publications such as Harvard Business Review, it isn’t the place to find news or share personal updates. LinkedIn is straightforward: get a profile, fill it out, and connect with esteemed users as you continue to grow your in-person network. Pro-tip: join groups related to your background and the field you’re interested in. The small amount of time you invest to create a LinkedIn presence can pay off handsomely.

The final network we will analyze is Pinterest, which due to its smaller size in contrast with the other big four and its gender disparity of four female users for every male user, has been overlooked. Its appeal and size may be limited, but the nature of its site makes it the most lucrative.

Pinterest offers the ability to curate photo-oriented collections, such as surprise birthday gift ideas of fall fashion trends. It is an opportunity to spread innovative ideas from trendsetters and disseminating your own concepts. Its user interface is reminiscent of tumblr in that it offers a high-resolution photo rich environment to browse. There is also a customizable dashboard which in essence, is a digital poster board to pin individual ideas and one can discover communities with relevant topics that align with your own. It is not, however, optimally geared for clipping your ideas across multiple platforms into one digital space like a service such as Google Keep or Evernote, just perusing within the Pinterest universe. Concepts can be shared with friends and strangers and may often serve as inspiration for purchases.

At the advent of the internet, Google surpassed internet portals because through its indexing and page-ranking algorithm, it could deliver what users wanted when they wanted it. It flourished by providing relevant information coupled with pertinent ads – an insurance company advertises when someone searches “15 percent off car insurance,” and a travel agency will post their ad through Google when someone searches “weekend trips to hawaii.” This is the paradigm shift from mass media ads that appear in print or radio that reach a semi-engaged audience.

Now with the culmination of social networks, marketers are looking to predict how receptive an individual will be to their product. Instead of relying on users explicitly telling what they want, sophisticated social algorithms are aiming to figure out what someone wants to buy based on their interests and behavior, for truly targeted advertising. Pinterest is a marketer’s dream because it combines social cues and activity with actionable decisions made by users (e.g. they are in the market for knitted scarves) before they actually select a product. Pinterest essentially offers companies the ability to look over a consumer’s shoulders as they browse and then whisper in their ear about that company’s product. Out of all the social networks, Pinterest has the strongest tie-in with e-commerce.

So there we have it: Facebook the ever-expanding friend network, Twitter the torrent of microblogging updates, LinkedIn the business connectivity environment, and Pinterest the consumer curation site. Each has their own appeal independent of the other, and only time will tell which one will be a tent of online social interactivity in the decades moving forward.

Bonus: One of the most comprehensive surveys of social network users was conducted throughout 2013 by the Pew Research Center, a venerated non-partisan think tank. It shared interesting conclusions about demographics: gender skews, ethnic disparities, and clusters of users by urban, suburban, and rural locales.