

Twitter may be better than Facebook for businesses - CalmQuiet
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/17/survey-says-twitter-is-better-than-facebook-for-businesses/

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tokenadult
And what do "social media leaders" know about running a profitable business?

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jacquesm
From the introduction:

"If you were to ask “over 200 social media leaders” which social media site
they would pay for if they had to, as Abrams Research recently did".

But they don't and they won't because both services are free.

If you had to pay for air, which is currently free, you probably would, but
since it is free you don't have to, and despite the fact that this would make
air a better business than say rock it really doesn't matter.

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herval
that's a weird analogy... You'd have to pay for air because it's NECESSARY for
you to live. Does any business NEED Twitter or Facebook to stay alive?

Also, there are many services which offer free and paid services. In that
sense, no one should ever pay because there's a free version available...?

Bottomline: of course it matters. Although there's a really huge gap between
'saying you would pay for' something and actually commiting to that...

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jacquesm
yes, there is the necessity angle, that's true. But still, I think it holds
for the most part, if you ask people if they would pay for a free service then
that's absolutely content-free.

Something like facebook or twitter _needs_ to be free in order to succeed,
just like air _needs_ to be free for you to live. Asking if someone would pay
for air, facebook or twitter is a meaningless question, if you need it and you
can only get it by paying for it then that's what you'll do, but in the case
of facebook or twitter a free alternative would spring up overnight and run
with your userbase.

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herval
Facebook/twitter need to be free for COMMON users (the majority of them) -
specific users with specific needs could (actually SHOULD - that's what most
startups hope, at least) pay, for those are the ones PROFITING from a given
service...

