One of the least understood but most often used marketing tools these days is social media. Thousands of businesses are joining social networks each and every day and why not.? They are low cost and can be highly effective to help build a brand or branded community or to just engage with your target audience.

One of the most frequently asked questions is which social network is the most effective for their marketing efforts. The short answer is: It depends.

The two most popular social networking sites, Facebook and Twitter are usually the logical places for people to start when they think of social media marketing. Recent research by Forrester shows that Twitter followers may be more valuable to a business than Facebook fans. Facebook fans are 16% less likely to buy from a brand than a Twitter follower.

When you really dig in and break it down it starts to make more sense. Facebook is a great place for a brand to nurture a community. Brands can create a fan page and really send out great content to engage with their core group of fans. But it is more of a broadcast medium than anything else.

On the other hand, on Twitter, followers are much more likely to engage with the brands that they follow. They can ask them questions, and communicate to the brands directly about the things that they love or hate and expect a real answer. This communication on Twitter is part of the core of why people use it in the first place. Its built into the Twitter user culture. You can foster and strengthen brand affinity much more easily on Twitter than on Facebook. Looking at things in this light, it makes sense why Twitter followers are more likely to make purchases from brands.

These are both factors to keep in mind when deciding which social network to use in your marketing efforts. The “x-factor” is seeing effectiveness for businesses will continue to be the amount of time and consistency spent in using these tools until positive results are seen.