Twitter (TWTR +0.00%) and Facebook (FB +4.39%), the latter quickly becoming the former's archrival, are increasingly locking horns in virtually every area of the growing market for social media marketing.
Source: Twitter
To be sure, there's plenty of money to be made by both Twitter and Facebook here. According to researchers, spending on social media advertising is expected to soar to $11 billion in the U.S. alone by 2017, a 130% increase from the $4.7 billion expected this year. Clearly there's plenty of pie to go around for Facebook and Twitter, both of which have growing international presences.
Protecting its turf
In terms of their appeal to social media marketers and media partners, Twitter typically trumps Facebook when it comes to celebrities and discussion around live events. In a recent move, Twitter moved to consolidate this strength by allowing users to create custom timelines around events and television shows.
This offers a valuable marketing one-two punch. First, it allows Twitter to disseminate user discussion data to networks in a valuable service that's a proven ratings booster. Secondly, this captive audience offers a strong advertising opportunity to which Twitter can serve targeted ads as well.
In the video below, Motley Fool contributor Andrew Tonner explains what this move could mean for Twitter, this year's most talked about IPO.
