The 2nd quarter earnings results for two of the biggest social media players – Facebook and Twitter – are out, and their pictures are starkly different from one another.

While Facebook’s earnings showed the company’s major success, Twitter’s earnings were disappointing to Wall Street and left them falling short in one particular area – the number of monthly active users.

According to the reports, the number of Twitter users grew by less than one percent from the previous quarter – the slowest growth rate in the company’s history. These results are less than stellar, especially compared to their Facebook counterparts, who were up 3.47% from Q1.

Facebook continues to lead the social media pack in terms of monthly users at 1.49 billion, followed by Twitter at 316 million. LinkedIn and Google+ rank third and fourth, respectively.

The reason for this is simple – Facebook has mastered the art of content sharing. The site accounts for 80% of all shares on social media, with the average Facebook user creating 90 pieces of content a month.

Moreover, Facebook also surpasses competitors in its online growth, with 1.31 billion mobile monthly users. Their mobile success has made Facebook the preferred social media choice of users of all ages, especially millennials – with 45% of them logging onto Facebook from their mobile devices.

So what does this mean for the social network that generates 350,000 tweets per minute? Well, according to Twitter co-founder and interim CEO Jack Dorsey, Twitter isn’t going to see sustainable growth until it can reach the mass market. In order to achieve this, Twitter must adopt a new approach to gaining users – which might involve simplifying its website, adding new features or adjusting its marketing strategy. In addition, Twitter will need to tap into the mobile market, by offering mobile advertising similar to Facebook. If it doesn’t, Twitter might find itself “tweeting” its own death.

by: Rachel Sharpe