Facebook devours Twitter…a simple strategy

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Comment by joseph jeffrey sadlon on September 23, 2011 at 10:19pm

Well said. The HS yearbook is exactly why i cancelled Fartbook. I like my updates without having to look at all those old dummies.

 

"Facebook will always be your high school yearbook, while Twitter is the modern information ticker tape." -Comment by Gary Honig

 

 

Comment by Sarah Bourne on September 23, 2011 at 9:17pm

I'm with Gwynne. I joine Facebook to enjoy haring with an intimate collection of friends and family, most of whom are only comfortable sharing in a comfy walled garden. But Facebook's changes, all geared to over-sharing in a way that makes it more marketable to advertisers, are driving those types of people away. My son (college junior) reports that many of his friends are dropping Facebook, and that he would, too, if it weren't for his parents (<3!)

Comment by Gwynne Kostin on September 23, 2011 at 12:28pm

I can't see Facebook swallowing Twitter--maybe swallowing itself. 

My use is going in the opposite direction of yours. My Facebook had been a place to keep up with friends. I have never used it as a professional platform (I have linkedin for that). It has been increasingly difficult for me to find out what is going on with my sister, since FB makes this grand decisions on what I "want" to see (somehow more from pages than people). I am hopeful about the new "lists" so I can see what *I* want me to see. One more anecdote--my son stopped using Facebook. It has no use for him. My niece and nephew--in college--use it on a decreasing trajectory. 

As for Twitter,Chris Poirier below has a great view of what it is and why I find it important. The problem with Twitter from a simplicity point of view, is that it takes a good 30-45 days of use to experience the value. So FaceBook is easier out of the box, Twitter is easier in the long run. I guess we will all stay tuned.

Comment by Donna L. Quesinberry on September 23, 2011 at 11:37am

Twitter drives the "highest" hit margins to websites of "any" tool in the marketplace at this time. It seems no one is aware of this reality. The fact is - the view of Twitter should not be a "social" share of what "we" are doing - rather the place to share the mapping of what we are doing.

 

Twitter is a driver to "other" websites and information banks and if you review analytics - you'll see Tweets garner more hard hits overall. This has been true for years and Google as well as FaceBook do not do this. While folks may visit the Google page of choice or FaceBook of choice those websites respectively do not drive traffic elsewhere. Twitter; however, drives traffic "wherever" your information share leads. And, re-tweets build your network through viaducts - where if links are shared - more hard hits occur to those sites as well.

 

It is inherently wrong though to assume Twitter is the same type of medium as FaceBook, LinkedIn, Google+, Google Wallet or MySpace - it just is not a social network - it is a tool for social networking.

 

Donna L. Quesinberry

CEO-President

dpInk: DonnaInk Publications

(Copyright © dpInk: DonnaInk Publications. All Rights Reserved.)

This comment has not been edited and may be used in an upcoming story.

Comment by Gary Honig on September 23, 2011 at 11:23am

Facebook will always be your high school yearbook, while Twitter is the modern information ticker tape.

 

These new Facebook features might very well overwhelm the user base. Don't forget it's a global experience, not everyone has American sensibilities and priorities when it comes to social media.

Comment by T. Carter Ross on September 23, 2011 at 10:01am

Twitter and Facebook are different beasts with different purposes and usage patterns. I don't think anything Zuckerberg announced yesterday changes that. It's also worth noting that I could follow a lot more of the discussion about F8 though the #f8 hashtag on Twitter than I could on Facebook ... it also had the advantage of feeding me thoughts and opinions from people I don't know or follow instead of serving up comments from my pool of Facebook friends.

Comment by PupChow on September 23, 2011 at 10:00am

Interesting read but not sure if I agree.  I would compare Twitter to text message on a mobile phone and Facebook to email on a mobile phone.  Somewhat similar in form and function but I do not see one replacing the other anytime soon.

 

Comment by Bob Gourley on September 23, 2011 at 8:42am

Friends, just a short note before I run into a meeting, this piece was written by my friend and comrade Matt Devost and the way RSS picks it up here dropped that key point.

More later.

Bob

Comment by Chris Poirier on September 23, 2011 at 8:39am

@JP : LOL! I love that! (W1CGP here..so yeah..I got you 5X5 on that one...)  And that kind of is what I was getting at.  Facebook is becoming a tad more complicated, almost too much so and there is no way to dial it back really.  Though, the CB comparison on Twitter might have been a tad harsh.  You can do the same thing and "hide" on facebook too, though the route to being a loud mouth is considerably shorter on twitter.

To your Google+ point, check this out StartG+ I use it in order to manage my Google+, Twitter, Facebook, and now LinkedIn all from my Google+ mainpage.  Comes back to my point on public API and tools being created for power users..

Comment by JP Morgenthal on September 23, 2011 at 8:25am

Bob,

   I've learned by this point that I am not a typical user, but for me Twitter and Facebook serve two very different purposes and functions. For me Twitter is the Internet's version of the CB. There's a number of available channels, I can jump online with any handle and spout whatever nonsense I want only being constrained by community ethos if I choose to follow (e.g. Ch. 9 is emergency). Facebook is ham radio. I need a license to operate it. It serves a much smaller community of other known ham radio operators. People consistently broadcast on the same channel. I would not use FB in the way I use Twitter. I'd sooner switch from Twitter to Google+.

 JP

http://www.about.me/jpmorgenthal

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