Coming to grips with the changes going on in the social media realm can be a big challenge, and sometimes things can start blending together. Lately we’ve been getting a lot of people asking about the usefulness of Twitter when its service sounds very similar to Facebook statuses. When they get an explanation for “this Twitter thing,” they get a sense of deja vu. “That’s it?” they ask.
Yes. But you have no idea how useful this is until you’re on it.
Here’s a breakdown of the differences in the two services.
1. Facebook statuses tend to be used more for telling people about your mood, or what you’re doing today. Twitter, at least the useful Twitter, is much more concentrated on ideas. If Facebook is “lifecasting,” then Twitter is “mindcasting.” The whole thing is about information dissemination.
2. Twitter is the bleeding edge of information dissemination. Dayna Steele wrote a post that included a story of how the Hudson River landing for US Airways Flight 1549 was tweeted about a minute before the planed touched water. That’s cutting edge. Facebook statuses just aren’t used for that kind of thing.
3. You can search Twitter. If you want to know the latest about a TV show for instance, search it on Twitter. Someone on the internet has said something about it. Going more of a business route, searching the latest on Microsoft Bing! is possible on Twitter. Facebook doesn’t do that.
4. Connection to the blogosphere. Twitter has it. Facebook does not. Twitter is practically an extension of blogs, which are the cutting edge of article length media these days. Facebook is more for keeping track of social and work contracts.
To sum up: Twitter is much more focused on information. Facebook is much more about networking. You should have both, certainly. But you should know how they are focused so you can use them optimally.
Tomorrow we will have a post about Facebook pages, and how you can use them in your marketing model to get cheap qualified leads.
I can see that picture. In the same token and talking to some users, a lot of people like reporters, radio shows and traditional media services are using Facebook as their mean to communicate with their audiences.
Certainly Facebook users are much more than Twitter in Puerto Rico. I wonder up to what point, regardless of primary global tendencies, people behavior in Puerto Rico will change your described tendency.
Quite interesting to find out, on a blog at LinkedIn, that there is some doubt on how twitter can be effective at corporate level.
Maybe a survey or poll will help gather some data about it.
How soon will you update your blog? I’m interested in reading some more information on this issue.
We’re doing some structuring things at the moment, but you should start seeing new content up on this blog some time next week.
You know, I don’t read blogs. But yours is really worth beeing read.