I saw a tweet by a well-known blogger and technology executive that he was spending far less time on Facebook. When I asked what was doing online instead, he quickly replied “Twitter! More engagement, realtime discussions, feedbacks. Facebook is becoming (for me) a stream of useless stuff”.
It struck me as an interesting comment because it reflects my approach to Facebook as well. For me, Facebook serves as a professional utility and personal branding tool. It is not a place where I spend much time looking at my News Feed and getting updates on what my “friends” are doing.
Twitter, however, is a resource tool (It has mostly replaced Google Reader as the way to discover new content), a research tool to ask answers to just about anything, a place to stay up-to-date with the biggest stories of day, and a way to engage with other people.
As a result, I probably spend 80% to 90% of my time on Twitter, and only 10% to 20% on Facebook. This is one of the reasons why I find Facebook’s continued growth to be so fascinating because I’m personally not fascinated with it as a service, although it is a truly amazing story.
The question is why Twitter or Facebook?
Is this something that is common among people who are heavy users of the Web and/or involved in digital marketing, development, social media and editorial content? Are we simply not the sweet spot for Facebook?
5 Comments
Twitter Twitter All the way. Facebook, what does it mean? <sob sob>
Seriously though, I deleted nearly all my personal data from Facebook due to the ever changing privacy debacle that is Facebook. I visit it less than once a month while I am on twitter all the time. Between my computer and my phone, I'm always checking in to see what's going on.
Facebook? meh.
I"m certainly seeing a drop off in FB usage among my friends list that past few months – could be the summer, or maybe they've all just blocked me – but I'm thinking FB's losing it – I'm on Twitter more, too, not sure where it's leading yet tho…Twitter's got a big advantage over FB in that following is a one-way street, so if you have a good list the you following, you get a much steadier stream of newsy content…. can be an ever bigger time-waster though…
It's true; I probably use Twitter to Facebook in about the same ratio (80:20). I like the "instant-ness" of Twitter, and I like that have a much wider range of contacts and therefore a much wider reach. However, I do not think of Facebook as a personal branding too. That's LinkedIn. Facebook is for friends and family, and that's how I use it. I have gotten back in touch with friends from junior and senior high (including one who lives in Chile), and I add new friends as I make them. It's a way to build community as well – my neighborhood has a Facebook page. So, while I use Twitter more, the more substantial "substance" of my life is on Facebook, probably at the opposite ratio.
Saw the same post, and replied that for me, FB was a place for staying in touch with friends and family. It would be good for branding, as you note, but I like the immediacy of Twitter and the (typically) focused approach of the folks one chooses to follow. I see FB more of a marketing tool … like a current "ad" out there for providing info to your followers (as opposed to gathering info for yourself) and for capturing the attention of "browsers."
I have never resonated with either Facebook or Twitter and don't like engaging in either. But I do it regularly because 'they' say that's what I need to do to engage people, as an entrepreneur. I've been doing so for about a year and nothing appreciable has come from it. Yes, I may not be doing all that I should, such as responding enough to others' posts on Twitter. When I've posted questions on Twitter, I've never received a reply. On Facebook, there's only the occasional post that I'm interested in. Other than that, it's reading thru a lot of people, like me, hawking their businesses or "spent the day with my kids today, boy am I tired!" kind of stuff. I really don't get either of them. With that said, I do give a lot of thought to making my posts to both interesting hoping to entice responses, and have tested posting in different ways to assess response. It's hard for me to believe that the average person – not just the social media superstars – are really increasing business in any kind of substantial way.
Robin Barr
Founder and Inventor
Cold Sores Begone™ Canker Sores Begone™ http://www.csbegone.com