I'd Take Twitter Over Facebook Any Day
As a social media nut, I find that people often ask which tool I like more: Twitter or Facebook. (I'm going to set Google+ aside for this conversation, as I'm not sure it's relevant enough just yet. But trust me, it soon will be.) While I think they serve different purposes, I will put myself out there and say that I tend to prefer Twitter over Facebook. Why?
I've got two reasons. First, from a social media perspective, Twitter is much more conducive to conversations with people who hold similar interests. Facebook, because of its strict privacy rules, makes it much harder to make new connections and have recurring conversations. Reaching out to somebody random on Facebook may be seen as invasive, but on Twitter it seems to be the norm. Facebook, in my opinion, is a place for your personal life, whereas Twitter is a place for your random thoughts, articles you want to share, opinions that fit into 140 characters or less, and the like. I am all about new and random Twitter followers and conversation starters, but random friend requests is somewhat off-putting.
Second, Twitter holds a huge advantage over Facebook when you need a question answered quickly. Try it out – ask a question on Twitter and see how long it takes you to get a response. If five minutes go by and you haven’t gotten an answer, maybe it’s because you don’t have the right group of followers. So throw in a hashtag or mention somebody in the post. Something tells me you’ll be hearing back momentarily. I’ve had incredibly success with getting random questions answered on Twitter. With Facebook, though, people don’t seem to take the time to get back to me. What do you guys think? Have you found similar results? How do you think Google+ will play into the equation?
Comments
I agree that Twitter is more concise and direct than Facebook, But I don't think that it is simply better, the conversations are just very different.
Personally I use Facebook to connect to my actual friends and family and Twitter to connect to my more wired friends and "famous" people.
The speed and accuracy of crowdsourcing on these platforms depends on your own time and commitment to each, not on the site's implicit design. Both can give you quick responses to posts depending on your audience and how active you are.
The thing that concerns me about Twitter is the loss of real conversation. Who do you know that uses Twitter simple to send messages without self-promotion and hype compounded into those tweets? Why is there a strong focus on "followers" and not friends? What valuable conversations can you have using only 140 characters?
I think when you live in a technology focused bubble these things don't seem to matter as much as they should.
Thanks for the comment, Chris! I don't necessarily think that Twitter leads to a lack of real conversations, though. I've had several occasions where a small conversation (yep, 140 characters or less...unless you do the whole "cont." thing) leads to a larger conversation over email or continued and frequent conversations on Twitter. Sure, there's a loss of a "real" friendship, because you may not actually see this person in real life, but the same can be said for Facebook. Unfortunately I think that's just the reality of technology and social media these days.
I do think that calling people "followers" rather than "friends" has its bonuses. It takes away a bit of the intrusive nature. You can "follow" a celebrity without them blocking you, because that's the nature of Twitter. I've had a conversation with Wayne Coyne (Flaming Lips) about music on Twitter and it felt totally normal (though I was a bit starstruck), but I'd feel strange friending him on Facebook and asking him about music.
There's just a different level of intimacy that comes with Facebook, and where you might find that a loss, I think it sometimes can be a good thing, because it allows you to connect (limited though you may be by the character count) to people without it being too personal or weird.
Great post Lydia! As a fully-addicted Twitter user I agree completely. Twitter is for finding people you don't know who share your similar interests. It is the norm and very acceptable to reach out and start talking to someone you may not know. I have also developed a group of bluegrass and acoustic music friends on Twitter that keeps me on top of what's happening in the music industry.
Google+ will factor in eventually, but right now it's all the early adopters and feels more like LinkedIn. I'm sure eventually it will be bigger. Personally although I set up an account, I don't see myself using it. Another social network would take away from my Twitter time!
As for Facebook...I have no idea. I'm the last person on the planet who doesn't have an account.
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