Last week I read no less than four articles about Twitter in the various magazines and newspapers I subscribe. I am a twitter nut myself with two accounts @davidtcopeland and @okcscouter. I have found it to be to a great tool for connecting with others and for learning about all the latest trends in social networking. My Scouting account has lead to some great connections with people in other parts of the country that also have a passion for this great program. Does my Twitter obsession mean and end to my Facebook days? Absolutely not!
I see the two as distinctly different tools with difference purposes. Twitter has been great for “virtually” meeting people from all over the country. I consider many of these Twitter folks to be my friend even it is in a weird I have never met you before kind of way. Most Twitter people seem to talk mostly to themselves and for whatever reason have little desire to really communicate and connect with their followers. (More on this with a later post)
I treat Facebook on the other hand as a “real” friends only forum with all my settings set as private. Every friend I have on FB is a person I have some kind of connection and 99% of them I have met in person at one time in my life. My family, childhood friends, and many other people are on this with me. We share updates and my favorite feature is the picture albums people post showing families. The connections on Facebook to me seem more personal.
Both tools to me have a purpose and they are distinctly different for me. I personally plan to hang on to both.
What about you? Facebook or Twitter? Do you have both? What do you see as the difference?
I use Twitter and Facebook. Facebook is primarily real-life friends and colleagues. Twitter is as well, but with Twitter, I can create multiple IDs to keep my blogs and their followers sorted out.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest thing about Twitter is that many of the larger corporate brands have latched on and aren't really using it to it's full potential. Twitter is based on connections; two way relationships between followers. Many of the larger brands are just using Twitter as a megaphone to spout their interests to as many people as they can. What they should do is use Twitter like a telephone, responding and reacting to what their followers are saying about them and things that interest them. Unfortunately, the official BSA Twitter entities seem to not quite get it when it comes to social networks and social media. I guess it's up to the volunteers and bloggers to bring the movement forward into the 21st century!