Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Twitter vs. Facebook





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?