Do You Use Twitter to Update Your Facebook Status?

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The Rolodex thing on Facebook makes sense—and it's a bit of a dead end. You populate your Rolodex, but what do you do after that? That (and the "public by default" nature of tweets) is why I think Twitter has a lot more energy right now.

March 23, 2009 - Comment - Like - Share

Rob....did you go to Choate? - Steffan Antonas

Matthew Clower

I used to use Twitter to update my Facebook status, but Twitter and Facebook are evolving away from each other. Two years ago, almost all my tweets were updating my "status". Now, almost none of them are. Twitter developed its own culture and creative use cases that Facebook doesn't understand.

March 23, 2009 - Comment - Like - Share

maxmem and Kol Tregaskes liked this

First of all, I completely agree with you that (for experienced users) Twitter has evolved WAY past status updates - the percentage of my "status" updates to my shared feed reading or linking is very low - Steffan Antonas

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See, i don't use Facebook that much - I don't really care about people's personal statuses. I'm much more interested in the feed/news/data/interaction that Twitter provides - but I seem to be in the minority. I think most people like the private, personal interaction on facebook. What are your thoughts? - Steffan Antonas

If you look at my tweets two years ago I wasn't very interesting by today's Twitter standards. But more people, more distribution, and time to cultivate a bit of Twitter culture... and there you have it. By the time I turned off Twitter updating Facebook most of my tweets weren't understandable via Facebook. - Matthew Clower

So why weren't they understandable? This is what I want to highlight. Is it the terminology (RT, @, etc), or is it something different? - Steffan Antonas

Yes and no. I don't use Facebook as much as I "used to" but for lots of people it's about connecting with people you want to be connected to. Or finding them, etc. it is very easy to "unfriend" someone on Facebook effectively hiding your activities from just them. I don't think privacy is that big a draw. - Matthew Clower

Mostly the nomenclature -- you're right about that. @username, RT, and the growing twitter terminology confuses people. But more importantly... why would I post a link to a news story to my Facebook "status"? (I realized that they did change the interface recently) - Matthew Clower

@matthew - it's a good question. i feel the same way. But why not? is it because it's all personal? And if so...WHY is it all personal? - Steffan Antonas

Basically... Twitter moved to become a service that does way more than simple status updates... "I'm typing ATM" to cultural awareness platform where you get out of it what you put into it. If you want the news, you get the news. If you want to know about celeb gossip... well... - Matthew Clower

@steffan you don't have the same flexibility with Facebook... you can't just go out and find people that are distributing information you want. Facebook isn't the optimal medium for the distributor or the "reader" or "receiver" depending on what you want to subscribe to "get". - Matthew Clower

I know most of the people I am friends with on Facebook (college friends, family) have little interest in the things I'm interested discussing. I think this is just a natural effect of the system becoming so hugely populated. That's why Twitter is great. Personally I enjoy having a small group of people I interact with who I know have similar values and interests. My prediction is that... more... - Nic Luciano

@matthew - Good call. What surprises me is how many people log on to facebook to "see what their friends are doing/thinking/feeling". I don't log on to twitter to do that, and I don't really care about that stuff. I want to find out what people are reading/get information/find out what's current etc - and maybe see what they're up to as an ancillary benefit. - Steffan Antonas

@steffan Facebook is more personal, and that works for Facebook -- but the key thing as I implied before was that in Facebook you have to "approve" your network. The same isn't true for public Twitter feeds. - Matthew Clower

@Nic - How old are you? I ask because I did a survey a while back in the apple store where I found out that 99% of the apple store staff were HEAVY facebook users and almost none of them used Twitter - which I found shocking. When I asked a few of them why..they said "it's a generational thing" and "we're in college, and that's what college kids do". Your thoughts? - Steffan Antonas

@nic In my case, I have lots of friends that I know have Twitter and we know that we aren't following each other. As a matter of fact, when Twitter first began, it was more personal and has evolved away from that. Now my followers are generally those who like reading what I have to say, and vice versa. I don't think it will revert back to the way that it was -- it is straightening itself out. - Matthew Clower

@matthew - so you think that the two-way follow model automatically implies that updates should be personal? I'm interested.... - Steffan Antonas

@Nic - I'm the same as Mattew on this. I've evolved away from the personal stuff (mostly because most of my followers don't know me personally, and it's viewed as minutia that bastardizes the feed) Do you think that the two-way friend model evolves toward the personal and the follow (one way) model naturally evolves away? - Steffan Antonas

@steffan - I'm not sure that's what I meant. As a matter of fact, I'm sure it isn't. What I meant is that you don't have the same freedom in Facebook. I can't tell what it is you are "broadcasting" if indeed you are casting anything and decide that I want to follow your "work" without your permission. I'm saying Facebook doesn't cater to what Twitter has become. But if you want to talk about Facebook's strengths, I do think the strengths in general are much more personal than "public" Twitter feeds. - Matthew Clower

@matthew @nic - What do you guys think Facebook's strengths are over Twitter? - Steffan Antonas

@Steffan Makes perfect sense. I'm 20, I have just under 400 friends on Facebook. I know about 75% of my Facebook friends purely on an "I've met you" basis. The other 25% I know a little better. What's revealing here is that under 10 (of 386) friends on my Facebook account are over 25, whereas the age ratio is completely opposite for my Twitter account. - Nic Luciano

@Steffan Also, when did you do do that survey? Even if it was 2 months ago, it'd be really interesting to compare numbers to a survey you conduct now. I say this because in the past month or two my followers have started to grow with acquaintances and kind-of-friends around my age. - Nic Luciano

@Nic - EXCELLENT point. Twitter has been increasing usage by leaps and bounds, especially in the last two months. My neighbor doesn't even know how to turn on his computer (exaggeration), and he asked me about Twitter yesterday. He saw it on the news. - Matthew Clower

@Nic Luciano See, I find that very interesting (the age ratios I mean). A lot of people draw a "Twitter for Professional/Impersonal" "facebook for personal" line (and it's a hard line in most cases). That might explain the age difference (i.e. I can't see most college students using twitter for 'professional' reasons. - Steffan Antonas

@steffan Personally, I think that Facebook's biggest strength (consumer side) is in connecting with and potentially staying connected with people that you want to know. Albethem (can I do that?) business or personal contacts. It is the best electronic Rolodex around, especially when people are even using social media communication over email these days. All I have to do is put a bit of data about something I did once upon a time, and people will find me around that. - Matthew Clower

the survey was about 2 months ago, actually. I wonder if that would make a difference. huh. - Steffan Antonas

@Matthew So the usage is obviously exploding over all generations because of how it's being delivered (news, entertainment, technology, etc), which I can't imagine is very common among web services. - Nic Luciano

Interesting that you said Rolodex - that's how I use it. I totally use Facebook relationships as my perma-link to people I know (no need to remember email addresses or phone numbers) - Steffan Antonas

@Steffan I think you're right about people's perspectives. But... I think the perspective itself is imposing false limitations onto the Twitter platform. Twitter is being used for scholastic purposes http://abcnews.go.com/GMA... today as well as disseminating local information, news, or police-related warnings, etc. - Matthew Clower

I have retired my Facebook....too much crap and complicated links. Twitter is more efficient. - dmarsters

@Steffan I'm finding it increasingly difficult for us to argue about things... we seem to share lots of perspectives... LOL... yes that's how I use it too. Permalinking people. - Matthew Clower

Matthew - oh, I'm aware of the diversity that Twitter has spawned...I think that the crux of WHY is because of the one-way follow model. - Steffan Antonas

@dmarsters -- what did get out of your Twitter usage? What did you want from Facebook? For me those two questions are mutually exclusive, and both of the services are beneficial to me... in their own way. For instance, I don't see most of the "crap and complicated links" that you mention on Facebook, because I don't spend much time there. I don't see things I don't want to see on Twitter either -- Thank you TweetDeck - Matthew Clower

I DARE you to tell me that it's not interesting that Twitter's entire 140 character MO was "What Are You Doing" and SO many people don't use it for that anymore - Steffan Antonas

@Steffan - I know you are aware of it... but I wouldn't necessarily say that... *because of the one-way follow model. It is and it isn't. The one-way follow model is only part of the bigger picture which is a lack of awareness. People don't know what can be done with the service in general...or what is available for it. They are learning though. - Matthew Clower

I think you guys both just hit the nail on the head with "people permalinks". I wonder if most active Twitter users feel the same way. - Nic Luciano

So back to my original question - I think we've missed something - what do guys think the EXPLICIT advantages are of Facebook over twitter's Status function? (forget the permalinks and uses as rolodex) - what about Status? - Steffan Antonas

@Steffan it isn't interesting... ¬¬ of course it is. But that is also simply an example of how quickly innovation spreads on Twitter. - Matthew Clower

You know, I bet they do - and here's the kicker - i don think anyone is going to beat Facebook in the "personal" profile/rolodex/permalink-to-a-person niche any time soon. - Steffan Antonas

THAT said, I don't think that people who are getting used to being public and actively engaging people in public even give a hoot about Facebook status anymore. It's almost like Twitter is TRAINING me NOT to care about personal minutia - Steffan Antonas

Good call. - Steffan Antonas

@Steffan -- you got it backwards. Twitter's "status" function is better than Facebooks, and Facebook couldn't keep up. It was because my "status" updates were evolving with my "followers" which aren't synchronized across Facebook. Eventually, they got so far away from each other that they didn't even make sense. - Matthew Clower

@Steffan Well, I think it's related. Facebook is stronger when the focus is on the person (place, club), Twitter is stronger where the focus is on conversation (idea, link). - Nic Luciano

I wish a Twitter client developer would come up with an "also share on facebook" switch so that I could make a decision when posting a Twitter message. that would make all this so much easier. There's SUCH a small subset of personal stuff I write on Twitter that I'd actually want to share with people I know - Steffan Antonas

Well said @Nic - Steffan Antonas

Because Twitter updates, were never "status" updates to begin with. Microblogging: You're a blogger, do you use your blog primarily to post "status updates"? If you did, how many people would read your blog? - Matthew Clower

heheh. my mom would. - Steffan Antonas

@Steffan -- you know... TweetDeck does that now... The new version. I think you have to get it from the blog though... BRB with the link. - Matthew Clower

You're right. Twitter Status updates were never "status" updates to begin with - @Nic said it best. Twitter is about participating in conversation (ideas/links), facebook is about actual status - Steffan Antonas

Yeah @Steffan and my sisters would read mine... but I wouldn't have thousands of people following the fact that I didn't eat eggs for breakfast. - Matthew Clower

Awesome conversation, Gents! This has been super beneficial. - Steffan Antonas

@Matthew I was actually also under the impression that Twitter was always meant as a content platform until I saw those sketches from the original Twitter UI, which have explicit examples like "riding my bike" and "eating breakfast" or something. I think that's why it's a little ironic now that Facebook's primary feature is based on a web app based on the feature. - Nic Luciano

@Steffan TweetDeck with Facebook integration: http://tweetdeck.com/beta... - Matthew Clower

Awesome. I will check this out. - Steffan Antonas

@Nic that's because it was the original intention of Twitter if I'm not mistaken. And that's how it was used when I started using it... Not very interesting at all... Then the first clients came out making it easier to use, then manage, and integrate. The community saw somewhere to expand and did, people liked it, and it spread virally. That's the nature of this type of service. - Matthew Clower

Gents, must run. Thanks for the convo and for all your ideas. - Steffan Antonas

Always a pleasure @Steffan .. see you next week at #GlueSF!!! HA - Matthew Clower

What's your impression of Facebook's attempt to capture some of Twitter's thunder with their redesigned interface? Will it work, or does that sort of usage not map onto the way Facebook social networks are structured? - Rob Pongsajapan

It sure is hard to catch-up on a conversation in FriendFeed -- annoying! Anyway, I had my Twitter status update Facebook up until a few months ago. Eventually, the social norm on Twitter became too different from the social norm on Facebook and I had to unhook the auto-updating. Now with Facebook's redesign, I am watching with interest as the social norm on Facebook is slowly changing (accelerating towards Twitter-like activity). Maybe I'll be able to sync the two again in the future :) - Fraser

@Rob I don't think that the way Twitter has evolved is compatible with the consumer interest in Facebook. If you noticed a week before the change, Facebook tried to acquire Twitter and Twitter said no. I think they had it in their mind to change their "style" probably because of the attraction that Twitter has, more longevity per "visit" on the business side. - Matthew Clower

Hey @Fraser. @Steffan had to leave... but what are your thoughts? - Matthew Clower

@Rob http://www.techcrunch.com/2009... I think that speaks for itself. They have a gigantic loyal user base, what do they have to gain by changing the primary focus of the product? That's not a rhetorical question... genuinely interested in an answer. - Nic Luciano

@Nic - personally... I don't "like" the redesign either, but most people are going to reject change on an interface that is so simple that they get used to using it involuntarily - as a matter of fact, the exact same thing happened last time Facebook changed their interface. I think people will get used to it -- and it is actually more functional. The only thing I don't like about it is the default live feed. Someone comes on and posts 20 different things and now they are the only thing in your feed. - Matthew Clower

Yeah, I'm not sure if they really think they can reinvent the focus of FB or if this was just a reactionary thing in response to Twitter's increasing popularity. It's as FB thinks their old model doesn't have a real future ... but I think there's still a need for both platforms. - Rob Pongsajapan

@Matthew Can you characterize what you mean by "the consumer interest" in Facebook? Are you referring to how FB is more personal than Twitter? - Rob Pongsajapan

@Fraser whether Facebook wants to see it or not, I don't see the model that is evolving for Twitter fitting into the Facebook model -- really ever. They both have their benefits but they are separate. The follower (without approval) helps cultivate an environment where you decide what you want out of it. The Facebook model allows you to connect people, not information and interests. -- even if the people were originally connected "by interest" and ended up linking up on Facebook. - Matthew Clower

@Rob -- what I mean by "consumer interest" is what the users want out of it and expect. Why they are using it, etc. -- as opposed to the business model, monetization strategies, etc. - Matthew Clower

@Matthew Gotcha. Do you think Twitter can scale to handle increasing amounts of organizations and bots joining it, or will the noise eventually overwhelm the signal? - Rob Pongsajapan

@Rob -- Scaling is more than just the noise. I think that there are problems that Twitter is seeing that are due to the recent influx of users. Namely late or missing DMs, TwitterSMS, and/or notification emails. But the beauty is that you choose who you are following. A "SPAM bot" could go and follow everyone and they don't necessarily have to care. Why would I follow a SPAM bot? That's just it, I wouldn't. - Matthew Clower

There are also an increasing number of utilities (like TweetDeck) that are helping the community sort through the abundance of "good" information to find the most relevant things very quickly. Sure, some of those utilities could be impacted, depending on how they function, but Twitter as a whole will get past it. - Matthew Clower

@Matthew Ah, okay. I agree with you that utilities will offer ways to deal with the glut of information. Right now I take time to vet accounts that follow me to see if they're real people and/or if they post useful updates, and it's a bit repetitive to do that and then block accounts that don't pass muster. But I suppose utilities can assist with this annoyance. - Rob Pongsajapan

@Rob I guess that's one of the differences... I don't necessarily mind anyone following me if they want to hear or read what I have to say. I don't block accounts for following me. But I will go and look at them to see if I'm interested in their updates. A quote from an article I'm working on now: "In fact, the ability for everyone to personify their own opinions, in practice and prose, is what gives Twitter its diversity and makes it interesting." - Matthew Clower

Well it has been a blast again. We'll have another discussion soon, but I have to get back to a few things now. - Matthew Clower

Thanks, @Matthew. Take care! - Rob Pongsajapan

For me there is a lot of crossover for what I post on both sites, However: Twitter is where I broadcast my interests, then friends/collegues (I hope) take shape around that. Facebook is where I gather my friends/collegues, then broadcast things which (I hope) interests them. This is a critical distinction which can reverse which forum you consider more 'personal' and who are really your... more... - Dave Jorgensen