A growing trend amongst the increasing amount of social media adopters is to take advantage of integration tools which cross-network certain social networks and social media applications. As more internet users (namely those from FaceBook) adopt twitter, they are making an attempt to kill two birds with one stone by porting their twitter updates to FaceBook. It is my position that those who use social media in this way to not have an accurate understanding of the services that they are using.
.jpg "T-logo")
Whether intentionally or not it seems the the prompts for updates are somewhat reversed based upon current usage of the services. Twitter begs of users “What are you doing right now?” where as FaceBook kindly wonders “What’s on your mind?” More often than not users are more apt to tweet what is on their mind in the form of articles they are reading or a reaction to a piece of conversation or current event. FaceBook users generally seem more prone to share what they are doing right now in the form of a status update. This presumably stems from FaceBook’s original status update bar, and the more popular users of twitters always sharing thoughts, commentary, and links rather than mundane daily tasks.
While both “status” or shareboxes were created with the same intention, why do I view it as misuse to save interaction by combining the two elements? The dynamics of the two social communities are vastly different (I am still hesitant to call twitter a social network…). Commonly used elements of twitter, such as the @reply or @include and the #hashtag have, have no place or use within FaceBook and will only serve to confuse other FaceBook users who remain uneducated in the subject of Tweetology. The aforementioned elements serve the purpose of grouping and specific intent on the behalf of the tweeter for their message to be categorized specifically and reach specific individuals. Once such a thing is broadcast on the FaceBook the message changes completely. On the other hand, if you use Twitter the same for the same purpose that you use the FaceBook status box, then no real problems arise – other than why you have a profile at both sites if you use it all for the same purpose.
So if would all be so kind as to keep your Faces in your Books and your Tweets on your Twitter I would greatly appreciate it. Thus concludes my proposed ammendment to the Social Media Constitution.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
“It is my position that those who use social media in this way to not have an accurate understanding of the services that they are using.” – Social Media isn’t meant to set rules for users, the users set the rules as to how they want to use each featured offered by the different networks. If you don’t understand that, then you don’t have an accurate understanding of today’s web, sorry.
Reply
Leave a Comment