I think the difference between Twitter and Facebook is the reason people read what they do on each. To me, people are looking for Facebook connections, and Twitter content.
First, the way to be approved on Twitter and get friends is simple: if someone likes what you say, they’ll follow you. Unlike Facebook, there is no collaboration in the process of two people connecting on Twitter; it’s just driven by one person. With Facebook, both people need to approve the connection (friendship) and this means there’s more involved than whatever the message is. Friends and family are easy to accept, but a person needs to support or appreciate a product or business before they’ll engage in its community. On Twitter, it’s “What are you saying?” on Facebook it’s “Do I know you?”
What do you say?
After speaking with people it’s become clear that these different levels of connection create different messages. In the comfort of a closed (or at least semi-closed usually) Facebook community or group, it’s much easier to display personal pictures and dispense personal information. Quite the opposite, Twitter’s extremely public format of quickly sending messages out into the world for all to see means that people can either be more guarded about personal information, or become a different character to tweet.
Getting strategic
Using Facebook needs to be part of a community approach that allows people to feel a sense of belonging to your brand. It creates a place where strangers can come together and be united, discussing their similar interests or ideals, and allows you to play a large role in that community. By being active and personal in your community, you can help suggest and shape people’s view of you.
Twitter on the other hand is much more one-way. Although celebrities often tweet responses to fans and commenters, it’s much more likely to see messages being sent out without direct replies. If your brand has/is news, links, and information you want shared, Twitter is a good tool, but don’t expect as much correspondence as you would get on Facebook.
I like what you say about belonging and therefore perhaps identifying with a brand or what have you, but I have to wonder just how easy it really is to be posting personal pictures on the internet. Granted one can choose what photos to put up, but even if I know people, there may be some things that I don't want some people knowing about. Plus, just how private are Facebook accounts? From what I've seen, they're the easiest things to hack and screw with. Good post
ReplyDeleteThanks Mike. There's a few different options that create a range of privacy on Facebook: the extremes being: all your content being open to anyone, or your content open to just your friends. In between there are options for friends of friends, etc. For myself, I need to accept you as a friend before you see anything, and i'm pretty sure if you search my name I don't even come up.
ReplyDeleteWith pictures yes, you can put up whatever you want (provided it doesn't get flagged for content), so the only danger is in pictures other people put up of you. All you can do about this is make sure you aren't "tagged" in any pics you don't like, so they don't come up on your page in the list of photos that include you. Although anyone can tag you in anything, you get notified when it happens and can choose to remove the tag. If you do, no one can tag you in that pic again.
As for the hacking thing, all I've witnessed is by friends. Someone finds out a password or gets on an account that's been left logged in. In that respect, yeah it's quite easy. Is this what you mean? or is there a lot of genuine hacking going on that I haven't seen?