Why is Twitter More Interesting Than FaceBook
I recently read a blog post [1] commenting on how twitter gives a better user experience than FaceBook. I hadn’t spent a lot of time thinking about the difference, but I suddenly realized that there is really a big shift in focus and tone when I use Titter or Facebook.
First, there are the obvious differences in interface. For example, when using Twitter there is the advantage that you are not required to follow what other people are saying. You are expected just to check one or another comment. Certainly, you can use Twitter as a two-way communication medium, but you can just as well concentrate in something unique about the person that is posting. This was the main point made by Scobleizer.
For Facebook, on the other hand, one has fewer ways to filter the contents of the conversation. Also, there is the annoyance of having comments mixed with the main information.
When Is FaceBook Useful?
There is clearly a context where this is useful. And this is exactly where Facebook was born: a group of friends that want to exchange news, comments, pictures, and videos. If that is the case, then Facebook is the right solution, but it works only if you do this with a small group of people that you know well. People are naturally receptive to what their friends want to say, even if it not useful for you.
You can’t say the same, however, when people that are not a close friend join your conversation. You can quickly become annoyed by what they say, especially if it is not something of your immediate interest.
Content Issues
Also, the content that works on Twitter may not work on FaceBook. For example, I use twitter to comment about my work, which mostly involve technology. But this is not something that all my friends enjoy. I don’t want to fill their Facebook first page with stuff that may not be of common interest.
Conversely, I feel better talking about personal matters on Facebook, because this is where my friends are. I feel that is difficult to mix both networks, but both have important use cases.
Personally, my conclusion on using Twitter and Facebook is that Twitter is much more scalable as a communications medium. You can basically talk anything you want on Twitter, and you will eventually find someone interested on it. This is hard to do in Facebook, unless you spending a lot of time to cultivate the right group of people as Facebook friends.
Facebook is better to keep in touch with people that you have something in common personally: either from the same school, neighborhood, or family. It is a great tool, but doesn’t go much further than that.
From the business point of view, I think FaceBook’s position is weaker, because people can get tired of the typical use cases (unless you are talking about a very young demographic group). Twitter appear to be more suited for business applications.
We still don’t know how the business will play out for both companies, but it look to me that their roles are starting to become easier to feel. Only time will tell, though, if they will change as quickly as necessary to continue growing.
[1] http://scobleizer.com/2009/11/02/the-chat-roomforum-problem-an-apology-to-technosailor/
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About the Author
Carlos Oliveira holds a PhD in Systems Engineering and Optimization from University of Florida. He works as a software engineer, with more than 10 years of experience in developing high performance, commercial and scientific applications in C++, Java, and Objective-C. His most Recent Book is Practical C++ Financial Programming.
