Get our Newsletter!I finally gave in and created a Twitter account. I’ve known about Twitter for a long time, and I spent some time today looking around the site to get a better idea of what it offers.
As a social networking tool, I can see that Twitter could be fun for people who spend a lot of time online. However, I keep thinking to myself “How is Twitter different than Facebook?”
- Facebook offers the “Status Update” feature, which is basically the same thing as the concept behind Twitter (minus the public RSS feed).
- You can upload tons of pictures to Facebook while organizing them into albums.
- Facebook offers an ever-increasing number of useful and fun applications which plug into your profile.
- Twitter, as far as I can tell, is simply a tool for updating your status. There’s little or no organization.
- There’s no user profile.
- There’s no 3rd party applications — though I suppose you could write one using your public RSS feed.
The Winner Is…
…I suppose it sort-of depends on what you’re trying to accomplish.
I would think companies or individuals who needed a public RSS feed would get more use out of Twitter. Thus, your updates would be viewable to anyone at any time (not just when logged into Facebook).
On the other hand, if you wanted a full profile with the ability to create updates, picture albums, and 3rd party applications then Facebook is the platform for you.
Why not just Blog?
Honestly, I have a feeling I won’t be using Twitter much (unless someone can convince me otherwise). I’ve had a Facebook account for probably 4 years now, and I login every few days — mainly to look at my friends’ profiles. I use the notes application to import my blog’s RSS feed so that my friends (who may not know I actually have a blog) can read my posts.
As for updating my status? My life is pretty uneventful, and I doubt anyone really cares what I’m doing right now, right this very second. I feel like a blog is the perfect tool for communicating anything worth saying online. I see little value in using Twitter, and Facebook is hardly the place for professional conversation.
