Twitter is the new Facebook. Facebook is the new MySpace.
Why do I like Twitter better than Facebook? This guy’s blog post sums it up really well.
why is twitter inherently different from facebook:
1) social networks usage patterns are dictated by its leading users, not by the actions encouraged by a technology / interface
Facebook is about hearing about the people in your life or past life’s lives. Call it ambient intimacy if you want whatever. It mirrors very much the types of relationships with real life people.
Twitter is about information streams / trend hunting/ real time search with people I dont necessarily have to know.
Facebook is about gossip. Twitter is about feeling connected/ a social sixth sense.
2) twitter is lightweight. facebook is heavy.
facebook not only has the messaging component, it also has its applications, networks , groups, granular rich privacy settings and networks.
twitter only has an on/off switch for privacy. you follow or unfollow someone.
why is “lightweightness” a key factor:
1) twitter encourages emergent behavior
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence
(e.g. twitter being used for flash mobs, for the backchannel effect, for reporting evil caltrain conductors, starting revolutions)
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/04/activist-charge.html
http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/03/sxsw-mark-zucke.html
2) twitter encourages creative usage from the users (not only developers)
3) twitter has a rich API which drives 95% of their traffic
4) twitter relationships can be built on the fly with hashtags
#groups surface relatioships in current situation
(used heavily for conferences and talks)
Twitter encourages new uses , facebook controls the types of uses.
3) your audience shapes the message.
when I blast something to twitter, I am communicating with a sea of random people, most of whom have opted to listen to me despite not knowing me at all.
when I blast something to twitter, I am communicating to people that mirror my real life social graph. In most cases, people from elementary school, high school , college.
Frankly, the majority of my facebook friends are not interesting.
your messages are going to be constrained if you are talking to a bunch of people that include:
a) your mom b) your elementary school classmates c) your coworkers d) your friends
vs.
people who have decided to opt in to listen to you.
There is nothing transactional about a twitter follow/following exchange but its a big deal for a facebook friend defriending which adds moree friction to this.
Twitter is about listening to interesting people , facebook is about listening to everyone you have ever known in your entire life.
4. Twitter is better poised to win in a mobile web fight.
Twitter translates better through a variety of canvases precisely because it is so simple whereas facebook is still primarily a desktop app ( though I must give its mobile web props).
Twitter’s going to win, I bet it.
Twitter is the New facebook.
And facebook is the new Myspace.
Oh and did I forget to mention real time search.
