Yesterday, I posted about how Twitter kept me in the loop during the massive snowstorm. But what about Facebook? Couldn’t I have used it as well?
Sure, I could have, and I do use Facebook, but I’ve decided I like Twitter better. Why? Glad you asked.
One of the things I really like about Twitter is that you can follow anyone. Can that be a two-edged sword? Yes, it can, but it gives me an opportunity to interact with people who would never friend me on Facebook. I’m following some authors and even a few celebrities. I don’t make a pest of myself, but it’s nice to be able to comment on some of their posts and think they might be reading my comments.
The ability to follow someone without them having to approve it allows me to extend my reach away from my immediate geographic area much faster than I could with Facebook.
Facebook needs some updates. With Tweetdeck on my computer and Twittelator on my phone, I can quickly and easily keep up with the people I follow. Lists are easy to set up and easy to follow. With Facebook, every time I reset my preferences on the News Feed, they revert back to default every time I log back in. I gave up. Keeping up with my friends has been much harder since the News Feed function was added.
Is there spam on Twitter? Of course there is. But Twitter spam does not bother me as much as Mafia Wars and Farmville updates. Those are most of what shows up in my Newsfeed, and I’m sick of them. Just so you know, I do not play Facebook games, so you’ll never get those updates if you friend me.
Facebook recently added the retweet function (about time), but I still prefer the Twitter version. There are limits to what you can retweet on Facebook (links, photos and the like). Sometimes that smart comment is just what you want to send on. So it’s much harder to get something to go viral on Facebook.
The Twitter interface is much cleaner and easier to navigate. I don’t get lost in all the extra stuff Facebook clutters up my page with (like most of the junk on the left and right of the pages).
Twitter itself doesn’t get in my way. I can do what I want to do. Send, read and interact. Facebook seems like its trying to do too much and doing none of it particularly well.
Anyone else have a counter view?
Tags: social media
I agree. There’s just so much crap on FB and you can’t turn it off. While I have a company FB page, about the only thing it’s good for is collecting links I refer to from time to time.
I’m slowly developing my comfort level with Twitter. It seems so simple, but it’s really a complex little tool. I really like brevity, so Twitter really appeals to me. Now I just have to understand it lot better and harness it’s power.
Twitter does take a little longer to “get” than Facebook. But I agree, once you start to get Twitter, it is a powerful tool.
Unfortunately also an incredible time sink, if you let it be.