Now that Facebook is asking “What’s on your mind?“, will it leverage its vastly bigger user base and squeeze Twitter out of the market just as the latter was poised to launch into the mainstream?
I believe the question is a valid one. For starters, Facebook’s question is of course a much better one than Twitter’s tired “what are you doing?”, a legacy which defines the service and at the same time has been holding it back. The question as it is being asked now invites countless “having breakfast” and, more recently “watching Rove” tweets and is single-handedly responsible for the high abandon rate of new twitterers.
Only once new users realise that they shouldn’t answer the question “what are you doing”, but rather “what do you find interesting” or, as it were, “what’s on your mind?”, do they begin to find value in their use of Twitter.
Now superficially the signs look good for Facebook’s fending off of Twitter: It has a much broader user base and it is already an integral part of many people’s days.
But there is one crucial difference: Facebook is built around friend connections – people you know in real life. You can stay connected with them and know what’s on their mind. But if you’re anything like me, your Facebook friend list contains many a long-forgotten acquaintance or high school mate whose opinions or preoccupations you don’t really care that much about.
Twitter goes much further than this. Its connections are asymmetrical and non-reciprocal. You do not have to ask people permission to read their Twitter streams. And you can easily follow new people whose thoughts you find interesting and worthwhile.
Facebook may be here to strengthen your real-life relationships, but Twitter is here to extend them.
What do you think? Is the broaden-your-network effect important enough to let Twitter survive? Is it something else that will help it fend off the assault? Or is Twitter doomed to succumb to the Facebook juggernaut?
I’m not exactly a Facebook power user (shock horror!) hence not sure how the new FB feature works, but to participate in someone’s FB stream wouldn’t you need to “friend” them first?
I already have one or two FB “friends” I don’t really know (and I have been a little too casual in who I friend in the past), but I’d be reluctant to open the floodgates to masses of similar people just so they could follow my FB stream!
I see Twitter as a far superior way of *instigating* relationships than FB, and once I knew a follower well enough on Twitter I might then add them to my FB list.
So, no, at this point I don’t see Twitter going anywhere unless it say suffers a set of massive outages and forces its users to find an alternative such as FB.
New blog post: Will Facebook Kill Twitter? http://tinyurl.com/djmo6m
I couldn’t have said it better myself. When I first started using MSN IM all those years ago, the status updates was my first flirtation with status updates. It was that instant bite of info about someone. You didn’t have to go into a lengthy discussion with them about the weather or life the universe and everything. You would know exactly what was going on without actually having to strike up a conversation. Ok that may sound completely lazy but keeping up-to-date with friends and family’s lives globally would be a nightmare. Read more over at: http://www.meredithjames.com/blog
RT @voirol Will Facebook Kill Twitter http://tinyurl.com/djmo6m my twit n FB status aren’t connected b/c of old ppl I don’t care about on FB
I think you’re touching on a crucial point there John. You say “I have been a little too casual in who I friend in the past” and I’m sure most of us have a similar experience.
With the way Facebook notifies people when you “unfriend” them though, many would just keep these people on the list. Twitter is much more casual like that. When you unfollow someone they are not notified and people culling their followed lists is a common thing.
This lowers the barrier to following someone even more – you can “just try them out”.
RT @voirol: New blog post: Will Facebook Kill Twitter? http://tinyurl.com/djmo6m
Hi Tom
Do you think that Facebook and Twitter are different enough to exist side-by-side?
In other words, there will be no “winner” per se …
Agreed that Twitter (arguably) makes it easier to manage your “friends”…
However, Facebook has all those applications that extend the way people can interact … and add entertainment value.
So, Facebook may be a “richer” experience than Twitter.
Granted it all someone wants to do is comment about ‘what’s on their mind’, Twitter makes that very easy. That’s a fairly narrow feature set though.
Interesting times…
I was under the impression that ppl could be removed from your friends list on FB and they wouldnt be notified
PS several friends of mine on FB who arent geeks dont like the new Twitter style list of updates saying its too much information and seems to be dominated by people who update often via Twitter [ who me?
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@Jonno Oh, I never argued that Twitter would make Facebook obsolete, but that it was offering something that was a threat to parts of what FB is offering. Predictably, FB reacted by integrating Twitter-like functionality into their core product so I though it a natural question whether the new Facebook would now make Twitter obsolete.
My conclusion was no, and it appears most other commentators reach the same conclusion.
@Neerav I find it interesting that several people don’t like the opening of the status floodgates that the new Facebook question is likely to bring with it. They would probably not be Twitter users anytime soon I expect.
Facebook main page looks a lot like Twitter… Will this cut into Twitter use? Probably. Kill it? hard to say: http://is.gd/o51Y
I think you’re right on your way of considering Facebook and Twitter.
For me, Facebook is more a friend network contrary to Twitter that I think is more professional or passion oriented…
That’s why I think Facebook is loosing itself, he should prepare to fight Google than Twitter.
Hopefully it will encourage Twitter to add some features like nested replies and some of the other things that is really cool with Facebooks status updates.
Twitter is so clunky at times and if it’s going to continue to grow they have to invest in infrastructure and development.
Matt, I agree that Twitter can be clunky, but I’m not sure adding features will help. Making the same idea sexier is what Plurk tried.
Plurk is undeniably prettier and more feature-rich than Twitter, but the latter’s sheer simplicity plus the availability of a thorough API allowed third parties to make up for what was missing (think all the Twitter clients, Summize [now Twitter Search] and all the other web add-ons).
This, in turn, provided Twitter with the critical mass to grow even more. Adding features works when everyone uses a service, is comfortable with it, and ready to learn more. I don’t Twitter is quite there yet.
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