By: Adrian T. Dayton
A rule of thumb I use for Facebook and Twitter is this: Facebook for friends and groups, Twitter for business. That is not to say that either network cannot be used for both activities. There is plenty of crossover between FB and Twitter, and even a Twitter application for Facebook but there are fundamental differences between the two as well.
Twitter is very inclusive with respect to meeting new people. The inclusive nature of Twitter has even spawned the innovation of a special day of the week called #followfriday, which is a way of recommending quality people for your followers to follow by using #hashtags. Follow Friday has a few corresponding websites such as TopFollowFriday.com, which lists the people on Twitter with the most daily #followfriday endorsements. Facebook, on the other hand, is more directed towards real life friends. Following someone on Twitter can be a one way street, but Friending some on Facebook always involves a connection.
Facebook has filtering tools that allows you to organize and segment groups. If you create a group on Facebook you are able to message all individuals within the group. Facebook groups can cover most any kind of group you can imagine; parties, campaigns, meetings, you name it. The weakness of Facebook groups are that getting the word out to strangers or people that you are not directly connected with you is quite difficult without using advertising.
In sharp contrast with Facebook, Twitter is a noisy cocktail party where almost everything said can be overheard by anybody else. Profiles on Twitter can be private, but are almost always open for all to see. This open form of communication removes many barriers to conversation. Twitter helps to facilitate connections between total strangers by encouraging people to read each others tweets, communicate, follow each other, and become acquainted. By allowing others in on your conversation people can find connections with each other based on the content of the conversation rather than relying mostly on a pre-existing friend network, as Facebook does.
Conclusion
Facebook and Twitter both have their strengths, and both are amazing in their own ways. If you are only using one of these platforms, I suggest you take the time to learn to use them both, because from here on out Facebook and Twitter will help define how our society communicates.
