I have been tempted to deactivate my Facebook account for some time. In this short YouTube video, Julian Smith comically explains his frustrations. I concur with all twenty-five of his reasons.
I was ready to deactivate my Facebook account last week. Then I heard Chris Brogan at O’Reilly’s Tools of Change Conference. He put forth a model that I really liked.
To paraphrase, he said that your blog is your “homebase.” This is where you ultimately direct people. On the other hand, services like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. are “outposts.” The purpose of an outpost is to connect with people that otherwise wouldn’t find your homebase.
This makes sense to me. At least several times a week, I get Facebook messages from people who say, “I stumbled across your blog on Facebook.” So, for now, I guess I will keep my account open. Personally, I find Twitter so much easier to use and more rewarding—and certainly less annoying.
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Facebook is a site I visit occasionally, usually to see what people I care to keep up with are doing. That would be the people who aren’t (yet) on Twitter. Otherwise I find Facebook a great way to waste time I don’t have. Definitely relate to Julian Smith’s 25. I like Brogan’s outlook, thanks for sharing that.
Interesting.
I’ve found that FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIN, and Flickr (my main four social networking sites) all allow non-intrusive, low-threshold ways to use tech to maintain “high-touch” relationships without being able to be physically present for people.
This his many-to-many technology, while apparently shallow with all the pokes, favorites, loose affiliations, gossip, and low-signal/high noise, still allows for one-to-one intensity. Further, having a profile and posting tweets, statuses, new pix, etc., invites response without demanding it. Not responding is guilt-free, but responses are totally gratis and are part of giving of one’s self. This allows me, as content creator, to remain open to new relationships that I would never have gotten initiated before, and as a consumer of content, it give me permission to generate relationships I could never have found before.
Finally, I’m sure you’ve experienced this, the nature of Twitter and Facebook is such that it encourages a semi-dangerous transparency. This is both good and bad: Good for those with wisdom and level-heads. Bad for the immature and too-frank. I know that I would tweet/update things I would never put in an email and broadcast — or blog — which is not always bad. The ephemeral nature of these services encourage frivolity, but not all is frivolous. Some is quite serious.
This comment, for instance, came about totally because i saw your tweet.
Rich
BlogRodent
I actually really like Facebook since I started Twittering. I have my tweets directed to Facebook, then I hear from tons of readers who are on Facebook but not on Twitter. Plus Twitter is so fleeting. People might or might not see a tweet, but they’ll notice it on Facebook.
The annoyances of Facebook are the causes and little gift and best girl stuff. All those applications. I’m not interested in those and just ignore all them. But I’m annoyed I have to click Ignore for them and wish there was a way to opt out of any applications unless I specifically install them.
Loved hearing what you learned at the conference! I’ll remember that blog as home base thing.
I found Facebook before prior to knowing about Twitter. I primarily end up using Facebook to stay in touch with friends and family and post a few things about business. Twitter is more targeted at business networking for me, as is LInkedIn. I also have a plaxo account. The challenge I found was the status updates in each, so I found http://www.ping.fm, which allows you to set one status and update all your social networking, some of your social networking, or one of your social networks by ‘pinging’ your micro blog. It will also shrink your url like tinyurl.com to help keep your mico-blogs under 140. This has made it easier to keep up. Maybe you have other suggestions?
I have a difficult time determining which is more intrusive–Facebook or Twitter. I’m now getting junk DMs on Twitter, which so misses the point of social networking.
@lawrencewilson
@Lawrence, people cannot DM you unless you are following them. You can just unfollow them. They will no longer be able to spam you.
My biggest annoyance with Facebook is the signal to noise ratio. There’s no way to filter out updates from specific applications. As a result, my Facebook page ends up filled with nonsense about people taking quizzes, throwing snowballs, etc. On the plus side of Facebook, it’s allowed me to reconnect with a lot of people that I wouldn’t have otherwise. I enjoy Twitter, I tolerate Facebook.
I agree. Through facebook I have been able to connect with friends that I have lost contact with over the years. I don't log on that often because of all the nonsense, but if I'd like to check on a friend I can just go to their page and see if they have posted anything lately. __I wish my family in Sweden (I am in the US) would get on twitter so I could keep up with them easier.
Just click on Hide – that way you never see that App again on your wall. Simple.
Michael, How do people find your blog on Facebook? I have a blog – it’s part of the blog network. But I’ve never stumbled across other blogs on Facebook.
Do mean they are already your friend and see it listed on your wall or profile?
I joined Twitter before I joined Facebook. I joined Twitter because you recommended it :)
I joined Facebook because many of my friends from church and family from Canada and across the States were on it but not on Twitter (and would likely never join Twitter). With the exception of a few people (such as yourself – that because I pray for you and these other people), I’ve kept the purposes of these two services separate. Facebook is more for my personal life and Twitter more for my “professional” life. This works for me. I like Facebook because I can put up pictures, view pictures of friends and family I don’t get to see as often, and catch up with those I’d otherwise only communicate with once a year. Interestingly enough, people who I could email, but don’t, I’ve instant messaged via Facebook or communicated wall-to-wall. Can’t do that with Twitter as easily.
On the other hand, Twitter is too public a forum for those type of contacts, but it suits my publicity needs on a “professional” basis.
I feel so much better now! I thought I was the only Facebook hater. I don’t join groups, I don’t go to “Events,” I don’t write on walls, I don’t send Flair… aarrgghh. But it does help to think of it as one more way to point people to my blog. Thanks for the Monday morning laugh and the new way to think about FB.
I enjoyed the video and agree with a lot of it. I take exception to the “Old people on FB.” I am one–I think–yup, pretty sure at his age he’d qualify me. I like FB combined with Twitter. Like others have said, there are people I have as friends that would never use Twitter and FB helps me keep in touch. We recently changed churches and so I can still keep in touch with old friends. I also found a long-lost cousin. And another old friend who moved away years ago, suddenly discovered that I am a speaker and writer. I truly think that some of the work I did with FB helped spread the word about my recent book.
I do get frustrated with having to click ignore a lot but I found that getting rid of many of the apps cut down on some of it. I vow never to throw another cyber snowball.
I enjoyed the video and agree with most of it. However the good I have found in FB is greater than the annoying things. I have re-connected with people I would never have found otherwise and have even met some new people so worth the annoying requests – I just ignore them =) Many of my family live out of town so great way to stay connected through the year =)
The two things I hate most about facebook are: 1. The comment place “what I am doing now”. There’s only one answer to that! Duh, I’m typing on facebook. 2. I dislike the constant e-mail updates. I’m capable of getting on facebook myself and checking it out.
But on the plus side, I have connected with some friends I haven’t seen in a long time, and it’s the place where my daughter posts her most recent pictures so I can get them minutes after she takes them. But it wasn’t until this blog that I realized how facebook and twitter can be a blessing to writers.
Turn off the email updates :) There is such an option.
I enjoy facebook. After reading the comments though I realize I handle it a lot differently than most. I have very high privacy settings and I also filter my updates. I have only a select few that appear on my front page (only close friends and family,,,and influencers)….the account settings page is a great tool with facebook…you can choose what you want emailed to you as well as choosing which friends you want to get updates on (you can also do this on your first page when you hoover and the options tab comes up) It does take a little work though…. And I hate the application request with a passion and wish there was a way to control those!!
It is a fun way to keep up with friends and to connect with new people…and it beats myspace any day!
Although I do use it less since I discovered twitter :)
I still enjoy Facebook, but I think that is because I have not expected much from it. Rather than trying to use it to connect with hundreds of people, I only accept friend requests from people I know and want to continue to know. Their status and other updates actually mean something to me.
I maintain an even more extreme standard on Twitter by using it as an information system rather than trying to facilitate relationships. If I am interested in somebody, I will visit their Twitter page occasionally. I only “follow” news sources that I want to hear from when something happens.
Let’s be honest: Can anybody “follow” more than a few people? Why would you want to? “Never before have so many people with so little to say said so much to so few.”
I like Twitter way better than FB. FB is another animal. I don’t get it. I’ve thought of deleting my page too. All the fluff I’m sent is crazy. I “ignore” most of it. I update my FB page through my Twitter feed. I have to explain to people I am rarely on FB but because of my Twitter feed, it appears otherwise.
Blogging is my favorite way to share.
I see Facebook as more of a Rolodex of either current contacts and opportunities or a place to develop new ones.
Facebook, in my opinion, is like the point and shoot camera that everyone owns. There was a time that photography was difficult…when you needed to know about fstops and apperature. Not so now – everyone can take a good photo. Facebook has made ‘blogging’ an easy thing to do, and a great way to connect.
I have people connecting to my blog through Facebook all the time.
But Michael I don’t get Twitter? Maybe I’m missing something, but I’m still working on it, and in the meantime my blog will feed into my facebook account!
MIchael, Thought you would appreciate this post from Tim Stevens. Pretty timely based upon your post here. http://tinyurl.com/cp77wp. Enjoy!
I consult hundreds of authors, artists, marketers, speakers and publishing entities on the right strategy for online marketing.
Two years ago we were of the belief that we needed to try to keep people at our clients’ sites (and therefore away from MySpace, Facebook, etc.). What we came to understand is that as the web evolves, there will be a definition between the free and not free worlds, and we needed to have our clients in both.
So, we build our clients’ sites to be the home base for all their most loyal fans and customers, and then spider out to the social networking entities to draw them back to the home base. We are focused not on replacing Facebook, Blogger, Typepad and MySpace, but complimenting them — doing things the free world cannot do (or at least cannot do effectively).
Facebook is terrific. I check in every day, usually more than once. But Facebook is a “light reading” environment, the abridged version of your relationships. Facebook is the front entrance/lobby of your church, not your small group or your Sunday school class.
The free world will never be able to replace the custom world by its very nature. Free can only be free if there is a massive aggregate audience that can be monetized through advertising. The niche, however, is where the big money is, and where true community is grown.
Summing up, most of us non-teens are still trained to think in the old way about communication. We may think we are “with it” because we have a Facebook account, but then get frustrated when Facebook doesn’t do everything and do it the way we want. Our mistake is in not getting that each of these emerging entities have their own special niche, and each will meet certain groups of people in the ways those folks prefer.
As an aside, I have been a publisher with Rivals.com for six years. I and two partners create all the content for VandySports.com. One of the fascinating things we have discovered is that even in our relatively small niche (Vanderbilt athletics) there are segments of our niche (football, baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, message board users, premium content subscribers, free board members, etc.). What is fascinating is how little overlap there is between these groups. We assumed that folks who loved men’s basketball would also love coverage of women’s basketball.
We were wrong! People like what they like, and you cannot entice them to like things they don’t like (unless there is a quantum event like a Final Four).
In that discovery, we also found out that there is a difference between what people want and what they will pay for. The balance between free and premium content is always delicate, but here’s the point: We know that without a regular flow of free content it is virtually impossible to get them into the paid subscription side of the network.
I tell clients to think of this as fishing. If you want to catch fish, get more than one pole in the water and try different baits. Move around, try different depths, and see what happens. The goal is to fill the stringer over a period of time, preferably with a variety of fish. Then, when you have success, go back to those spots and fish again — realizing that what caught fish yesterday may yield empty hooks today.
P.S. I might add that we have made great use of a widget called Blidget, distributed by a company called Widgetbox. A blidget feeds your public blog to your own site, as well as (any) other site out there. A fan could place your blog at their own site, for example, by simply copying and pasting the code into their web page.
http://docs.widgetbox.com/developers/blidget/
Larry – There is a way you can minimize the number of stories about what other people are doing in your feed. As each person’s “story” about the application they’ve joined or the picture they’ve commented appears in your feed, you should be able to click on the right hand side and choose the option to “see less” about that person or “see more” about that person. It should eliminate or cut way down on you seeing those “stories” about what your friends or their friends are doing.
Facebook to me is an opportunity to connect with the “less tech-savvy” family and friends. They might not read blogs, but it’s not a bad thing for them to at least know they can connect with me through there. It’s also been a vital point of communication for two ministry groups I manage. Allowing others to invite people to online or face-to-face events for free can’t be a bad thing.
I do agree that it can be an extremely annoying community by itself. I might hang out there a few minutes each day. Thanks Michael!
My goal is for people to be able to find me wherever they may be looking–Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.–and for me to be able to connect with people wherever they may be. I have found FriendFeed and Google Reader to be excellent tools in managing all of it.
I haven’t the time, right now, to go to the 25 Things…. If we were comparing Facebook to MySpace, I’d say I hated MS and tolerate FB. I joined it and occasionally participate in it reluctantly; I spend way too much time in this chair, as it is, which is the same reason I haven’t started Twitter. I’m with Fred Waters: What am I missing??
As to either Twitter or FB, let’s see who can guess what I’m doing, when I’m in FB, or if I were to tweet(?)! Having to tweet, tweak, twit, or whatever to say, “This is what I’m doing, now, or what I’m about to do,” is like keeping precise track of every single thing you do for 8 hours at work. How much time did I lose, while writing it down–or typing it!
Mike, I have been tempted to blast my FB account as well. Then I discovered how easy it is to use my iPhone app and avoid all the clutter I hate when looking at FB on my PC. Recently I changed my contact website on FB to my blog and have been amazed how many new subscribers have found it through FB. So, I too will endure it as an outpost. I am a little concerned now to find out that FB owns all my content. Yikes! http://tinyurl.com/c4u9xl
P.S. I love your new WP layout. Very crisp.
@johnflurry
I agree with almost everything in that video about reasons to dislike Facebook. I find it to be very distracting from time to time. It’s useful to me in both reconnecting with people I don’t normally see anymore and maintaining contact information with them, and because I also use Twitter to change my status, people notice what I’m doing and will comment on it (which I receive via email).
When working to assist marketers, the main problem has been that one of the biggest ways to interact with people regarding products and services is to start Groups, but Groups take a lot of time and attention to work properly, and there’s no way (that I can see) to be alerted when someone has posted to the Group or made other changes to it. I manage a Group for my product line and it’s difficult to find the time to manage it/check in with it every day. Add to that the fact that I can’t use my Facebook Inbox while at work (blocked), and it’s difficult to manage those relationships effectively.
As someone else has said, the signal-to-noise ratio is also unfortunately bad and you can’t effectively manage it with the built-in tools. Twitter is a boon because it allows each person to manage their own information flow and thus limit the noise.
Love Facebook, but agree with probably half of the 25 points in the video. FB certainly has it’s disadvantages, but I’ve found the advantages far out weigh those… Connecting with Family, friends, co-works in a quick non-evasive way. FB provides an outlet to stay connected quickly with those you’re not in regular contact with or perhaps a friend from long ago. Recently I’ve found many friends (close and not-so-close) from High School that I’ve caught up with. It’s been intriguing to see those that were “different” in HS and how much we’ve enjoyed catching up now. Also close friendships from people that have moved away rekindled, etc.
Certainly FB has many many annoyances and they’d likely be wise to address some of these, but I’ve also found it’s easy to ignore items, requests, etc.
Twitter….I honestly still don’t get. :-) I’m trying, learning, watching, but overall… updates way to often that seem meaningless in many ways. If you’re a high profile author, etc. certainly it can be a solid platform for communication, but I agree with many other comments on this site that Twitter, Facebook and other similar sites should be a portal to a main message site. Just my two cents.
@Jon, I agree that the Facebook app is really nice. In fact, I like it much better than the desktop interface. It make it almost manageable.
I’m a student ministry leader. I like Facebook ’cause almost all of my students are on Facebook and I can keep in touch with them throughout the week really easily.
I can take 20 minutes on lunch to “send flair” or “superpoke,” and while it’s simple to do it means something to them. It tells them that I’m thinking about them and they’re important to me. It takes a little bit of insight to pick a “piece of flair” that hits on an inside joke, or something the student is really into.
Facebook is also a great way to keep in touch with people since it’s more geared toward two-way conversation. It’s been especially useful for keeping in touch with non-Christian friends who wouldn’t really be drawn to my blog, or feel inclined to comment if they found themselves there.
I really enjoy facebook. I use facebook for friends that I have actually spent time with in my past. I use twitter to track new and current friends. I do wish that you could opt out of certain things, but I suppose it is the same on twitter, sometimes I wish I could opt out of some conversations. Thanks for the blog Mike.
Just another reason to hate Facebook: their new TOS grants them unequivocal subrights to anything and everything you post on their site, and they reserve the right to sell those subrights at their discretion.
There’s more here: http://www.carlytuma.com/?p=89
That was funny, but I do love Facebook. I just refuse to poke or play games, and use it instead to keep in touch with friends. And I don’t have Twitter update my status. There are settings to have “less” or “more” about people, so for those who do use it too much, you can tune them out unless something applies to you (fiddle with it, you’ll find them).
And you’re real friends won’t tag you in a photo unless it’s cool with you (of course, I’m not a teenager anymore).
What I like best? I reconnected with my seat mate from First Grade and a penpal I’ve written to off and on (mostly on but we lost touch about 5 years ago) for 33 years. That’s something.
This is exactly right. I use facebook as a ’social portal’ to my blog and to Twitter.
Yes and amen! Your mention of Chris Brogan’s comments are exactly how I feel about it. I even wrote about this on my own site. Hoping that it would lead to professional (I’m on Twitter and LinkedIn as well) and personal networking, I reluctantly joined FB. Initially it robs you of what could otherwise be productive time and then later becomes an annoyance.
To me the big benefit is the tools available for groups, at least groups that actually gather in person somewhere. Additionally it has been nice to catch up with people that I haven’t seen in a long time.
I dare say most of what people do on FB could be achieved through Twitter and other services attached to it.
-Fun video, thx, and great discussion. I like FB for all the various reasons mentioned and especially for starting new connections with young 30something friends who I’m not likely to email. I’m inclined to limit my FB connections to people I really know. Other people can follow me on Twitter, or sign up on my website/blog. Otherwise, FB becomes business promotion.
-I’ve had my Tweets linked to FB but I think they’ve been too business-y (according to some funny FB comments from my husband). I will probably undo that link. Anything automatic seems to defeat the point of real relationship building.
I like Twitter for the open access to people, ideas, info, and bits of whimsy and humor. However, Twitter is NOT the be all and end all. I found the tweets from the TED and TOC conferences to be pretty unsatisfying, you-had-to-have-been-there reference. I’ve enjoyed reading the blog posts that provide more context and substance.
Like a few people who’ve already posted, I use Facebook as a fairly closed environment, primarily to connect with people who are ‘on the net’ but wouldn’t even dream of something like blogging or twittering, etc. It’s a great way to share photos with o/s friends…but I’ve never dreamed of using it as a way to network more widely. If online friends find and friend me, that’s cool, but it’s primarily a way to stay in touch with IRL friends who are distant from me physically. And you can just ignore all those games/pokes/etc if you want :)
I find it hilarious that Facebook actually considers my posts so precious that they want to posses them- Quite honestly, they are welcome to them! Sometimes in Facebook you have to put your boxing gloves on as all kinds of people make friends with you, and I’m not one to ever say no. Moaning to a Twitter friend on Facebook who like me got harassed by those who don’t like your Religious outlook or political inclinations I am loathe to delete them because they are exactly the people you need to socialize with in order to keep this world rolling. However when it came to someone sending round a survey on what others thought what my sexual activities were I drew the line when “he” asked me to click on the url to see the results.
I have a lot of family members on Facebook, some I had lost contact for years and even though I may not interact with them often, it’s nice to know we are all linked up. I adore a lot of my writer friends from writers’ groups I belong to but we now find that since most of our family members are on facebook we are not as free as we would like to express all those not so orthodox things we enjoy exchanging so we resort to the ever protective Outlook express email (not the Facebook one)- especially now that such intellectual property belongs to the big bad wolf.
Apart from that, I enjoy being on Facebook, as I do being on Twitter, which are totally different from one another. My world would be quite diminished if I lost either of them.
For me I mostly use Facebook for people close to me (closer friends, people from church locally, old friends, etc) who aren’t as in to other forms of social media yet such as Twitter. Facebook, to me, is a little more two way. I enjoy going to friends pages and looking at new photos they post, etc. When I blog, it’s more about what I’m doing and less about what they’re doing.
Having said that, I 100% dig Twitter. It’s my fav. I’ve connected with lots of great people and established a ton of business contacts.
In conclusion. I blog to share ideas. I Facebook to stay connected to people closer to me. I Twitter to connect with the world in quick, digestible intervals. :)
I don’t poke, send flowers or ask someone to fill out lists of 25 to 100 items. But I’ve enjoyed reading their lists and have learned things I didn’t know about some of my friends. I’ve reconnected with college friends and kids that were in my children’s choirs who are now married and have their own children. I’m touched to see how much they love the Lord. I’ve made new online “friends” and will be connecting soon with someone who wants to know more about the Lord. This person sends me prayer requests. I post a link when I post a new blog posts. But people post their comments on Facebook instead of on my blogs. It’s also fun to “catch up” with people I haven’t seen in years. It’s so easy to look at their info page and their picture albums. For me, Facebook has been like old home week. Occasionally, I search for “Micheal Hyatt” to see what he’s up to and can scan his tweets. I can log on to Facebook once a day and see what people are up to. I also post Springs Writer’s workshops on Facebook and have started to connect with local writers who are unbelievers, but want to get together and get to know me. The best part is: my daughter-in-love posts pictures and videos of my first granddaughter and her incredibly kissable cheeks that I miss way too much!
I’m with ya! I’d like to have closed my FB account a while back.. almost sorry I got on it, but it does a few connections I’d never have made!
Michael, you were right, this conference was well worth missing NRB. Many of the same themes running through the social media workshops though. Thanks for sharing the link and the workshops!
Blessings,
Jube
I ignore a lot of stuff on Facebook. What I like about it is that it has allowed me to get closer to friends and family. My family and friends are very scattered. I might see some of them once a year or less, but facebook allow me to keep up with them as if they lived a few blocks away.
Facebook: Home base? interesting. Sometimes it feels like an outpost. There are so many people wanting to be friends that I would not consider residents of a homebase. But yes it is a place where pretty much of everything is consolodated; photos, events, you name it(almost).
While twitter is a bit like fishing – reaching out to people that you are wanting to engage with but not necessarily what to open the home base door to.
But honestly I use twitter more nowadays, the novelty of FB is wearing off; now it is just a tool to keep friends up to date and to promote my blog.
Facebook has its moments where you would like to shoot it, but in the end, I have had the great pleasure to connect w/friends I haven’t talked to in years (perhaps not even since grammar school). I also get the opportunity to meet people who I would maybe never get the chance to. . .like. . .you. Not that you’re unapproachable (just the opposite, I gather), but. . .hey. . .let’s face it. . .you run in a different circle then me. . .simply because you live in Nashville & me on the west coast. Nevertheless, Facebook is good for times like this. But I will say that I do enjoy Twitter a bit more, but I seem to be slowing my tweets cause I am just so busy. Thanks again!
@Philip, actually, I suggest that my blog was my homebase. Facebook would be an outpost,
I laughed like crazy at that video.
I’ve heard in the last few days that many people are ticked off at FaceBook. I’m not seeing it. I love it. All those applications (groups, pokes, etc), I don’t do any of them. I have my settings set that I don’t accept them.
I am more about talking with people on chat, checking out their status posts, and doing the blog networks. –Oh, but I have to admit, I’m diggin’ the scrabble application, really!
It’s true about FaceBook directing to your blog. I get almost 80% of my blog hits from it. I’ve come to know many people, both writers and non writers through FaceBook linking them to my blog.
Hi, Michael. As of yesterday, I’ve deactivated my FB. Too much of too much of nothing. My humble opinion.
I get a surprising amount of traffic to my blog from facebook, so I am keeping it.
I use the TwitterTools for WordPress plugin from Alex King to send all of my blog posts to twitter and then pull all twitter updates to facebook. I also get a lot of facebook replies to tweets and those sometimes turn into blog posts.
I do the same, thing, Luke. I have the TwitterTools plugin and also pull all
of my Twitter posts into Facebook.
First, the video made me laugh out loud, really loud because I, too, am bothered by most of the things mentioned except that I've learned to reject and ignore the features of FB that I don't like. I've also turned people down who want to be my "Friend" only to build their own base (because they know my children, etc). I all but ignored my FB account set up in the early stages until my husband discovered someone I had been searching for that had a FB account. In less than a year, I have discovered a personal and practical dimension and now keep up with family members, old classmates (I'm approaching my 30 year high school class reunion), former students I have mentored, current students with whom I'm involved in a mentoring relationship, friends and colleagues. Within a few minutes I can check status updates and see what most people consider "breaking news" in their lives–or at least something somewhat important. I can also build impressions of people, keep my finger on some generational and other trends important to my business, etc. Probably, for me, more importantly, I can offer encouragement, or a prayer, when people ask or seem to be reaching out. Yes, it's that transparency that's there. And with FB, I can take a few minutes to look at pictures people take the time to post and repeat the above. I love people and I enjoy studying them. What are they thinking? Why do they believe what they believe? What makes them tick? How are they motivated? What drives their relationships? FB enables me to see that in a way that twitter cannot. As a writer, photojournalist and newspaper editor — FB is rich material! But more than that, it is a place to connect.
Twitter is useful as well – but to compare them would be like comparing a gas oven to a microwave for me. I wouldn't cook my Thanksgiving turkey in a microwave any more than I would pop popcorn in my gas oven. One of the initial thing I enjoyed about Twitter was that it could update my status in FB. The down side to that was that FB people don't seem to enjoy the frequent "updates." So, the connectedness isn't always a plus, it would seem.
Practically speaking, many people on FB haven't yet optimized a blog as you have and may use their FB as a psuedo blog. I know this is true for me. As I look to developing a blog, I am looking to yours as an example!
I so agree with u, michael. I wanted to delete my fbook too cos it looks like myspace now. Junkie, but I just left it as that. I love Twitter cos I stalk max lucado and so I can rcv updates only from peeps I follow. Ur tweets never fail to entertain me. Send my growl to Nelson, yea.