Facebook vs. Twitter or Facebook and Twitter?
October 30, 2007 – 12:42 amI was thinking about Facebook Status and Twitter the other night. While I usually think of it as “Facebook Status vs. Twitter” a different thought came to mind. What if it was “Facebook Status then Twitter”? While the two services are basically the same when it comes to their purpose - life streaming - their make-up is pretty different.
Facebook First
The Facebook Status is something that’s pretty widely used in very much the same way as Twitter. This means that a large number of college students are learning, or have already learned the joys of life streaming. I would also bet that Facebook Status has more users who keep using Facebook Status once they start compared to new Twitter users who start using it then stop. Perhaps this is because Twitter is a focused version of Facebook Status and because of that, it’s more difficult to see the value of only life streaming whereas Facebook Status is but a feature of a larger value platform (the social network itself). Or, stated differently, MySpace (technically Friendster, I suppose) showed the value of social networks when the initial reaction was quite similar - What’s the point? Facebook focused in on a niche of what MySpace was providing. Whats if the same was true for Twitter?
Twitter Re-Loaded?
The first explosion happened at SXSW 2006. Twitter got hot… and fast. So I wonder, what if there is a second explosion waiting for Twitter? With Facebook giving value and teaching people to life stream, will Twitter gain the popularity as a niche focus like Facebook did with MySpace (obviously in a somewhat different way)? Will there be a point where Facebook users “graduate” from aspects of Facebook (or FB entirely) and move on to Facebook Status’ big brother, Twitter? Or a different question: Is there a way for Twitter to capitalize on this market that already understands the concept of their service but isn’t geek, and thus hit the social tipping point?
Maybe Twitter will thrive like Digg and Del.icio.us, a bit beyond the geek community, or maybe it can reach a social tipping point and become the life stream hub of a great many people’s social life. Given their recent feature addition of tracking, I would say their current path is geek. I’d say a more interesting idea would be what if this “life streaming” was built into e-mail?
