Twitter has been such a hit with celebrities, politicians, business organizations, and of course, normal beings. According to the analysis of Barracuda Labs, Twitter grew like wildfire in 2009. It was suggested that the influx of celebrities on Twitter resulted in the sudden growth before it dramatically slowed down in recent months.
Call me a frog in the well, but personally I have never been interested in Twitter, as such I had no registered account thus far. However, with an increasing number of myfriends banking in on Twitter, perhaps it would be wise to check out what this social media tool has to offer.
Registration & Design
For a start, I applaud Twitter for its relatively fast and fuss free account creation process. Gone are the days when the registration of an account requires information that is deemed redundant. Twitter account creation required little information and three steps to get the account up and working. Greeted with a clean layout yet visually appealing, Twitter beats Facebook hands down with its design.
Functionality
Upon further exploration, it seems Twitter has nothing spectacular to offer in terms of functionality. The social networking site basically serves as a message board for its users which feels like a compressed and neatly organized status update of Facebook. The differentiating factor might be Twitter offering you the option of receiving tweets through its messaging service.
That being said, it is not a chore to stay connected on the go. With 3G, WiFi hotspots and Facebook applications, users can easily update their Facebook statuses and read news feeds. As such, it greatly diminishes the attractiveness of Twitter’s messaging service. Besides functioning as a message board, Facebook allows third party applications where users can for example take a quiz and play games like FarmVille.
Privacy & Security
A series of security features were recently unveiled which Facebook users can enable on their profiles. For instance, users can list devices “authorized” to access their accounts. As such, “unauthorized” devices that has been used to access their accounts will trigger security, notifying the users and sending them information on how to reset their passwords and securing their accounts.
Prior to that, Facebook had been under the heat regarding privacy issues and policies pushing past the privacy limits of users. Some of these issues revolve around the inability to opt-out of Facebook features such as the news feeds and mini-feeds and the amount of information that was coming from them. In addition, there were rising concerns regarding the use of Facebook for surveillance and data mining.
On the other hand, Twitter shys away from unwanted media coverage with its traditional privacy policy in place. However, occasional bugs that breached the privacy of users placed Twitter in the limelight. Taking an example, the recent “force follow” bug hogged tech headlines where users found themselves automatically following others.
Social Media Marketing
In terms of social media marketing, both Facebook and Twitter have their fair share of pros and cons. Facebook can be pretty structured, restricting the creative usage of Facebook pages. For instance, the editing of wall tabs does not seem to be an option, as such leaving the wall tabs of pages looking similar. For that, page administrators might want to consider changing the settings for their landing tab.
Cons aside, Facebook would be useful for businesses to stay connected with their customers and clients with wall posts, interactive applications and micro sites. On the other hand, Twitter serves as a medium for businesses to spread messages of events or updates about the company. Twitter cuts back the interactivity with your followers however provides a relatively fuss free process where tweets can be tracked while you spread.
I must say I get pass new gadgets, games, items etc. really quickly and as such, the excitement and happiness is pretty much short lived. With Twitter, I would probably positively last a week or two before I just stop checking in on it. Perhaps it is just me, but Twitter just seems less appealing overall. Unless most of my friends decide to abandon the Facebook ship, Twitter is just not the site that would keep my attention.
If you like to just keep up with updates of what your friends are doing or spread a message about events, Twitter with its clean and visually attractive layout is probably your way to go. =)
Facebook VS Twitter
Twitter has been such a hit with celebrities, politicians, business organizations, and of course, normal beings. According to the analysis of Barracuda Labs, Twitter grew like wildfire in 2009. It was suggested that the influx of celebrities on Twitter resulted in the sudden growth before it dramatically slowed down in recent months. (Source: http://mashable.com/2010/03/10/twitter-follow-stats/)
Call me a frog in the well, but personally I have never been interested in Twitter, as such I had no registered account thus far. However, with an increasing amount of friends banking in on Twitter, perhaps it would be wise to check out what Twitter has to offer.
Registration & Design
For a start, I applaud Twitter for its relatively fast and fuss free account creation process. Gone are the days when the registration of an account requires information that is deemed redundant.
INSERT IMAGE: http://stuffthathappens.com/blog/2008/03/05/simplicity/
Twitter account creation required little information and three steps to get the account up and working. Greeted with a clean layout yet visually appealing, Twitter beats Facebook hands down with its design.
Functionality
Upon further exploration, it seems Twitter has nothing spectacular to offer in terms of functionality. The social networking site basically serves as a message board for its users which feels like a compressed and neatly organized status update of Facebook. The differentiating factor might be Twitter offering you the option of receiving tweets through its messaging service.
However, with 3G and Facebook applications, it is not a chore to stay connected on the go. Thus, when it boils down to networking site attractiveness, games and applications can be very advantageous, well at least for me. With the amount of games updates and quiz results on the news feeds, I suppose you will agree games and applications on Facebook does attract and retain users.
Privacy & Security
A series of security features were recently unveiled which Facebook users can enable on their profiles. For instance, users can list devices “authorized” to access their accounts. As such, “unauthorized” devices that has been used to access their accounts will trigger security, notifying the users and sending them information on how to reset their passwords and securing their accounts.
Prior to that, Facebook had been under the heat regarding privacy issues and policies pushing past the privacy limits of users. Some of these issues revolve around the inability to opt-out of Facebook features such as the news feeds and mini-feeds and the amount of information that was coming from them. In addition, there were rising concerns regarding the use of Facebook for surveillance and data mining.
On the other hand, Twitter shys away from unwanted media coverage with its traditional privacy policy in place. However, occasional bugs that breached privacy of users placed Twitter in the limelight. Taking an example, the recent “force follow” bug hogged tech headlines where users found themselves automatically following others.
Social Media Marketing
In terms of social media marketing, both Facebook and Twitter have their fair share of pros and cons. Facebook can be pretty structured, restricting the creative usage of Facebook pages. For instance, the editing of wall tabs does not seem to be an option, as such leaving the wall tabs of pages looking similar. For that, page administrators might want to consider changing the settings for their landing tab.
Cons aside, Facebook would be useful for businesses to stay connected with their customers and clients with wall posts, interactive applications and micro sites. On the other hand, Twitter serves as a medium for businesses to spread messages of events or updates about the company. Twitter cuts back the interactivity with your followers however provides a relatively fuss free process where tweets can be tracked while you spread.
I must say I get pass new gadgets, games, items etc. really quickly and as such, the excitement and happiness is pretty much short lived. With Twitter, I would probably positively last a week or two before I just stop checking in on it. Perhaps it is just me, but Twitter just seems less appealing overall. Unless most of my friends decide to abandon the Facebook ship, Twitter is just not the site that would keep my attention.
If you like to just keep updates of what your friends are doing or spread a message about events, Twitter with its clean and visually attractive layout is probably your way to go.
