Now, I completely agree with you. Facebook and Twitter are supposed to serve two different types of social interactions for me in my life. And they do. And I agree, my Facebook friends don’t provide as much stimulating conversations that I may be looking for. Don’t get me wrong, we do have some stimulating conversations…but generally along the lines of music or “light” social commentary on something in the world.

What I want to dive into is this little bit of analysis: I am a member of the KC Startup and KC Hacker Facebook groups (among a few other groups). These groups are full of local talent, much of which we follow on Twitter, read their blogs, and interact with them. These groups are also geared towards my need to feed my brain and help our local community around these two subjects. There are posts placed on these groups and there is interaction and discussions had.

But…a lot of the members still have more conversations and interesting discussions outside of Facebook (on Twitter). Sometimes, posts are out on Twitter and don’t make it on to our Facebook group. And, most of the members are like me and our Facebook pages are “locked down” so we end up following each other on Twitter because we all think it is way to forward to try and “friend” someone we really don’t know.

It’s very rare to hear someone say, “hey, I’ll friend ‘ya on Facebook”. That doesn’t happen. We become a part of these people’s social circle on LinkedIn and Twitter, but not Facebook. And the few friends I have because of these groups on Facebook…we don’t use Facebook to discuss tech, news, or the like. We use Facebook for very light interaction, and not even daily.

I also do follow some people who’s content I like (Gary Vaynerchuck for example). But these are Fan Pages, and not all posts make it to these pages. I again find more content on their Twitter posts that lead me back to their blogs/websites or to other content that I find enjoyable to read (and discuss).

I guess I’m driving at…I think more traffic about blogs, thoughts, comments, status updates, and news comes from Twitter than Facebook. I feel Bill Gates, Zucky, Jobs, Ballmer, and other people I find interesting utilize Twitter to post something rather than Facebook. I think that is because people are using other social tools (Tumblr and blogs) for their information then posting a tweet with their latest info. Facebook, to me, doesn’t seem like the place they would write a note to all their friends to read.

I see Facebook as a haven for bands, books, tv shows, products (Pepsi, Coke), and the like because people can “like” them. They can show interest in those pages. And if these companies and brands are smart, they will leverage that information into brand loyalty. The majority of them don’t know how to do that…yet.

Twitter is a different beast for this type of company and brand interaction. You never really know why someone is following you. You don’t have the context that you may get on Facebook. So for brands and companies, Facebook can and should be a more powerful tool for marketing and loyalty acquisitions than Twitter. Even though Twitter can garner some of the same loyal following and advertisements.

I know I have to be the change that I want to see. I know that I’ve created my own monster with how I utilize my social presence on Facebook. I’m just saying…Facebook is getting boring and I’m looking for my next fix. But, sometimes, boring can be comforting

Some background first: the platforms Facebook vs. Twitter inherently have 2 different structures to them (and both for good reason):

It’s all about reciprocal attention:
1- Facebook is more intimate and controlled by design because it requires both people to reciprocate the friendship.
2- On Twitter reciprocal attention is optional. Users can choose to be passive or reciprocate the follow.

Facebook doesn’t suck. I still think your friends suck (respectfully). But it’s not b/c your friends are bad people …it’s that your expectations and objectives what you want out of social tools (Facebook) is falling short b/c of two things: 1- the friends you have on Facebook don’t use the tool for business and 2- they aren’t interested in creating/sharing the content *you* want to read and consume when you login to Facebook. It isn’t fair to devalue Facebook as a social networking tool and its effectiveness to facilitate interaction online …all just because *you* aren’t getting value out of it. Your experience is unique to you and isn’t the same for everyone else.

I’d bet your mindset and perceptions of Facebook would completely change if you were friends with other like-minded people on Facebook. What if, when you logged in, you were friends with Bill Gates, Zucky, Ballmer, Scoble and other power influencers in the space. In the closed wall community of Facebook, you all of sudden could passively or actively consume the information they shared. And you’d likely think it was way better than Twitter b/c you don’t have to sort through the mess of other people’s updates (like you do with Twitter). Furthermore, you could consume multi-media of content without jumping out of the platform (video and pictures).

These communication tools can be used to do many things. Given what you are most interested in (which sounds like more business intentions and expanding your knowledge and thinking), Twitter’s inherent nonreciprocating structure is better suited for how you want to communicate (or lack there of passively).

Furthermore, Twitter is one of the most powerful tools to use to follow, learn, and communicate with the people you can’t reciprocate the friendship b/c you don’t know the person IRL (which Facebook is inherent intention is to augment real-life relationships).

This all is supported by the construct called “Ambient Intimacy” (linking b/c it’s relevant in further explaining what i mean): http://ramseymohsen.com/2009/06/ambient-intimacy-a-term-you-need-to-know/

As a suggestion, you might consider creating a friend list filter on Facebook called “Business/Tech”. Add only the people you’re friends with on Facebook that you feel provide value to what you’re wanting to consume (in terms of content). This list could be a combined list of FB Pages and actual people (just throw in anyone that creates content you enjoy consuming).

My Facebook account is not open, it’s locked…you have to be my “friend” to see that information. I don’t view Facebook so much as a tool to use for my business life. Although good friends from work are my friends on the platform as well as some new friends from local KC groups. But the majority of my friends are “long lost high school people”, family, and close friends. I’m one of those people that has under 150 friends.

Which brings up…people that have 200+ friends. We all know we really don’t have that many friends. We have acquaintances but not good friends of that quantity.

People unlike me, who use Facebook for business and personal do use it more often and share more topics. But at that point, wouldn’t your Facebook social life be just like your Twitter and LinkedIn life…and throw in your blog at that point? If you’re a wide open social person and a business person, do you ever really have a social network of just your close (closer…under 150) friends? What social network do you then use? Probably Facebook. And then, how often do you use your personal account versus all of your other social tools?

I guess my point is, I only use it to look at people’s updates. Maybe make a comment or two (congratulating friends, wishing happy birthdays, cracking jokes). I hardly post or update my status on that site anymore. Twitter is more interaction for me and I’ve learned a lot more by meeting and “following” people I don’t know on Facebook and reading very interesting blogs (like this one) and interacting more…through Twitter…than Facebook.

I may be friends with the wrong people on Facebook. But then, if Zuckerberg won’t even be friends with me on his platform, then my only option is Twitter.

Keep up the good work. It’s nice to read a substantive blog for a change…

Great analysis. Working with an SMB in the suburbs of Chicago I’m shocked at how under utilized these sites are for what they are good at “networking”. So many people are still asking the “Are these sites valuable” question rather than realizing the potential and using them to create value. It’s insane.