Are we sharing content online efficiently? (Part 7)

ISSUE: Outside of the Google-verse (Where will this content be valued the most?), continued

What do you share on Twitter?

I guess that I post things on Twitter with the notion that I have no notion as to who will see my tweet. Hopefully it will catch someone’s fancy.

Of course, there is a bit more intention to my tweets. I try to post during times of day that I have found people to be more responsive. I @reply and join in on conversations led by hashtags or not led by hashtags. I use hashtags. You know, regular stuff.

On Twitter, it’s like there are people with interests out there and they are sharing those interests. Those interests are up for grabs. We may not become best friends, but we’re interested in engaging on these topics and that can add valuable information—knowledge—to your life, my life and the lives of others.
Or, it may just be an LOLCAT we’re laughing at.
So, what? Do Facebook groups or pages take care of this online, too? Well, they may take care of it on Facebook, but I don’t believe that the engagement on Facebook replaces that of what is offered in the Twitter environment.

Forget becoming best friends. We may not even become “friends”. Just because we both really enjoy the customer service at XYZ company in town and both really like learning foreign languages and we both had the same professor at the same university doesn’t mean we’ll become Facebook friends. It may, but it may not. People may refer to Twitter as a global chat room in a more negative sense, making fun of the connections people make on there. But those example reasons stated above that wouldn’t push me to friending you on Facebook often exceed the requirements people who meet in real life first have for friending each other.

Are we sharing content online efficiently? (Part 6)

ISSUE: Outside of the Google-verse (Where will this content be valued the most?)

What do you post to your friends on Facebook?

My friend-friends know me enough that any outside content I post to the site shouldn’t surprise them much. If anything, whatever I post to the site may be entertaining or understandable to them but odd to my more acquaintance-friends or, well, Facebook-friends. I, of course, find most content that I find interesting…interesting enough to share. However, especially nowadays since the internet content has grown and developed so much from the early days of Facebook, I try to be more selective as to what I post to Facebook so that I (1) don’t flood my friends’ feeds (those that haven’t hid me, I suppose!) and so that (2) I get the most engagement out of the post with my Facebook friends.

Now, my Facebook “strategy” isn’t as serious as it sounds. I didn’t sit and strategically plan anything. But especially after experience in the blogosphere and mini-blogosphere, I am naturally inclined to be conservative with what I share on Facebook.

Twitter, on the other hand, has been a free for all so far.

Are we sharing content online efficiently? (Part 5)

ISSUE: Outside of the Google-verse

With Google Reader as my personal online content hub, I easily find interesting content that I desire to share with friends and followers. So, who are these “friends” and “followers” and where are they?

Of course the most obvious connection is that my friends are on Facebook while my followers are on Twitter. People connect to others on social networking sites but my connections on Facebook and Twitter align with the nature of the networks, I believe. On Facebook, I am “friends” with my actual group of friends plus acquaintances and coworkers; basically, if we are Facebook friends, we have met and have some personal or professional connection before friending each other. Facebook has allowed me to communicate with these people in different ways than we would have in the absence of such a social network. My Twitter experience is somewhat backwards from my Facebook experience; I don’t necessarily know the people that I tweet or RT. I found some niches—check out my lists—and I especially like to follow my own list comprised of other “tweeps” in Greensboro and the Triad. I may often think of Twitter as a worldwide open chat room, but the first thing I go to when I sign in is my list of locals with whom I actually connect, and I get value from that.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t want my Facebook and Twitter worlds to mix too much. As much as I tried to explain Twitter to some of my friends (I didn’t try that hard) I realized that I was quite comfortable without them being a part of it. I don’t feel like I have to then explain this to them either, but because I am comfortable with those two social networks not mixing, I understand that one doesn’t replace the other—for me or for people in general. They are two different platforms. Though I was socially networking on Twitter, like I had been doing on Facebook, it was a different environment. I’ve heard that Twitter is like a cocktail party and Facebook is like a backyard BBQ. I am not sure how deep everyone digs into that metaphor but it’s so true. It’s kind of like Twitter allows you to mingle without that busy-ness of getting dressed up in your nice jeans and trying to figure out who you know at the party.