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Via @prsarahevans

This Article is a response to: Why Rob Diana is right: Twitter gets the hype while Facebook will get the gold

“Rob is right, I wonder how Twitter is going to shift to get us to be more intimate with sharing the intimate details of our lives?”

I don’t see how Twitter itself is going to shift, but I see that the user base on twitter Wants to share more intimate details with each other. The main limitation from my personal experience is limited discussion space. Sharing intimate details takes a great deal of effort in 140 characters.

“This kind of customer intimacy will be far more prevalent over on Facebook because WE are far more intimate there.”

This doesn’t seem clear to me. I see far more opportunity for customer intimacy in the Twitter environment (today). On a platform like Twitter there is the opportunity to view the public stream and respond to questions, comments, observations about your brand. This doesn’t happen in the Facebook/Myspace model nearly as easily, simply due to the privacy.

If Facebook develops a more public realm within, then the opportunity for customer intimacy will be there.

The opportunity for “intimate advertising” is in the Facebook model. In that realm I can target my advertising, and in fact get my customers to do most of it for me though recommendations, ratings and so on, that just aren’t possible in the current environment on Twitter. All that’s possible in the current raw form of Twitter is raw communication.

The question of the Data Gold mine seems more of a question of which kind of data is more valuable, strict, directly knowable and know data (Facebook) or raw data (Twitter). Both have their values, and the Twitter platform seems better suited to harvesting the data. But the Facebook data is more valuable to marketers.

But is that where all the gold is?

What happens when developers start generating apps that run on top of the Twitter platform - apps that just use the 140 char stream for the transport/protocol communications layer - and deliver the (mobile) user a totally different experience, which has nothing to do with the communications that reside on twitter now. I wonder IS twitter going to support that? If so, how are they going to segment the streams to allow for data security. I submit that Bill Gurley is right regarding the gaming model that supports TenCent. This is one of the things that is likely to drive Twitter monetization if they can deliver that to developers. To be sure, games (and other apps) are already being discussed that use Twitter as the base platform. As an example, how trivial would it be to develop a poker applicaton that ran in either text modes or gui mode depending on the user’s device…over Twitter.

How much more are the game app developers making per (game) user than either Facebook OR Myspace is making on their per user scale? I understand at least one of the big social gaming companies to be profitable already. No problem to convert a MobWars/MafiaWars/Mobsters clone to dual mode play. The main issue becomes one of protocol security.

And now that you’ve considered Twitter as the transport layer for mobile application development, NOW who wins in customer intimacy? Games are the more monetiziable app, but what kinds of simple customer service applications can you imagine to be developed. And Then why can’t simple applications be developed that run on the Twitter platform to allow users to join in, rate, and so on much like we expect to happen on Facebook. Now who wins the Data Gold Mine battle? And most importantly perhaps, which one is going to show better margins on that data?

Facebook has barriers to entry in the application API - frankly I don’t see the same barrier to entry in the non-api model that could run on Twitter.

Robert Scoble pointed out in a post yesterday that Facebook should not listen to the users. Customers are not always right. I tend to think that they very often not right (esp in high-tech). While I’m personally not wild about the site “design” I do like the streaming of the home page, and some other features. I’m not wild that some of the better features for granular control over that stream are now gone. If in fact the revolt is that significant (90%?!) I think that Facebook is going to have to address discontent in some way. The trend in social networking is to have “lifestreams” broadcast to our “friends”. This, I think is a good thing. The positive effects that I see on users of this type of social networking is incredible. The overall focus on inspiring and uplifting those that view our streams will have a beneficial effect on our society as a whole.

But in the Facebook redesign, they’ve made it so that on one hand I can’t view the totality of my friends’ streams (lack of application news stories on the Home page) And they’ve made it so that I have only the choice to delete someone from appearing in the stream that I watch, or keep them, but not to opt out of certain aspects of them that I don’t care to see, and not to lessen the impact of overly prolific updaters who prevent me from seeing those people that I do want to see. Yes I can come up with more complicated grouping schemes myself, and I DO like that, but I find it to be in sufficient as a replacement for the the more granular sliders options they removed.

But overall…I hope Facebook will basically stay the course.

Ah quite and interesting question. not for just what you asked, but what you didn’t ask…so I’ll add it.

I’m a new user on twitter, so it remains to be seen how I will really eventually use it, but as I start I’m using it for a few things. 1) communicate with people I wouldn’t otheriwse have access to. People really tend to listen on twitter. 2) It gives me the chance to be the “social commentator that I really am, without having to get all into the big blog thing….I rarely have more than a tweet to start with. Microblogging is a great thing.

Linkedin is a simple tool, that I’m really using to find professional contacts. As I search for a new job, it’s an invaluable tool to expand on my resume, and say what I REALLY want to in a resume, but can’t because that’s not how you write those. At this point, I don’t think I would want to work for someone if they didn’t bother to read my linkedin profile. It lets me show the truth about how I think I am professionally, and show the results of companies that I have worked for, by showing who I’m connected to from those companies (and where they are now) Like they say “It’s not what you know but WHO you know” - polite namedropping if you will.

Facebook I use much like most people it seems. Making sure that I have a solid connection to old and new friends. Some place to share more personal happenings in my life, and really share & feel the love I have for and from those people. What I DON’T use Facebook for, is meeting new people..I can only think of one person I’ve met on Facebook….and that was a pure fluke.

Left out of your question, are tools like myspace, Tagged (which I have dropped for security breaches) and others like those. I use tools like those to actively meet people on a purely social level, with NO professional contacts having access to those profiles. I also direct people that I don’t know, who’ve been recommended to me by friends, to connect to me there (myspace in particular). I don’t want to have to control every little detail on my Facebook profile, and still want to meet new people - so I send them there. I use myspace as a primary outlet for social activities (like “casual gaming” ) that require “friends” …..I’m willing to be “friends” with TONS of people I don’t know (and don’t really need or care to know) so that Ican enjoy those things. I don’t want my Facebook cluttered with a bunch of people I don’t know. And honestly, I’ve met two ofmy very best friends online, and through Tagged (I was sure bummed to see them not care they have MASSIVE problems)

Also to note: I’m using ping.fm to simultaneously update my status on all of the above (facebook, twitter, linkedin, myspace) I put out one or two status broadcasts each day now, and they go to all those. I try to keep those broadcasts palatable for a wide, disparate audience. (Friends, potential employers, former collegues, Random gamers)

It’s what I do with that first status line that is different on each. Linkedin….it just sits there - a thought for the day. Myspace, well I go update my Mood later….sometimes I get a comment or message based on the status, and maybe I make a new friend because of it. Facebook….those status lines get commented on a lot, andstart many discussions, not unlike the comment discussion here. and on twitter, it’s just the starting point for the day. While I don’t change the status too much on the other three through out the day, I may post several related tweets right after the first status broadcast. And then move onto other discussions as people sing in their own tweets.

* 23 hours ago
* Are you using Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter differently?
* Mr Tweet Blog

Ah quite and interesting question. not for just what you asked, but what you didn’t ask…so I’ll add it.

I’m a new user on twitter, so it remains to be seen how I will really eventually use it, but as I start I’m using it for a few things. 1) communicate with people I wouldn’t otheriwse have access to. People really tend to listen on twitter. 2) It gives me the chance to be the “social commentator that I really am, without having to get all into the big blog thing….I rarely have more than a tweet to start with. Microblogging is a great thing.

Linkedin is a simple tool, that I’m really using to find professional contacts. As I search for a new job, it’s an invaluable tool to expand on my resume, and say what I REALLY want to in a resume, but can’t because that’s not how you write those. At this point, I don’t think I would want to work for someone if they didn’t bother to read my linkedin profile. It lets me show the truth about how I think I am professionally, and show the results of companies that I have worked for, by showing who I’m connected to from those companies (and where they are now) Like they say “It’s not what you know but WHO you know” - polite namedropping if you will.

Facebook I use much like most people it seems. Making sure that I have a solid connection to old and new friends. Some place to share more personal happenings in my life, and really share & feel the love I have for and from those people. What I DON’T use Facebook for, is meeting new people..I can only think of one person I’ve met on Facebook….and that was a pure fluke.

Left out of your question, are tools like myspace, Tagged (which I have dropped for security breaches) and others like those. I use tools like those to actively meet people on a purely social level, with NO professional contacts having access to those profiles. I also direct people that I don’t know, who’ve been recommended to me by friends, to connect to me there (myspace in particular). I don’t want to have to control every little detail on my Facebook profile, and still want to meet new people - so I send them there. I use myspace as a primary outlet for social activities (like “casual gaming” ) that require “friends” …..I’m willing to be “friends” with TONS of people I don’t know (and don’t really need or care to know) so that Ican enjoy those things. I don’t want my Facebook cluttered with a bunch of people I don’t know. And honestly, I’ve met two ofmy very best friends online, and through Tagged (I was sure bummed to see them not care they have MASSIVE problems)

Also to note: I’m using ping.fm to simultaneously update my status on all of the above (facebook, twitter, linkedin, myspace) I put out one or two status broadcasts each day now, and they go to all those. I try to keep those broadcasts palatable for a wide, disparate audience. (Friends, potential employers, former collegues, Random gamers)

It’s what I do with that first status line that is different on each. Linkedin….it just sits there - a thought for the day. Myspace, well I go update my Mood later….sometimes I get a comment or message based on the status, and maybe I make a new friend because of it. Facebook….those status lines get commented on a lot, andstart many discussions, not unlike the comment discussion here. and on twitter, it’s just the starting point for the day. While I don’t change the status too much on the other three through out the day, I may post several related tweets right after the first status broadcast. And then move onto other discussions as people sing in their own tweets.

Not sure why more people just don’t use their GPRS sevices for things like twitter….get fring! SMS should be a thing of the past with SO many “regular” cell phones supporting GPRS data. any phone with J2ME/Java cann support installable apps like minifring. Personally I have ATT GoPhone, and am about to tell ATT to please BLOCK all SMS/MMS from the phone. I don’t want to pay for it for any reason. I pay my monthly data charge, and I’m good to go.
(p.s. it’s a $30 refurb phone…..anyone can get into something like that…its not like you have to spend $300 on an iPhone or Blackberry!)