Twitter = Better than Facebook
Twitter will rule Facebook’s life (I hope). Here’s a fact – I like Twitter better than Facebook, and I’ve been noticing growing acceptance of Twitter among Millennials – those aged 18-24 (aka, the generation of the future). And, I believe that Twitter actually has more growth potential than Facebook. Wowza, right. Hold your pants on for a sec.
Facebook is exclusive – you have to ‘like’ and ‘friend’ some page, thing or person. While exclusivity is what makes Facebook popular, Facebook is also limited because of it. Think about it – there’s no open search component, no way to follow conversations randomly among the general web-o-sphere, and you can’t dialogue freely with whomever.
Alternatively, Twitter has limited exclusivity (‘follow’), but also combines search, open conversation platforms (hashtags) and allows free dialogue (@mentions). Twitter defines the term ‘social’ by opening up the conversation. You can contribute freely to a dialogue with whomever…granted if they’re not lame and lock their handle = #AntiSocial 
I’m a college student and recently I’ve seen more and more friends join the twitterverse. While out of a group of 100 Millennials, only 20 (1/5) may have a handle, I expect that to grow significantly in 2012.
Yes, I know Facebook is more popular with its circa 800M users, but watch out for #Twitter.
A Lesson From Facebook – Everything Needs Innovation…Refreshment
I have to be brutally honest – Facebook was loosing my interest prior to its huge Skype & group chat release last week. Ironically, I was looking to blog about my growing boredom a few days before thier huge release, but I’m glad I withheld my post.
I guess this is to say that everything needs innovation and refreshment in order to keep being fun. People naturally get bored of the same old stuff, and while that fact is a constant challenge for engineers behind products, it is a natural tendency in the course of business operations and competition. Everything must evolve to meet growing demands and spark renewed interest.
Thus, a social video conference evolution.
While two huge video chat platforms were released within days of each other – Skype with Facebook & G+ with Hangouts – video conference technology has been the biggest personal refresher. As one who live 500+ miles from home and rarley sees family, I savor every minute on the phone with them…and video chat makes the conversations all the more real.
I know, Skype and Oovoo have been around for years, but hey…they don’t have 750 million people on their networks. Plain and simple, it’s just easier to video chat on a network that nearly everyone else is already on.
(p.s. – Interesting picture, huh?…)
Google + is Google’s Newest Social Network
“Google +” is Google’s newest attempt at a social network. With some similarities to Facebook, Google’s ever-growing adversary, Google + also has a few noteworthy differences à la video chat, private circles, and group texts. Google + was released earlier this week on a “project” basis and has been available to select test users.
Here’s the short:
- Experience Design. There is plenty of white space with an easy navigation platform, allowing user comfort with site after a few minutes of exploration. The icons and features easily identify capabilities.
- Content Strategy.
- The takeaway here is Google + Circles, which provides the ability to share specific content with select groups of friends – a direct privacy move to counter Facebook.
- Google + Circles is easier than creating a Twitter List or a Facebook Friend List with added drag-and-drop functionality.
- Engagement.
- Google + Hangouts is a group video chat feature with roundtable-esque camera switches based on who’s talking; I found this the most exciting feature. Since not everyone is on Skype or Oovoo, a video chat function in highly popular social networks is a great idea with large buy-in potential.
- Google+ Huddle is another application, which is essentially a group-texting feature for the Circles you create…similar to GroupMe.
Conclusion: Most people are excited about the product and can’t wait to try it themselves. While some journalists remain skeptical, I find myself excited at the prospect. Though Google will compete with start-ups group texting, etc., Google already has millions of users on its site each day – a distinct advantage…
With an invite request site, a newly formed Twitter handle, and opportunities to add elements that Facebook currently lacks give this Google social version a good shot. Here’s looking forward to what happens in the next months.
Read more in the NY Times, WSJ, Mashable, Technorati, and AllThingsD, or take the Google + tour.
