Yes indeed, its true. Instead of posting here regularly on my blog, I have found myself spending more and more time with other social media outlets. I have been very much engaged in microblogging using Twitter, and exploring, to some degree, Facebook on a deeper level.
Blue Sky Factory even has its own Facebook page with fans (small but growing), and its own Twitter profile. Become a fan and follow us if you are on Twitter and Facebook.
These two platforms have been consuming a lot of my social media participation over the last few months, but Twitter definitely takes the front spot with the frequency and attention. Here are a few random thoughts regarding Twitter and just a little bit of Facebook:
1. While there is some cross-over of friends within the networks that I participate in, it is surprisingly minimal, which I find very interesting. This means each one of my networks is made of a different group of individuals. There is definitely cross-over, but at the same time there are many unique folks within each network. I have one set of people that I interact with on Twitter, another on Facebook, a completely different set on LinkedIn, etc. Frankly, all of this has made me think that I really need to learn more about my blog readers. I know I am linked up with many of you on the networks, but there are many of you I still don’t know. After all, a blog is a community as well (at least when its active!).
2. I noticed that since I started Twittering with more frequency, my blog’s RSS feed has mainly consisted of my del.icio.us links, rather than well thought out opinion pieces that I enjoy writing. This is something I need to address. You can’t always say it all in 140 characters or less.
3. Twitter is a much more spontaneous, stream of consciousness, life-streaming way to interact online. It gets more interesting, and more valuable, the more people you follow, and the more people that follow you. Metcalf’s law, definitely comes into play here. The power of the network.
4. I have become aware of SO many new things (people I have been introduced to, blogs I discovered, videos, podcasts, events, opinions, etc) thanks to Twitter. These are things that I would most likely never come across, or at least take longer discovering. Information moves fast.
5. Facebook, although powerful and interesting, is much slower. It takes a while for things to “propagate” and “aggregate” into your news feed (at least this is my perception).
6. There is an immediacy to Twitter, its very much “LIVE” and “REAL TIME.”
7. Twitter needs to develop features that allow you to organize your peeps. Think groups, channels, etc. You need to be able to manage your own signal vs. noise ratio. I often wonder what it would be like to be able to filter and organize the people I follow, and how a feature set like this would change the way people use Twitter.
8. It’s hard to “get” Twitter unless you actively participate and use it.
9. Posting this reminds me of the need to get back to blogging more often again to clarify and think through things, and write them down.
10. Twitter, as much as I love it, is like candy for folks with A.D.D.
You can bounce all over the place in a very short amount of time, and thats part of its intrigue. And you can also cover a LOT of ground in a short amount of time.
This morning I also came across one of Gary Vaynerchuk’s new videos. He has an interesting perspective on Twitter vs. Facebook. Its definitely worth a watch, check it out.
Are you using Twitter? What are your thoughts? Have you found that you are blogging less? Has it changed your habits at all? I am curious to hear what you think.
Have a great day.

