Prediction: Facebook will change or die, and twitter will become ad-supported and take over the world, OR someone will beat twitter to the ad-supported punch and take over the world instead. Let me unpack this.
I have about 900 followers right now on twitter and over 1000 on facebook. However, I plan on watching that change. Frankly, I spend 10 times less time on facebook than I used to, because I got TIRED of all of the cause requests, bday requests, fake Starbucks, and flair. I really got on facebook just to know what’s going on in people’s lives and let them knowing in VERY SIMPLE ways, what’s going on in mine. Therefore, for about six months, I’ve had a twitter account that POSTS RIGHT THROUGH to facebook. Did you know it would do that? I NEVER post anything directly to facebook anymore. My confession as of today is this: I don’t even visit my face book page more than once a day any more. It makes me tired!
So here’s my prediction: Facebook will either simplify or die. Period. It’s too busy now. Out of control. Too many apps. People will get tired of all the flair like I have. Tweeting is the future. Simple. Clean. To the point. Designed for busy people who want to stay in touch. However, twitter can not sustain itself, unless it becomes ad-supported. Get ready. The proprietors are too smart to start trying to charge for the service. It would KILL them. We WILL see ads and we won’t complain because that keeps it FREE! If twitter does NOT figure out a sustainable financial model quickly, someone will come on the scene and put both facebook and twitter out of business. Remember, you heard it here.
So for now, my tip is this. If you haven’t already done so, get on twitter. Usernames are going by the minute. Then post on twitter to facebook. Here’s a great article on 5 ways to do just that. THEN follow me!
If you’re on twitter, get ready for ads and banners or watch for the next social media mogul to emerge and ACT FAST.
While I so far only use Facebook, there is a solution for the ads if they appear. I use adblocker plus and it works even on my e-mail.
It may help.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/pages/Adblock-Plus/41063096245?v=info&viewas=1366839800
While I have time, I have gotten bored with Facebook. It is so aimed at your old school buddies and I just don't have much to say to people I left behind that many years ago. Besides, if you want to talk to someone...you should TALK to them! But that is just MHO
Posted by: Dori McGonigal | June 25, 2009 at 08:11 PM
I concur with John and Jason. Twitter is of little value to me because all I can do is update status in a few words. Facebook offers a lot more that is of value to me. Perhaps I'm just not busy enough, or maybe I just like to go a little deeper than a 255 character text message.
Posted by: Terry Kneeburg | June 25, 2009 at 04:42 PM
I'm with you on Facebook needing to clean it up. I use the Facebook app on my BlackBerry most of the time because I get to choose to view the status updates, photos, notifications, wall posts or private messages separately. I don't have to fish through all of the quizzes, games, etc. that clutter up the Facebook home page on the computer.
Twitter's great since it updates Facebook, blogs and other social sites at one time, but it will be awhile before it ever takes over the Facebook crowd. Unless you're a public figure, the amount of people you know on Twitter is much less than Facebook. In my case I have 300 friends on Facebook, but only 10 on Twitter because nobody I know uses the site. It's great for quick status updates, but there's not enough sociability in the site yet to attract a broad spectrum of people, especially women. Over half of my friends on Facebook are women, but it's only 30% on Twitter.
If Facebook gives people a way to choose what's on their home page I think it will continue to be the leader in social networking. Twitter may get close, but I don't think it's going to take over any time soon without more interactivity built into the site.
Posted by: John S. | June 25, 2009 at 12:55 PM
"Designed for busy people who want to stay in touch"
Your key word here is BUSY. Most of the people who use Facebook extensively are not busy. It is becoming very obvious. Twitter is certainly more friendly to professionals and other busy folks.
The only potential threat out there to Twitter's future is Google Wave. it is not out yet, but as we all know when Google does something it has impact. Not much is known about Google Wave just yet, however it is possible that Twitter may have such critical mass it could be hard to dethrone.
Posted by: Jason Brooks | June 25, 2009 at 11:34 AM