Monday, January 18, 2010

The “Twitterization” of Social Media

When did the lines of social media begin to overlap? Isn’t anyone concerned that social media brands will become indistinguishable in terms of target audiences and uses?

Back in November 2009, LinkedIn offered a partnership with Twitter so that Twitter users were able to link their Twitter accounts to LinkedIn and feature their Twitter updates or tweets on top of their LinkedIn pages. I asked this question back in November, since the audiences and uses of LinkedIn and Twitter are different, why would someone want to connect the two? Most LinkedIn users provide a wealth of information to build their personal brands (aka, their professional identity) with the goal of building business contacts: their name, location, photo, expertise, current and previous jobs, job duties, education, contacts, group affiliations, links to portfolios, links to presentations, links to blogs, etc. A LinkedIn user must provide specific details in order to establish an account. By contrast, Twitter users do not need to show their photos, professional backgrounds, telephone numbers, websites, or even use a real name. Twitter exists and succeeds as a micro-blog where users discuss areas of specialty, opinions, news, and initiate and engage in conversations – all in 140-characters or less.

Although Facebook users have had the ability to include their tweets on their Facebook pages, this month, Facebook introduced a re-tweet style function for links. While Facebook users can share information, they can write more than Twitter’s 140-character limit.

So, perhaps, the question is not when did the lines of social media overlap, but instead, what have you been doing while the Twitterization of social media happened – and did you notice?

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thank you for your comment!