Let Go of You (original) - T.S. Miller+ Social Networking Info

Robert Scoble · Subscribe · Top Commenter · Chief Learning Officer at Rackspace Managed Hosting · 65,468 subscribers
I wish Twitter's investors would get Twitter and its competitors at a deeper level and agree with Robin that it is, indeed, a social network. More accurately both Facebook and Twitter are "new media companies." Ones where the media comes to you based on how you set it up. Facebook is far beyond a simple social network anymore anyway. Explain why a post by the San Francisco 49ers showed up on my Facebook. I never friended the 49ers. The fact that that showed up shows that Facebook is far beyond just being "a social network" and, I think, explains why Gurley is trying to position Twitter the way he did.

Some other reactions:

1. He says "Facebook is a few-to-few communication network designed for sharing information and life events with friends." This is absolutely wrong. I have 55,000 followers on Facebook. That's HARDLY a "few ...See More

Ouriel Ohayon · Subscribe · Top Commenter · Co-Founder at AppsFire · 174 subscribers
of course this is a social network...this is not banking site..

Robert Scoble · Subscribe · Top Commenter · Chief Learning Officer at Rackspace Managed Hosting · 65,468 subscribers
Ouriel Ohayon If I were Gurley I'd be far more worried that Twitter hasn't gotten noise controls, which would make reading far more enjoyable for the new "lurker class" that he identifies in his post. Luckily for him neither has Google+.

Steve Broadhurst
Very interesting and well thought out piece. I agree with you about Facebook's new guise and the lack of charisma in Twitter.


Gabriella Sannino · Subscribe · Managing Partner at Level 343
Twitter is not Facebook; Facebook is not Google. How you use these social platforms becomes a personal journey. Some use them as a voice box to send out their message. Others use them to update their followers about their latest play date. I don't see why we have to compare these social platforms at all.

Can't we use them as we see fit? Personally, I use the big three (Twitter, Facebook, G+). I use Twitter more than the other two, but that's because I actually have conversations. Granted, always in 140 characters or less, but it's like a cocktail party. You can't get too deep into a conversation, but you have enough time to see if you'd like to add them to your list. Or, in the cocktail party case, if you want to exchange business cards.

In my humble opinion, it all boils down to being social. Joining, participating, creating a scope, and engaging in social. Period. Personally, I think the people have decided no matter what Bill Gurley thinks...

Paul Flanagan · Subscribe · Consumer Magazine Auditor at Audit Bureau of Circulations
Gabriella - hi! I entirely agrees. They are, by their very description - "social" networks. I'm more a Facebook kinda guy :0) - it helps me to keep in touch with peeps I otherwise would have lost contact with..... and I get to post wild and wacky pictures & vidoes :0)

Julian Hugh · Top Commenter · Founder and CEO at SwagFriends.com teens social network
I prefer Twitter over Facebook because its really straight to the point on what I want to say and do. I think Twitter will be bigger than Facebook within 3-4 years and Facebook will eventually fade away like myspace.
Vinoth · Top Commenter (signed in using Hotmail)
My toilet updates it's FB status about how shitty FB has become.

Suzanne Hayes Kane · Subscribe · Teaching at Tucson Unified School District
Twitter is vastly superior to facebook. twitter is college. facebook is high school.

James McCarthy
Your comment is elementary school.
Vinoth · Top Commenter (signed in using Hotmail)
@James McCarthy - Oh... the tears of a Facecrap fanboy.

James McCarthy
Vinoth are you an email fanboy because you use hotmail? I just think people get all bend out of shape over a free optional product.


Benjamin Phippen
Couldn't agree more on the For the vast majority of Twitter’s next 900 million users, the core usage modality will have very little to do with “tweeting,” and everything to do with “listening” or “hearing.” So many friends, co-workers, family I speak too about Twitter normally results in them responding "It's where I can stalk celebrities and receive the news faster than anywhere else".

Paul Douglas · Top Commenter · University of Portsmouth
Twitter is Social, it's not a social network. Social networks are Profile-driven. Twitter is Update (Tweet) driven.

Robin Wauters · Subscribe · Top Commenter · Writer at TechCrunch · 1,174 subscribers
That confuses me to no end.

Alex Bromage · Malmö, Sweden
Agree Robin, Paul can you explain more what you mean?

Amarpreet Kalkat · Co-Founder / Chief Technologist at Ciafo
Social network is a pretty wide term. If Bill wants to stress Twitter's informational, broadcasting aspect by saying it is not a social network, then he is just making a right point with a relatively bad argument. One thing that is clearly happening is that Twitter is becoming the reference of (textual) content web, where almost anything that gets written is referenced in a tweet. Facebook would love to have that happen too, but it is far behind. Maybe a little too far behind, just look at the number of "Likes" vs "Tweets" for this post.

Alex Savic · Zürich, Switzerland
People still use Twitter?
People still use Facebook? Oh, right... that was a retarded question, wasn't it?

Graham Richards
Of course Twitter is a social network. As you say in your article, you meet people there you would never have done on Facebook and in day to day life. This is why Twitter is so powerful and more so than FB and, I dare to say, Google's search facility. Twitter can take you directly to people you don't know who are talking about the things you're interested in. That's why it's so vital to businesses, charities, community and other organisations.

As for it not being personal, as one commenter said, I have been amazed at how much my personality comes through in Twitter. Don't think for one minute those 140 characters can't convey as much depth and info as a whole paragraph! So often when I'm in a tweetup situation people say to me, "You're exactly like I imagined you to be, yey I've only ever tweeted with you until now!"

As for the comment from Alex Savic about are people still using Twitter, don't make yourself look ignorant Alex. Twitter may not work for you, but there's a whole world of people finding it powerful, liberating and useful.

Last words, I really don't like FB. It's too "busy", trying to do too many things. It looks cluttered and confusing and the way they keep changing it and leaving people high and dry makes for a very unpleasant user experience. They could learn a lot from Twitter and Google+ and may end up losing out to these as a result.

Chris Huge · Works at Fgwar
twitter's competitor is Google+, not facebook. http://www.fgwar.com/

Artur Rivilis · Subscribe · Berkeley
I actually think that Twitter's biggest competition is Tumblr. The model that Tumblr uses is very similar to Twitter, but it is far more visual. It's unfair to constantly compare Twitter to Facebook, it's like comparing apples and oranges: both are sweet fruit, but have different uses. Social network as a term is very general, there can be many takes. Both Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Tumblr, Pintrest, etc are different takes on social networking.

Rich Peck · Subscribe · Top Commenter · Wirral Grammar School for Boys
For me, Twitter is great for giving people the ability to see the updates of someone else on a public level. For example, if EpicMealTime delayed the release of their vid, then I'll check their twitter feed to see why.

Facebook is more about giving yourself an identity, to do things like what I'm doing now - where you use your own ID to create a space online. In term of whether Twitter is a social network or not - it *is* a social network, because it's a network and encourages social (peer to peer) interaction. The problem I think a lot of people have with the statement that it's an SN is that its not profile-based, and is instead focused on the content users create. Facebook is profile centric. Twitter is content centric.

My take is that people don't need to use Twitter to talk. It's more about seeing what's going on with a particular thing, and then getting on with their lives. That's my take.

Vamshi Krishna Reddy
Facebook is more personal and less social but Twitter is more social n less personal.

Open Systems Technologies New York
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Computer Resources of America (CRA)
Twitter is most definitely a social network. It might not be the same type of social network as Facebook and maybe not everyone on Twitter will tweet but evidently there is always people having to tweet so other people have something to read and gain from.