Are Facebook and Twitter on a Collision Course?
By Brian Solis, blogger at PR 2.0 and principal of FutureWorks PR, Co-Author Putting the Public Back in Public Relations and Now Is Gone
Image credit For years, Facebook and Twitter have maintained a friendly coopetition of sorts, with neither one taking a firm stance against the other. However, if you believe that Mark Zuckerberg does not actively contemplate strategies for either acquiring Twitter or rendering it obsolete, please think about the landscape and monetization drivers that aren’t yet readily apparent to us as everyday consumers. This may seem like the “Social Media Summer of Love,” but in the end, there are billions of dollars and users at stake here.
I believe that eventually, explicitly or implicitly, consumers will face a decision as to which platform will host their native social OS. It’s akin to the Mac vs. PC rivalry in a way. These systems naturally coexist, however, each represents unique and diverse lifestyles and delineated beliefs, methodologies, and persona. We’re made to believe that we must make a choice, even though I actually use and enjoy both.
While some argue that a massive social network might eventually exist, I firmly believe that multiple networks will continue to attract our attention, enhanced by intelligent and semantic filtering. Technology will continue to adapt to human behavior, while being influenced by human nature’s unending contention to embrace and also change along with its evolution. It’s perpetually cyclical and each feed off each other. And, don’t forget, younger generations of digital consumers expect a more sophisticated and immersive experience than we crave or are able to process currently. One day, they’ll grow up and expect more than either Facebook or Twitter offer today.
(cc) Brian Solis, www.briansolis.com - Twitter, @briansolis
No matter how much noise we hear or see about Twitter, the statistics defining Facebook’s meteoric rise is both blinding and deafening.
The race intentionally or unwittingly erupted when the ability to search Twitter unveiled the proverbial “conversation.” Since then, Facebook has maneuvered aggressively to preserve attention and loyalty. In many cases, it borrowed from the innovation sparked at pseudo Twitter competitor FriendFeed, integrating FriendFeed-like features such as individual activity streams, comments, and the ability to “like” updates. But, as you may have heard this week, Facebook acquired FriendFeed. And, the 250-million strong social network also rolled out its version of realtime search for not only scouring conversations weaving together the social graph, but also networkwide conversations that orbit relevant social objects (at least those who have designated their updates as viewable by everyone.
The next chapter is already unfolding as told by the acquisition of FriendFeed and the release of a more pragmatic version of its in-network search engine, which really only serves as a precursor for what I’m sure will be a more powerful and significant form of social, real-time search.
(cc) Brian Solis, www.briansolis.com - Twitter, @briansolis
comScore released its latest traffic reports and the numbers paint an interesting picture.
According to the latest estimates from comScore, Facebook attracted 87.7 million unique visitors in July, which represents an increase of 14 percent over June. Twitter, on the other hand, lured 21.2 million visitors, symbolizing a swell of roughly 6 percent. In other words, Twitter added one million new visitors, whereas Facebook enchanted ten million. As a comparison, CNN.com drew a ballpark of 30 million unique viewers in June.
So, this is the part where you call in to question the stats as they never include the quantity of Twitter clients currently in use, they more accurately represent the number of visitors to Twitter.com. I should point out however, that these numbers also do not account for the Facebook Connect activity on other sites either.
As TechCrunch explained:
Note that these estimates are only for Twitter.com and do not include mobile or desktop clients such as Tweetdeck, Seesmic, or Tweetie, but it should be a good proxy for overall growth. Even if you double the numbers for Twitter, Facebook still trounced it in July.
(cc) Brian Solis, www.briansolis.com - Twitter, @briansolis
Compete.com tells another tale.
In an email received from the Compete team, traffic analysis concludes that both Facebook and Twitter growth from June to July was basically flat. Notice the difference in estimates however. comScore pegs Facebook at 87 million whereas Compete approximates traffic at 122 million. Erik Schonfeld of TechCrunch cites the release of the “everyone button” as a likely catalyst for Facebook’s latest wave of traffic. If you don’t already know about this feature, you should. It is this feature, combined with its evolving real-time search strategy, that will position Facebook directly against Twitter. The “everyone button” places the power of public publishing directly in the hands of the user. Normally, your updates are only viewable within your social graph, which has been an inhibitor for the scaling of personal and corporate brands. But now, we have the ability to define the extent and reach of our updates so that even those with whom we are not yet connected, can view and respond to our social objects. For the record, this feature is pretty powerful. It also goes “with saying” that Facebook can already host discussions around Tweets that are imported into the network today. The race is on so to speak. And like any race, it will be well documented and dissected. More specifically, its unpredictable results will be readily and willfully hypothesized and publicly deliberated. While it’s premature to predict the end result, the cooperation between Twitter and Facebook will continue to serve as a healthy competition for sparking innovation inside the network and across the social Web.
(cc) Brian Solis, www.briansolis.com - Twitter, @briansolis
This healthy and important tussle between Twitter and Facebook also carries significant impacts on human behavior as existing and new users are subconsciously conditioned, enticed, and emotionally and intellectually rewarded for digital extroversion.
(cc) Brian Solis, www.briansolis.com - Twitter, @briansolis
Brian Solis is globally recognized for his views and insights on the convergence of PR, Traditional Media and Social Media. He actively contributes his thoughts and experiences through speaking appearances, books, articles and essays as a way of helping the marketing industry understand and embrace the new dynamics fueling new communications, marketing, and content creation. Solis is Principal of FutureWorks, an award-winning PR agency in Silicon Valley. Solis blogs at PR2.0, bub.blicio.us, TechCrunch, and BrandWeek. Solis is co-founder of the Social Media Club and is a founding member of the Media 2.0 Workgroup. Solis has been actively writing about new PR since the mid 90s to discuss how the Web was redefining the communications industry – he coined PR 2.0 along the way. Solis is considered an expert in traditional PR, media relations, and Social Media. He has dedicated his free time to helping PR professionals adapt to the new fusion of PR, Web marketing, and community relations. PR 2.0 has earned a position of authority in the Technorati blog directory and currently resides in the top 1.5% of indexed blogs. BrianSolis.com is also ranked among the most influential blogs in the Ad Age Power 150 listing of leading marketing bloggers. Working with Geoff Livingston, Solis was co-author of “Now is Gone,” a new book that helps businesses learn how to engage in Social Media. He has also written several ebooks on the subjects of Social Media, New PR, and Blogger Relations. His next book, co-authored with Deirdre Breakenridge, “Putting the Public back in Public Relations,” is now available from FT press. Connect with Solis on: Twitter, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Plaxo, Plurk, Identi.ca, BackType, Social Median, or Facebook --Subscribe to the PR 2.0 RSS Feed
(cc) Brian Solis, www.briansolis.com - Twitter, @briansolis