Twitter is not a Social Network

Recently, a Christian blogger who I respect mentioned me in a blog post, entitled Ranking blogs by Twitter followers. He had noticed the following tweet of mine:

"People you may know" from @twitter is pointless. I don't use Twitter that way; I don't think many people do. I follow ppl I DON'T know! :p

— Graham Downs (@GrahamDowns) September 29, 2012

He said that he agreed with my usage of Twitter, and that it got him thinking about how people use Twitter. I wanted to simply post a comment on his blog, but since my response would be a bit off the topic of what he was actually trying to say, I thought I'd write a new one in response.

Thanks for the mention, Steve (follow Steve @hayesstw on Twitter)!

You are right. What I was trying to get at is this: on Facebook (for example) I try to limit my friends list to people I actually know in real life. On Twitter, my approach is completely different. I might follow someone on Twitter simply because I'm their friend in real life and I want to give them "the benefit of the doubt." But I'll quickly unfollow them if they continually tweet stuff that I have no interest in. I don't take offence at being unfollowed, and I expect that you won't, either.

I've said it before: to me, Twitter is NOT a social network! Sure, there are conversations taking place on Twitter all the time, but they're more of the academic debate kind than the "Hi, how are you?" kind. I use Twitter first and foremost as an Information Sharing Network. The vast majority of the things I share on Twitter are links to articles. Sometimes I share funny photos, or post updates without any links - but when I do that, it's to advertise events or venues that I've attended, and I try to mention people by their Twitter handles in those. This helps advertise those events and venues and get the organisers more followers. There's always a point.

And yes, if I find your posts interesting, informative, or funny, I'll follow you. If that ceases to be the case, I'll stop. My friendship with you, or whether I know you in real life or not, has nothing to do with it!

Google+ First Impressions: Circles

I was invited to Google+ this morning. After playing with it for a little while (not long; I had actual work to do!), I have to say I think I'm going to like it. To me, it really has more in common with Twitter than with Facebook.

If you're interested in Google+, then you've probably already read at least a dozen explanations of how Circles work. Well, I'm going to try and explain it from my perspective.

When you sign in as a new user, Google+ gives you a couple of predefined Circles in which to place people you want to follow (Not "friend" as in Facebook, but "follow" as in Twitter). Let's think of an example:

Let's say I find you on Google+, and click on your profile page. We don't yet have a connection on the website. I see any posts you've made or things that you've shared, and marked as "Public" (As does everyone else on the Internet). I decide to add you to my "Friends" circle. You get an e-mail that I've added you, but there's nothing you can do about it. It's done. You don't have to accept or confirm anything (although I'm sure you could decide to block me, if you so wished).

Now, on my main feed, I will begin to see anything that you've posted or shared and marked as "Public". I will not see anything that you've contributed and marked for any of your circles, because I'm not in any of your circles yet. Furthermore, if you were to browse to my profile page, you would see things that I'm contributed and marked as "Public" or for my "Friends" circle (because you're in that circle on my profile), but not (for example) my "Co-workers" circle. You would not see any content from me on your main feed, because you haven't added me yet.

Let's assume, for a moment, that in response to your e-mail that I've added you, you decide to add me to your "Acquaintances" circle. I get the same e-mail that you did. Now, you will see anything that I share to "Public" or my "Friends" on your main feed. Similarly, I will continue to see anything you've shared as "Public", but now (Because I'm in your "Acquaintances" circle), I will also see anything that you've marked for "Acquaintances" as well.

I think this is a great concept, and I really hope it takes off! I think that the deciding factor though, is going to come when we see how many application developers jump on the bandwagon and start writing client applications for Google+. Almost nobody uses Twitter from the actual Twitter website, and Facebook is quickly following suite.