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Facebook’s Twitterification: Is it the Right Move?

It’s tough to argue against the perception that Facebook’s been on a Twitter emulation spree. In the last month alone they announced public content sharing, profile fans, real-time search, and brand new privacy changes. All of this seems to be an attempt to directly confront the Twitter threat.

But we must ask the big question again: is this the right direction for Facebook? Will this increase Facebook usage and help promote its incredible growth even further? Or could this path lead to stagnation and another round of user revolts (like the news feed and redesign revolts before it)? We’ve been laying out the key points on the matter, but it’s your opinion that we want most.

For Twitterification: Facebook becomes far more useful

Facebook is all about sharing experiences, memories, and events. When Facebook first started, it was built on closed networks – specifically universities. Today though, it is a global platform that isn’t built on the network model, so why should its privacy settings be bound by the past?

Facebook is magnitudes bigger than Twitter. It grows by hundreds of thousands of users every day. Yet Twitter is getting all the buzz and all the growth. It’s because Twitter is currently the source for real-time information and news. People go to Twitter, not Facebook, to chat about world events. With the new changes, you will be able to do the same on the world’s largest social network. Not only that, but the content will be enhanced with images, video, and multimedia that only Facebook contains.

These changes will open up Facebook’s usefulness beyond the social graph, into a platform that can and should be used for discussing real-world events and making connections with new friends, rather than the gated community it has been for years.

Against Twitterification: Not what the users want

Here’s the thing, though: Facebook is not Twitter. A lot of users have voiced their opinion that attempting to be something completely different will alienate Facebook’s core demographic. Facebook’s trying to phase in these changes slowly, but it will still create upset users. They fell in love with Facebook because it helped them better connect with friends, not with strangers. These changes are a complete about-face, and not everyone’s ready for it.

Is it smart for Facebook to position itself against Twitter? Facebook may have scale, but Twitter has velocity and the reputation for being the web’s real-time open platform. If Facebook fails to beat Twitter at its own game, the results could be disastrous. At the very least, millions in resources and manpower will have been wasted.

Is this what the users want? It’s tough to tell. Facebook’s been able to predict user desires in the past, even before users knew it. But this a completely different affair. For the first time, it feels as if Facebook is really worried that their dominant market position is in jeopardy. Worry and fear sometimes leads to bad decisions.

Is this the right direction?

There are a lot more issues and complexities beyond the for and against arguments provided here on Facebook’s “Twitterification.” In the end though, it’s about us, the users. So we want to gauge your reaction to Facebook’s steady march towards the open platform. Is it in Facebook’s best interest? Do you think it will make you want to use Facebook more? Or does this fly in the face of how people have come to know Facebook? Let us know, then add your thoughts on the debate in the comments:

Is Facebook’s Twitterfication the right direction for Facebook to go?(polls)

Reviews: Facebook, Twitter

Tags: facebook, twitter

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