Facebook, Twitter and Intentions

This has been an interesting week in social media for sure. Most of the news has been generated around Facebook and deservedly so (I guess). So to close the week it’s only fitting that this story compares Facebook (in my opinion the new F-word) and Twitter. Over at Venture Beat the comparison of these two social media forces reads like the David and Goliath story.

Here’s the gist. According to Compete data from January Facebook had 68 million unique visitors while Twitter clocked in at less than 10% of that (6 million). Those numbers are pretty disparate for sure. What seems to be happening though is that Twitter gets an inordinate amount of press coverage compared to Facebook and the speculation begins.

The author, Eric Eldon, tries to hold a straight face when he says that maybe the press is simply ahead of the curve and realizing, as he put it, Twitter’s ‘inevitable national domination’. Following a quick jab at the future predicting ability of the press he goes on with his other theory.

Another alternative is this: the nature of public micro-messaging is something that us reporters intuitively understand, and know how to use — and like to cover, like I’m doing now. Indeed, while Facebook is designed to be semi-private and a reflection of your real-world relationships, Twitter is used by many journalists to promote their own articles.

Whatever the reason, it is apparent that while there is a lot of talk of sharing and openness through Twitter and social media in general by the gurus of the space, the press may be promoting it so they can promote themselves in a shameless self promoting kind of way. I say whatever. If there was ever a medium where it’s up to the user to decide the good, the bad and the ugly, this is the one.

So what is it Pilgrims? What’s your good, bad and ugly of this social media era?