Social Media Sites Contrasted
Posted by Vovici Blog on Sun, Apr 17, 2011
When I need to pithily explain the differences between social media sites, it is almost always because someone doesn’t understand Twitter. To them, I say:
- Facebook is for you to connect to your friends, family and classmates.
- LinkedIn is for you to connect to your current and former colleagues.
- Twitter is a place for you to connect to those you would like to know but don’t know yet.
For me personally, I met Reg Baker (@thesurveygeek), Diane Hessan (@CommunispaceCEO), Kathryn Korostoff (@ResearchRocks), Julie Kurd (@julie1research), Annie Pettit (@lovestats), Tom Webster (@webby2001) and many others on Twitter first, and then later in real life, in part because of our interactions on Twitter. So Twitter lets you follow people in the industry that you would like to know but don’t know yet.
And, of course, you can follow famous business people, sports stars and celebrities, if you want. I was one of @BillGates first 100,000 followers on Twitter. (I’m still waiting for him to follow me back.)
So that’s how I contrast social media sites. Reg, it turns out, just uses the following graphic: Social Media Explained.
Apparently Foursquare really is about marking your territory.