I've seen a lot of tweets today about how you can now feed your Twitter updates into your LinkedIn profile. (Here's the Reuters piece on it.) And a lot of people sound excited about this new development.
I'm not.
I also don't like that you can link your Twitter and your Facebook account. (Is it blasphemy to say that?)
Here's the thing... Yes, I often post very similar updates to one, two, or even all three sites. But I also often post Twitter updates that, to me, aren't "Facebook worthy." And I post Facebook updates that never make it onto Twitter. Ditto, LinkedIn.
For me, the three outlets -- and their uses -- are distinct, though sometimes overlapping. That said, in many cases, I'm friends with someone on Facebook, connected to that same person on LinkedIn and follow his/her tweets on Twitter. And especially in the Facebook-Twitter connection, having the same updates to both locations can be overwhelming.
I think one reason I feel this way is because Twitter seems like a much more "now" phenomenon. I may tweet updates from an event I'm attending. Or post random updates about what I'm doing or something I just read. In contrast, I look to Facebook status updates to promote events, post random thoughts, etc. I think of Facebook status updates as being a little less frequent because it's not as easy to stay up-to-date on new posts. (New tweets pop up in the bottom right corner of my screen. I can read them, click on them, ignore them, etc., while continuing with what I'm doing.) So when people link their Twitter and Facebook status updates, I often find that my "status updates" on Facebook become overrun with one person's updates at the expense of everyone else. And it's frustrating.
What say you? (Oh, and by the way, if you want to follow me on Twitter, it's @rferrier. As to Facebook and LinkedIn, I have to have some noticeable connection to you to connect on LinkedIn. And Facebook, well, that's for people I really know.)
-- Robin
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Although I am sure it will benefit lots of LinkedIn users, one has to be careful of crafting the image you want on LinkedIn, and the tweets may throw it off. I personally won't use this connection.
Hi Robin,
I agree with you big picture (and the people who just broadcast--and broadcast everywhere--can be really annoying). But I can see a value in having the flexibility to cross-post on occasion, such as interesting business-worthy links that I now share with my Twitter community but that might also be of value to my LinkedIn community. The new functionality just facilitates that.
The key, as with all of this, is to understand when to take advantage of the tool rather than using it indiscriminantly. But isn't that true with everything?
Thanks,
Daria
Daria,
One of my questions, then, would be whether it's possible to choose which of your Twitter updates go to LinkedIn. My impression with the Facebook-Twitter connection is that it's an "all or nothing" sort of thing. It's different if it's an app that lets you choose which of your Twitter updates appear in LinkedIn.
-- Robin
Robin,
My initial reading was that you could choose which tweets to sync up (with the #in hashtag), but we'll have to see it roll out to be sure.
--Daria
Robin:
I see the same differences as you between my Twitter and Facebook posts. That's one reason that I just today launched a Facebook Page strictly for my business (as opposed my business and personal Facebook Profile). Once I start using it, I'll have no problem with anything I write there -- or at LinkedIn -- going to my Twitter page.
But until I start making my tweets purely business, I probably don't want everything I write at Twitter ending up on Facebook and LinkedIn.
I can see that I eventually will because, to me, there's value in increasing the exposure of any communications-related message I post.
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