Social media: Should you be linking Facebook updates to Twitter and vice versa?

Should you be linking Facebook updates to Twitter and vice versa?

I was recently invited to an event called “Twitter Talks” where people could learn more about using twitter and using it for business and networking. I was asked to come as a “VIP Influential Tweeter” and as such was required to answer one question during the presentation.

My question was “Should you be linking Facebook updates to Twitter and vice versa?

I decided my response was worthy of a blog post so here it is!

Don’t link your Facebook updates with your Twitter tweets.

I don’t do it, and this is why.

Twitter is a platform where continuous and constant updates are normal. It’s even expected. I can send out a number of tweets in an hour and my tweeple wouldn’t think anything of it. If I updated my Facebook statuses more than once in an hour, that would be too excessive for that audience.

You have to know that the Twitter audience and the Facebook audience are two completely different groups of people.

Hashtags, @ symbols, usernames, they all don’t belong on Facebook. When I see #topic @username on a Facebook status it’s jarring.

Flip that around and seeing a long-winded message on Twitter that ends with a ” … ” followed by a link that you need to click in order to finish reading the message is Wrong.

One of Twitter’s best features is its 140 character limit and oftentimes your Facebook status is going to be longer than that limit. To be forced to click off of Twitter to finish reading a “tweet” is unacceptable. On the FB side, your Facebook statuses can be longer. You can let your message breath, take a little longer to get to the point. Add a little more detail.

Yes it is convenient that you’re able to send your message to more than one platform – to more than one audience – with the single click of a button but in the case of Facebook and Twitter, just take the time to tailor your message for the individual social network. Please.

If you absolutely feel the need to link messages between the two social networks then my advice is BE SELECTIVE!

Be selective about which status updates you’re sending to Twitter and which tweets you’re sending to Facebook and always ask yourself, am I so lazy that I can’t just write the message separately, add the appropriate tags and symbols and/or shorten/lengthen the message as per the network’s character limits to make it its own message? :P

Some messages are passable in terms of being able to cross-platform update. For example, “Check out the latest photos I took from such and such event last week! LINK-TO-WEBSITE.” That’s acceptable. But again you could still phrase it slightly differently for the individual networks/the individual audiences. Or just copy and paste it. Okay?

That’s it.

Again it’s just my opinion though :)

Your thoughts welcome!

Linda

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