Facebook, Twitter, and Buzz - Which Tools Work Now?

(First let me state, I get the irony of this post being sent out to my Twitter account)

I used to be a religious user of Twitter.  Going back into early 2007, I Tweeted.  I even took upon myself to Tweet out McCain's daily campaign news clips in addition to my own opinion and articles that I found interesting.  Facebook for me, wasn't something I was really into and it did take a while for me to embrace their advertising platform, not because I'm stubborn, but because it took Facebook a while to come into the advertising prime time. Also, I didn't have a ton of my real life friends and family on Facebook, but that has changed and so has my use of both of them.

Nowadays Twitter has become so popular in everyday life, to me it has almost become a joke.    Not that the the platform isn't useful but people use it as a punch line it sitcoms, news programs, etc that it just doesn't seem cool anymore.  Sure, it is still the best place to get fast breaking news in addition to political news, but as a way to have interactive conversations with people, it just doesn't do it for me anymore.  I won't be disconnecting Twitter any time soon, but as a primary vehicle for communicating, it just doesn't seem right anymore.  Yes, I still Tweet but not as often.  Yes I still read Twitter for political news, but if you are a small business trying to get your own story out, I think there are better vehicles for you.

One of those is Facebook.  I do check Facebook multiple times per day and I do make a lot of posts.  It's just more personable and interactive.  Plus, a lot of friends and family are on there so it doesn't feel so alone anymore.  Also, if you are a new business and you can't figure out how to communicate in Facebook, what makes you think that Twitter will work for you?  Hone your marketing skills in Facebook and then move out to other communication tools.  However, Facebook has privacy problems and they are definitely in advertising revenue generation mode, so if you are a little nervous about them, there are alternatives.

That takes me to Google Buzz.  I was into it at the start and drifted away.  Now, I'm starting to take a look at it again.  The integration with Gmail and Google Reader is just too much to ignore.  However, you know what's holding it back?  Integration into other tools - like Typepad which doesn't have a link to share this post in Buzz or good integration into my iPad.  However, I think Google has a much better advertising model and takes privacy a little more seriously than Facebook.

My thoughts?  I think long term Twitter goes away somehow.  Facebook has too many regular people on it for it to be ignored.  They of course have a downside risk of becoming Geo Cities like MySpace.  I think Google Buzz is worthy enough to start to be taken seriously, so I'm going to be spending more time on it..I think you should too.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

Comments

[Suzi]

But still, you don't seem to have a facebook fan page to share your knowledge.. :) Too bad, I keep on waiting!

Suzi

[PardonMyFrench]

Suzi, I actually do have one pardonmyfrench but I haven't used it to share information. I find it hard to post in multiple spots.

Eric