The Birdshot Effect



Another Facebook rant, yes I know, it's a weekly occurrence, like the swallows returning home to Capistrano or another increase in my waistline. This rant came about after a Skype conversation with Simon Gornick of Spotcher.

But here's my beef. Why oh why do people put their Twitter feed into Facebook? And what is really irritating is that if I comment on their Twitter feed, they don't know or care because I know they are feeding their social network comments on just about every social network site possible.

Gripe.

So why does it bug me? Well, it's all about them getting their message out without interaction. All they are doing is clicking options to feed it to all their social networks. There was a study released about the two types of Twitter users by Mor Naaman and Jeffrey Boase, what they found was that 80% of Twitter users were "meformers", breaking it down into an easy bitesize nugget, it's all about "Me". The other 20% are "informers", who tend to share information that is useful to their followers. Women were more apt to post about themselves as opposed to men. This study applies to social network users who post to all their SN sites. Its all about us knowing what they are doing without them really caring about what we are doing. Of course there are a few that do interact on all their networks, but that is a minority.

Rant.

Back to why I hate Twitter on Facebook, its all about "Me", and the birdshot strategy of hitting as many targets as possible fails, because you cannot engage on every platform. After a while the postings become just background noise and eventually hidden from Facebook users' streams.

Snort.

If you want to social network then social network. If you post everywhere the same message it is the equivalent of flying over a city and throwing out a million flyers, its just tomorrow's garbage.

Okay I feel better now. Back next week with another rant.

Today's feelgood palate cleanser: "Follow your dreams because they are stalking you" - me

Image: Ophelia Chong / Birdshot Rant.

Comments

*Snap in z-formation*!!

I agree. I know people want to spread the wealth of their insight and knowledge to the masses, but using multiple services to say the same thing to the same people gets obnoxious.

snipppity snap back at you derrick. :O) ophelia

On target as usual, Ophelia. But it's not just "Twitter me'ers" that annoy me. The other end of the spectrum are the "FB spy'ers" who get an account, acquire a ton of friends, and then just sit back and become information hogs without sharing their own thoughts. You know who you are.

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About 404 City

Los Angeles is the ultimate networked metropolis, and in 404 City blogger Ophelia Chong takes a look at our diverse web of communities, all of them interwoven by freeways, shared history, media, automobiles, and the ever present digital penumbra of cell-phones and computers.

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