Well, Not Really. LOL
Recently, there have been many discussions regarding how people use social media. (See @bradjward ‘s post) He’s not the only one. Many of us have been rethinking how we use the different tools in our social media arsenal. (See also, @robin2go ‘s post)
With the recent addition of Twitter to Linkedin updates, it brings up the point again: why do you use social media? Do these audiences blend? Why do you use each platform? Take a sec. Think about it.
I realized recently that my Twitter use was more immediate and constant: I knew people would always be there for a quick catch up, a funny quip, to take part in a strange moment in my day or to ask a question. Because of this these people are actually closer to me than those who follow other social networks or in real life. Yes, there is some cross over, but for the most part, they are more cued in to me and my daily life. I only feed my professional blog to Twitter, and manually post my dating blog there. In my daily life, I only encounter 1 other person who is active on Twitter. (@peteypumpkin shout out!) And, this is a person I see at work. In my personal life, none of my close friends IRL Tweet.
Facebook is more a repository for photos, family, non-tech friends, and close friends. I would never cross stream my Twitter feed to Facebook because Facebook for me is more personal – not more close – but the audience is not primarily work or technology focused. I tend to post more information about hobbies in Facebook, more running/rowing/krav info and event information. I do occassionally cross promote but rarely post informational links to my personal Facebook within Twitter. For the most part, they are separate. At one point I did feed a few items to Facebook: Freindfeed, Last.fm, etc. I’ve since ceased. It only gummed up the works and made Facebook less social and more ‘look at what I’m doing on the internet’. Who needs to see that? My professional blog is the only feed I have currently into Facebook. I manually post my dating blog there as well.
Linkedin is a very Rolodex process for me. If I meet professionals I add them there if they have an account. If I talk with them on Twitter, met them in real life and had a few drinks/think they’re a cool person, I’ll add them to Facebook as well. Linkedin to me is my online resume: it shows my work experience, my blog, Twitter, and who I connect with professionally and groups that interest me. I manually post once a week to the status something work related, but overall I find the status option useless. I cannot see a real use for Linkedin socially as it is too segregated – why would I do the things in there I can do in Twitter and have them be searchable?
Why do you use social media? Do you feel feeding status’ is useful to your ‘audience’?
jesskrywosa.com 
Jess, I really like the fact that you explained your thought process about which type of information is appropriate for which platform. It really puts it into focus for me. I especially like your definition of Linkedin as a Rolodex, because I see it that way too. Props also to defining Facebook, because you just made me realize why I don’t like it–I prefer to do the face to face with family and personal friends. Otherwise, they get caught up in the flow and get carried away from me in the social media flow. I’m no a gamer, so all the game apps just try my patience. As we’ve said before, we do what works for each of us. Thanks for this post; it has validated some of my thinking and expanded my understanding of others. Nice was to reframe and add to the conversation. Well done!
Good post Jess. I agree with you that you have to treat your audiences like a brand would treat their audiences. Despite being a “community” of sorts, they all have different needs and like information in different ways. The key is first figuring out what information they want and then what’s the best way to get in front of them in a manner that gets them to react, etc.