Okay I’m going to have a bit of a rant here. I kinda feel a bit iffy writing this as it looks like I’m complaining about some of my mates, but I’m not… Well, I am, but not in a bad way. Take this blog post as a friendly rant (hence the smileys) – you know, like someone you really really like but just does one little thing to annoy you – but a rant none the less. 
Here goes: If there’s one thing that reeeeaaaalllly annoys me on Facebook, it’s when my contacts update their status updates using Twitter.
Aaaaarrgghhhh!
Seriously, dude, maybe you should start using Facebook status updates in the way in which Mr Zukerburg intended? I follow you on Twitter and we’re friends on Facebook so we’ve obviously got a good relationship going on. But, dude, you’re inundating me with your updates and I’m reading them multiple times.
Aaaaarrgghhhh!
What do your Facebook friends think? I’m talking about the non-geek, non-Twitter users here. They must think you’re insane, yes?
Case study: (names changed to protect the guilty)
Bob has been using Twitter to update his Facebook status updates for three weeks now. Bob’s friends log in to Facebook and see this crap:
Bob is twittering: @joeblogs Yeah!
Bob is twittering: This baby tastes good.
Bob is twittering: @joeblogs No, I saw it last week!
Bob is twittering: @samboy I’m introducing you to @joeblogs. Say hello to each other.
**Bob’s friends collectively think Bob’s lost the plot.**
Aaaaarrgghhhh!
Seriously, I’m just having a bit of pokey fun here but I’m sure I’m not the only one here that thinks the same?
Anyone? Anyone?
Stephen is a communications consultant based out of the UK. You can connect with him on Twitter or check out his LinkedIn profile. | Email Stephen
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Chris Clarke
I like the fact that Twitter updates my Facebook. I’ve had people on Facebook learn way more about me from my Twitter messages than I would if I actually updated my Facebook status. I get IMs, wall posts, and emails based on the Twitter updates I put in Facebook. It allows people outside Twitter to follow my goings-on within Twitter.
Sorry dude
Ged Carroll
Hi Stephen,
I don’t bother using FBook as a way of actively engaging with people any more. I got tired of the site, which is the reason why I just pipe content in.
I check my inbox once a day and that’s about it. I guess you’re not suffering from Facebook Fatigue yet
Yours unapologetically
Ged
Giles
I wouldn’t do it as my friends would wonder WTF was going on…I am not a fan either. webiteers stand together as one.
Melanie Seasons
It bugs me too! I use my Facebook status for more personal updates and Twitter for professional.
Most of my friends on Facebook don’t give two hoots about the latest demographic study on YouTube, and most of my friends on Twitter don’t give two hoots about how much sleep I got last night.
Two different spaces, in my opinion.
Stephen
Oh! All evens in the comment section.
Daljit
Pisses me off as well! I think its the fact that their status is always about twittering which annoys. If their mates are on twitter surely they know they are twittering, and if they are not why the hell do they care what they are twittering about???
Well done for saying what we have been too afraid to say.
Justin
Luckily I currently only have two FB friends twittering to FB and they only use it for announcements so it’s not too annoying at the moment. But if I started getting snippets of some conversation though then things would be very different.
Two very different services intended for different uses – they should be kept so…
Ben Ayers
Fair point Stephen. I actually do it more out of laziness , plus the fact that serious FB fatigue has crept in. I am using Twitter a lot more than I actually meant to (anyone else noticed how brilliantly addictive it is?!) and actually forget that it ’spams’ my FB buddies, many of whom are definitely not into my social media interests!!
Stephen Waddington
Its a syndication model isn’t it? Why do you cross post blog links to Twitter? Why do folk carry Twitter widgets on their blogs? Its exactly the same principle.
I’m with Ged. I don’t log on to Facebook anymore and so piping through syndicated content appeals.
This stuff is all so new, and we’re all learning. I don’t think there can be hard and fast rules. If it pisses you off vote with your feet. Unsubscribe from feeds or delete friends?
Jonathan
Guilty too. I’ve had lots of Facebook people ask me what this twittering thing is all about. I might stop it now I use Twitter a hell of a lot more but I guess my status just won’t get updated as much and it may read “is using Twitter”. I cross post my blogs into FB and Twitter though and I actually think that’s a good thing to do.
Plus – remember FB will puck only a few Tweets to appear in other feeds so only by visiting the profile page of person in question will you see the true Twitterisation of FB. There are more important things in life though to worry about I guess.
Alex
Guilty, but, like Ged, unapologetic. Get them to change their Fb Twitter app so it doesn’t have the ‘is twittering’ and filters the @direct responses, and suddenly it is a lot cleaner and decidedly more sane.
I always updated my fb status a lot anyway. Of course If Fb just made heir status stream a direct Twitter clone [i.e. sends direct to phone etc], they’d probably find a lot of interest.
Mihnea Miculescu
I agree to modifying the app. I’ll just go out and say that I’m too lazy to “microblog” in more than one place.
And yes, I have a lot of non-Twitter friends there.
colin byrne
Jeez man, i didnt even know you could use twitter this way. I am beginning to wonder if twitter is the Emperor’s New Clothes applicatiion of social media. Thanks for the commenton my blog recently.
Ashley Belle Emmanuelle
I can see Twitter being a mashup of professional and personal updates. Or a stand alone for either.
I find Twitter’s followers/following feature to reveal too many connections.
6 degrees of separation personified.
Just clicking back and forth thru marketing, pr, media research people I know on twitter I have come upon
people I don’t personally but who know people I know. What a small world.
Which means I’m not marrying my twitter to my facebook any time soon.
That’s a little too much exposure for my tastes.
And no I won’t subject my FB friends to my constant natterings on Twitter.
Ian Delaney
There’s the official Twitter app for facebook, and an unofficial, better one called Twittersync. The later filters out all the @ tweets, which tends to mean that they are actually status updates.
Mats
I’ve got zero interest in Twitter and go to FB only occasionally these days but when I do I may as well get somewhat relevant updates and not the nonsense that comes from tweets (or whatever they’re called).
Strangely, the users who are spamming the update feed are supposedly “savvy internet marketeers” (or so they say) – just goes to show!
FB ought to enable blocking updates from certain users just like with the news feed, or perhaps I should just remove the offenders…
Stuart Bruce
I’m one of the guilty ones, but you know what I’m not ashamed. There are simply too many social networks, platforms – call them what you will. Some people I know are just on Twitter, others just on Facebook. I don’t have time to post the same info on both. That’s why the Facebook app works for me. Before I started using it I very rarely used Twitter or Facebook status updates as I could never decide which to update and so did neither. I am going to check out Ian’s Twittersync – but the flip side is that some of my none geek friends have started using Twitter directly because of being curious about my Facebook updates.