DigitalAgency

Twittery FaceBooky Thing:

There's been a fair amount of discussion this morning about the recent redesign of the FaceBook Home Page.

(Ironically I got most of my real-time and informed responses from Twitter search, not, er, Facebook itself.)

Some have even described their revamped status feed as a 'Twitter Killer'

Have to say, I'm not a fan of the new Facebook look. (In truth I'm not a fan of Facebook full stop.)

But of course, professionally we have to get out of our digital ivory-towers and onto the 'street' to monitor/understand this digital behemoth on behalf of our clients.

(And incidentally, we have to respect any network that has a combined group of users that dwarfs traditional mass-market media channels. e.g. Edinburgh and Glasgow of users for FaceBook, is a hefty 300,000. Over 5 times bigger than the print circulation of Scotland's national newspaper The Hootsmon.)

For many FaceBook, is the internet, with users spending shed-loads of time on/in there. (If not, to the chagrin of many rueful advertisers shed-loads of money.)

But anyway, back to the pointy about FB's new status feed, is it a Twitter Killer?

I don't think so, however I do think it will deny Twitter many mainstream 'civilian' sign-ups. With many choosing to stick with the in-house, micro-blog/message/post/share tool within FB's walled garden, amongst friends.

Which is all fine and dandy for them except for one tiny little point.

Part of Twitter's power is it's openess, and the serendipitous happy-accident of finding great new stuff via people you don't know. FB is just an 'echo-chamber' of opinion for my friends is it not? (I also think this is why Yammer fails, simply because I already know everyone using in the organisation. Consequently I get few 'unexpected' bits of information/insights.)

I think another disadvantage of FB is that I have to approve someone before they can see my updates, diametrically opposed to the twitter follow method, and Twitter's asynchronous nature. (Blimey. 'Diametrically & Asynchronous' in the same sentence. @StephenFry! ha, who are ya, who are ya!. Hell ya!)

Also, I'm not sure if ReTweet is available in FB either, which is again, another feature of Twitter's that extends it's power as a real-time market for information.

I can't deny that FB dwarf's twitter in terms of reach and audience.

Nor can I deny that I find FB a right old pain in the arse in that it tries to do far too much, too clunkily, and too locked in. (Duck! Incoming sheep. Ouch! Unexpected Poke. Pish! Virtual custard pie.)

Twitter is far from perfect, but at least it concentrates on doing one thing very well, and is improving all the time. (Correction: Many of the 2,000+ apps and tools in the Twitter eco-system are adding value all the time.)

Some say they prefer FB for personal stuff and Twitter for their day jobs. Other say they use Twitter personal account and a separate Twitter account for professional work. Well whatever floats your boat and far be it from me to prescribe right or wrong ways to anyone.

But personally there's just one 'me' and I tend to be interested in the 'whole person' I work with professionally. I'm interested if a client likes France, Football, LinkedIn, Cycling, Surfing, Yorkshire, Cornwall, Elbow, Paul Smith, women/men/Jack Russell's etc & whatever. It helps me engage with them in a more informed and 'shared' way, common interests as human beings. (Particularly if they are Jack Russell lovers.)

To separate our 'persona's' online by platform isn't my thing, but if it's yours, no problem.

Although I'm always looking for a tighter set of established online tools not more.

Reading and writing to too many platforms is a nuisance. (Thank heavens for friendfeed says I.)

Having to post my current status and read contacts separately on LinkedIn, Yammer, Twitter and FaceBook is just plain dumb and a huge timesink.

And I think FB's new Twitter killer/emulator/clothes stealer has just made things worse.

Ultimately I think FaceBook will fail. I think they'll fail because they are trying to do too much for too many. It's too messy.

I can understand their desire to virtually own the online world.

Just like AOL.

But look what happened to them.

ps. Here's some of the tweets from and to me on the subject this morn:

Edinburgh Coffee Morning slideshow:

Now in it's 3rd year, Edinburgh Coffee Morning at Centotre every Friday, has become something of an institution.

With that in mind here's a few words and pictures from the inmates:

Edinburgh Coffee Morning: from digitalagency on Vimeo.

A slideshow and v/o, looking at the who, what, where, when and why of Edinburgh Coffee Morning.

Held every Friday at Centotre, 103 George Street, Edinburgh, to discuss, share and learn about the latest social media happenings.

Think of it as 'Twitter for Humans'.

Edinburgh Coffee Morning. Good Friday:

A report on Edinburgh Coffee Morn, (or 'Coffee Club' as @jonmountjoy insists on calling it.)

I'm a bit strapped for time, so hopefully the aggregated tweets below, give a flavour of what was discussed, who was there, what the vibe was like, etc, etc.

Crowd-sourced minutes, if you will.

Discussed in their/your own words via Twitter:

Flickr set here.

Alt slideshow with audio bed here.

Edinburgh Coffee Morn. April 03 2009:

There's that old saying, I'd have written a shorter letter if I'd have had more time. No blog post as such about ECM this week, but a short audioboo here:

AudioBoo#01

I think AudioBoo is pretty cool, and is worth keeping an eye, (or rather ear? on.)