Which Social Network Should I Use?
I know
a bit about all the different social networks out there, but I don’t
want to keep up with a separate profile for all of them. Which ones
should I use and which ones can I ignore?
Sincerely,
Broken Social Network Scene
Broken Social Network Scene
Dear Social,
The last time we tackled this issue, the social networking world was quite different. Google Buzz was still a thing, Instagram was eight months away from existing, and the mobile revolution was still in its glory days. Things have changed.
The last time we tackled this issue, the social networking world was quite different. Google Buzz was still a thing, Instagram was eight months away from existing, and the mobile revolution was still in its glory days. Things have changed.
This is
part of the social network world so you should keep that in mind when
choosing a service. We use these apps and sites because we like the
communities that surround them, so they will inevitably change. We’ll
look at which service is good for what type of content and activity here
in 2013, but as with anything on the internet, don’t go in counting on
it to stay that way forever.
What it’s good for: Family photos and videos, personal updates, chronicling life changes, and sharing interesting links.
Where it falls short: Up-to-the-minute news, one-way follows for individuals.
When
Facebook introduced its new Timeline profile layout, the site became a
sort of personal scrapbook that allows you to record everything that
happens to you. The site also has over a billion users worldwide, which
overshadows the user base of every other network on this list. If you
know a person’s name, chances are you can connect with them on Facebook.
Sharing all
of your personal life events, updates, and photos are great, but don’t
expect to amass much of a “following” per se. Facebook added one-way
follow functionality without creating a Page back around the time
Google+ came out, but adoption is a little scattershot.
Google+
What it’s good for: One-way following, photography, videos, long-form text content, selective sharing, and animated GIFs.
Where it falls short: Sharing with friends and family, and fast news.
Google+ is a
relative newcomer to the field. It was first introduced a couple years
ago, yet by some accounts, it’s already outpaced Twitter to be the
second largest social network . The biggest feature is the site’s
powerful tools for organizing your contacts and controlling what shows
up in your feed.
Unlike most
other services, you can’t add people without sorting them into some
category. You’re given a few by default, but you can also create them on
the fly. This means that, from the start, you’re already approaching
your follow lists as though some feeds have more priority than others
(which they do). If you’re looking to carefully curate a casual feed,
Google+ is the way to go.
It’s also
done a fine job of attracting a lot of visual content producers with its
big, attention-grabbing posts. Photography, videos, artwork, and basic
blog-style posts with some conditional formatting all regularly show up
in seasoned Google+ veterans’ feeds. There are also communities for a
bunch of tech-friendly topics like Raspberry Pi or system builders. If
you do something creative or are involved in tech, you can probably find
a community for you.
What it’s good for: Instant news, site updates, breaking news, and quick links.
Where it falls short: Long-form anything and reading everything in your feed.
Twitter is the odd-man out in social networks because it’s defined less by what it is and more by what it isn’t.
Twitter uses a 140 character limit to make messages readable on as many
mediums as possible without getting bogged down by bandwidth or device
constraints. While most clients will show photos, videos, and article
snippets inline, tweets can be accessed on phones with nothing more
sophisticated than SMS capabilities.
Twitter
also uses a real-time display of information. Unlike Facebook or
Google+, every person you follow and everything they tweet is given
equal priority. If you follow a couple hundred users, then you’ll see
reactions as they happen. This makes it perfect for anything happening
live. Informal reactions to the newest episode of a show, special news
events (Twitter just loves presidential elections), and sporting events.
It’s also
great and simultaneously terrible when breaking news occurs. As the
events of the Boston Marathon showed, information can travel very
quickly across Twitter, whether it’s verified or not. As one Community
writer put it, “Twitter does its best work five minutes after a
disaster, and its worst in the twelve hours after that.”
Still,
flaws and all, it’s really cool to be able to follow and communicate in
some small way with TV show writers, movie stars, journalists,
politicians, and even lifehackers in a single medium where everyone is
equal.
Tumblr
What it’s good for: Focused, social content. Photos, GIFs, blog posts. NSFW content.
Where it falls short: News, connecting with celebrities and sites.
Tumblr has
carved out a niche for itself with a greater focus on the content
aspects of the service than the social emphasis most other sites take.
Perhaps most notably, if you’re used to other blogging services,
comments are not enabled by default. You can reblog stuff other people
share and add your own captions, but feedback is not generally
highlighted as a primary function.
This puts
the focus both on the quality of the content itself and sharing it with
others. Curation is the name of the game and often a successful Tumblr
can be made just by being someone who’s good at finding cool things to
click on, no commentary needed. Just be sure to give credit where it’s
due. Building a following on the backs of other people’s work without
contributing anything of your own or linking back is a great way to
breed ill will among the very artists you’re mooching off of.
Outside of
these main four, there are also specialized networks that are devoted to
a certain type of content. Instagram and Vine fall into this category.
Unlike other entries on this list, these sites don’t have a wide variety
of options for sharing different types of content. If you want to share
videos, YouTube is the place to go. For filtered photos, Instagram
leads the pack. Snapchat excels at sharing images that you don’t want to
save permanently (though you shouldn’t use it to share pictures of a
sensitive nature).
Ultimately,
while social networks are still a dime a dozen, they’ve moved away from
being carbon copies of each other. Facebook is arguably the only one
remaining that’s looking to connect you primarily with your friends and
family. Google+ wants to connect you with other people across the
internet, Twitter wants to connect you with what’s happening right now,
and Tumblr wants to connect you with cool stuff. Each niche has its
users and, when used appropriately, they can all provide tangible value.
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