To Sync or Not to Sync

Some people say you shouldn’t sync your Facebook updates and your Twitter tweets. Others say it’s OK to sync because it’s a convenience. Others prefer to use selective tweets to Facebook. There is only one clear answer: It depends.

If you don’t have an idea what I mean, I’m talking about apps and services that allow you to write an update on one, and makes it automagically appear on the other.

As in most subjects in Social Media, a blanket rule just doesn’t cut it. Processes and their effectiveness depend on a wide variety of factors, including update frequency, type of updates, audiences reached on each platform, and many others. Above all things, you just have to use common sense and check if your human interactions are being hindered or not.

So instead of giving you a dogmatic reason why you should or shouldn’t sync, I thought it would be much more interesting to hear from a number of folks on why they do what they do. We ran a bit of a survey accross several Twitter accounts, and the results were quite interesting. Feel free to do a little virtual-eavesdropping of our Twitter timelines.

And even a few of my Latin American peeps gave their opinions. I translate below each.

“No, because for me Twitter is more for colleagues and Facebook for friends and family. Different subjects.”

“Yes dear friend, but I use the selective hashtag #fb to select what goes to Facebook. My friends in Facebook were not understanding some of my tweets.”

“No, because a lot of times what I update on Facebook doesn’t fit in Twitter, and vice-versa. Above all things, the audiences [are different], a lot of people ask why I say what I’m doing on Facebook when it’s supposed to be a status, and on Twitter that doesn’t happen. Also, there are things that I’d rather place here [on Twitter] and not on Facebook, because it’s more precise and in some way less “gossip-ey”.

And because I do sync (and I go into my reasons below), I even got an answer on Facebook:

“Yes, through Friendfeed which syncs everything, including replies. I do it because I like to have the same conversation in as many places as possible.”

My opinion: I do find it more convenient to sync most tweets as Facebook updates. The Facebook app I use, Yakket, is “intelligent” enough to weed out tweets that are heavy on @ replies and hashtags, so my Facebook contacts don’t seem to get too annoyed.

Also, my friends and followers, in their majority, are not as active on one as on the other. Most of them see any update only once, and the ones that are active on both, usually get a second chance on one of the channels to see something they might have missed from the other.

And sort of like Anyul said above, I’ve been able to spawn much more interaction out of one sync’d update. Of course, I could copy and paste a tweet on Facebook, or post a fuller version of a tweet on Facebook, but then it comes down to a matter of time, and actually remembering to do such a thing.

Now, in no way am I prescribing what you should do. I think these are all valid reasons to consider, and each probably works within their particular contexts. I’m actually not entirely set on syncing, and may even consider switching in the near future. Who knows? Like I said, it all depends on how our social interactions are flourishing, and I don’t seem to see a problem with mine right now.

The best thing about all these responses was realizing that most people have in fact given thought to why or why not to sync, beyond the ability and the tools that enable them to do it, and have actually considered how it affects their social interactions… which is the point of it all, no?

Big thanks to @abdulsmith, @DanDOrvilliers, @ericritter, @littlebrwngirl, @jgruchacz, @mikeisonthenets, @fontografist, @imusiik, @ebretton and @anyulled for contributing with your valuable thoughts.

Want to share your opinion? Do you disagree with any of the reasons stated here? Hit us up in the comments, and let’s keep the dialog going!

Update 9/27.2010: I’ve finally decided to un-sync today. I felt I wanted to tweet with more frequency, but I didn’t like the idea of increasing that frequency as Facebook posts. I’m also trying to use the Facebook platform for all it’s worth, and the 140 characters just don’t cut it. Let’s see how everything goes!

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