myklbiz:

(I wrote this a few days ago in response to a comment on my article Micro-blogging with Twitter, and am re-posting it here so it’s not lost in the archives.)

I’m just gonna say it like it is, for me personally.

Facebook sucks up too much of my time. Once I login, it’s full of distractions and time sinks. My friends, I’m interested to know what you’re up to. But I don’t have time to return the favor of your vampire bites, nor the desire to clutter up Facebook’s tidy interface with applications designed by programmers possessing no sense of visual design.

What I love about Twitter is composing a 140 character micro-post fits neatly into the (rare) spare minutes of my day. Likewise, I can use the occasional cracks between the paving stones of my schedule to read my friends’ succinct and (preferably) occasional posts. And I can do both these things (almost) wherever I am.

Furthermore, when I post to Twitter, I kill a second bird with the proverbial stone. I’ve setup the simple Twitter app to automatically post my “tweets” as “status updates” at Facebook. Thus, my friends on Twitter and Facebook both see what I’m up to, with no additional effort on my part.

The brevity of Twitter’s tiny tweets means micro-blogging is perfect for mobile phones (and not just “smart phones”), so I can read and post tweets wherever I have cellular reception, not just when I’m sitting at my computer. It’s “in the moment” field reports from real life that make Twitter more intimate and immediate. I can be “right there with you” when your kid says something witty at the laundromat, when The Crazy Baker pulls the panforte out of the oven, or when an airliner flies into the Hudson River.

I can also use any of many applications (on my computer or smart phone) to read and post tweets.  So I’ve got choices about how I interface with Twitter, using whatever works best for me at the moment.  What’s more, my Twitter app of choice, Twhirl, is working to add direct support for Facebook status messages; I’m looking forward to following my friends on both Twitter and Facebook, without needing to login anywhere.

All that said, if you’re a compulsively social person, maybe you should avoid Twitter. Chattier friends invest much more time than I following each other on Twitter. Because tweets are so short, they’re like tiny candies; it’s easy to read “just a few more”, until you wonder where the time went.

But who cares what I think? In a fraction of the time it took me to write all this, you could sign up for a Twitter account (about 30 seconds), then (optionally) customize your micro-profile and avatar and background (maybe a minute for each) and search your address book for friends already on Twitter (another minute), then try it out yourself. Even if you don’t use it now, you’ll have reserved your preferred account name for future use.

Oh, and the last best thing about Twitter? The 140 character limit prevents wordy geeks like me from rambling on for 8 paragraphs, in response to a simple question. If you do sign up on Twitter, please say “hi” to @MYKLbiz, where my response is sure to be brief!