For My Facebook-Only Friends

Usually at least once a week someone will ask me: “Why do you use Twitter? What’s the point? I don’t get it.” Just about everyone I know is on Facebook at this point (although I do know a few abstainers), so it would seem fair to say a person asking something like that is on Facebook but isn’t on Twitter.

I typically say, “Twitter is the fastest way to share information and it is completely different than Facebook. On Facebook I connect with friends and family, on Twitter I connect with the world.”

Here’s the best example of that I have.

On Tuesday my college roommate (for 3.5 years), Ryan posted a pretty crazy Craigslist ad (no I’m not condoning his ad, relax). Me, recognizing the craziness of it, posted it to Twitter.

Within 2 minutes a news anchor from a local news station who follows me on Twitter wrote me a message asking if my old roommate would do a story. I connected Ryan with this news anchor (follow her on Twitter) and the next day they filmed a short segment that was included on the local news that day and put on their website.

That was on Wednesday. Since then the news story has been syndicated on CNN tv, the Deadspin sports blog, ESPN’s Page 2 blog and doing a google search of “Oregon Auburn marriage” pulls up around 500,000 results.

While I’d agree with you, this isn’t really the most newsworthy story, it never would have happened if I shared the story on Facebook. Twitter presents the opportunity to connect in short, 140 character statements with untouchable celebrities, news anchors, friends, pastors, and news organizations. If Facebook is a party, Twitter is the after-party (cheesy line).

As a friend of mine said, here’s to hoping he meets the love of his life and stays married to her for the rest of his life.