Facebook and Twitter, what's the difference?

This week, Melanie asked the pr class to blog about the differences between Facebook and Twitter beyond the 140 character limit. While both are very helpful to get messages across to friends and target audiences the way both go about it are through very different ways.

First of all, after I speaking with my friends I found out that a lot of them use Facebook and not Twitter. Personally, I have both Twitter and Facebook pages, but I haven't used my Twitter page since before Christmas break. I think this speaks to the fact that Facebook is where people go to form online communities and share aspects of their lives, whereas Twitter is about sharing info that is dynamic. I say this not only from my experiences with both, but through other people I've talked to about their use of both sites share. A lot of people use Twitter as a way to get their news. Others, like what Melanie preaches to us, use Twitter as a means to see what people in their profession are doing and as a way to be on the up and up.

Facebook, on the other hand, is about connecting with old friends and making new friends. It's also a way to keep an online album of yourself so that people you haven't seen in awhile can see what you've been up to a vice-verca.

While both are similar in that they allow for their users to share information, they can be used to form different relationships. Twitter is a get your message out type of tool, whereas Facebook is about building lasting relationships.