Comments on: The Challenges of Social Sharing, Why I Worry More About Relevancy Than Privacy

By: eriktalgo

eriktalgo — Sat, 15 May 2010 00:46:34 +0000

You're right the lines are blurring. In some ways though that might not be a bad thing. I have made an effort recently to become more open on Twitter, and it has made for better connecting.

In terms of the progress for Twitter clients: as of now the only service I know of that lets you communicate in groups directly is GroupTweet. It's actually a 3rd party app that converts DMs into tweets between a group following an account. I heard TweetDeck is coming out with some new features to their desktop version that should address some of these problems. Although, it looks right now they are focused on coming out with a mobile web app for Android and Blackberry.

By: Danny Prager

Danny Prager — Fri, 14 May 2010 01:11:00 +0000

Thanks so much for the insightful comment Erik. Like you, definitely use Twitter more professional and Facebook for more personal purposes. But the lines are blurring. It will be interesting to see what kind of answers emerge as solutions to the relevancy problem.

When you said that some Twitter clients are making progress, what are you referring to? Would love to hear more.

By: Erik Talgo

Erik Talgo — Fri, 14 May 2010 00:55:28 +0000

Great post Daniel. I think you hit the nail on the head in terms of relevancy. As we begin to look at ourselves as media channels, the challenge to interact on a meaningful and relevant basis will only increase. Traditionally, media has operated on an opt-in basis, by which we sought out and chose our sources of information. Newspapers, magazines, TV and radio created content, whether it be entertainment or even news, and that content was targeted with a specific audience/consumer in mind. Social media has afforded great opportunities for individuals to create and share their own content, however the means of targeted distribution haven't quite kept pace. If I have a funny story to tell a friend, or a group of friends, I don't dial the entire contact list in my phone and tell everyone I know. As you mentioned, this is the problem we're facing on social networking sites when we want to share with a only a specific audience in mind. More and more now, my non-work related friends who join Twitter complain about how they have no idea what I'm talking about in most of my tweets. Having the ability to group by topic and interest, and share on a hyper-targeted level, is definitely the solution to the problem. Facebook still has a lot of work to do on this, although some Twitter clients are making progress. For now though, I'm sticking to the strategy of using Twitter as more of a professional tool and Facebook for personal purposes.

By: Danny Prager

Danny Prager — Fri, 14 May 2010 00:00:39 +0000

Thanks for stopping by and the comment Ryan. Good to hear I'm not the only guy struggling with this issue. Twitter lists and Facebook Friend groups just aren't really cutting it. I find it frustrating that everyone is obsessed with privacy, when a lot of the complaints are better explained by a lack of relevancy. Having control of who sees what seems just as much a relevancy issue as a privacy issue.

So. Let's solve this problem? Seems easy enough right?

By: ryanstephens

ryanstephens — Thu, 13 May 2010 23:52:19 +0000

Good thoughts here Danny. This is definitely something I'm already struggling with. I've added SOME online friends who I'm relatively close with to my Facebook account, but thus far I haven't “liked” any of their pages. I've managed to keep Facebook & Twitter relatively separate, but as more real-life friends join Twitter many are asking, “WTF are you talking about?” half the time.

I think a service/feature that can help us effectively sort and filter both incoming and outbound content will grow increasingly important.