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No, You Shouldn’t Send Your Tweets to Facebook

August 13, 2012 by Nathan Bransford 55 Comments

It’s now pretty easy to send your tweets to Facebook. How do you do it? I’m not telling, because you shouldn’t do it.

I understand the temptation. It’s hard to think of witty things to say and cool things to share, why not kill two birds with one stone and share both at once?

Here’s why:

1) It looks lazy. Most of us are not on every single social network, and sure, everyone is busy. But it literally takes less than a minute to post something on Facebook. It makes it look like you can’t be bothered to even so much as copy and paste for your Facebook friends.

2) People know you’re not actually on Facebook. Sure, this may not seem like the worst of problems. But when they know you’re not there they also won’t try and interact with you. And if they don’t interact with you, they’ll stop seeing your posts altogether.

Facebook has this thing called Edge Rank that determines what you see in your News Feed. You see the posts from the people and brands you interact with the most, you see less from the people you don’t.

All those tweets going to Facebook are times someone probably isn’t going to interact with you. And if you want people to see your posts in the future you need them to be liking and commenting on what you post.

3) You should render unto Facebook what is Facebook and Twitter what is Twitter. The social networks have different strengths and weaknesses. Twitter is great for memes, short witticisms, realtime discussion on everything current. Facebook is great for photos, conversation, interaction.

There are things that make sense for Facebook, things that make sense for Twitter, and yes, some things that make sense for both. But if you’re trying to build a following or promote something it pays to actually keep in mind the types of posts that are best for the places you’re posting and tailor the message accordingly.

What do you think? Does it bother you when people send tweets to Facebook? Do you notice?

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: Social Media

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. G. B. Miller says

    August 14, 2012 at 10:31 pm

    I actually don't mind Tweets in my News Feed. I'm not on Facebook a lot to begin with (on average, about twenty to twenty five minutes per day), so when someone Tweets, its usually they're out somewhere either enjoying life and not having access to a computer or they're at work, with no access to a compuoter.

    Reply
  2. Tom Hoefner says

    August 16, 2012 at 2:44 am

    Anyone who gets annoyed from seeing Tweets in their Newsfeed needs more things in their life to be annoyed about. #WhoCares

    – Sent from Tweetdeck

    Reply
  3. Judith Briles says

    August 16, 2012 at 2:18 pm

    I now realized that and I agree. Thanks for sharing this.

    Reply
  4. Lisa says

    August 16, 2012 at 2:49 pm

    I think having all your tweets auto-post to your FB page looks lazy and like the poster isn't "there." Facebook and Twitter have different purposes, audiences, and vibes. And if you are active on Twitter, many tweets just don't make sense outside the context of the original conversation/format. I do think it's okay to *selectively* cross-post when you're sharing particular announcements, events, or links, but it's still best to create each post in its native outlet, customizing if possible.

    Reply
  5. Terri Nixon says

    November 9, 2012 at 5:29 pm

    I never cross-post, but I sometimes use hashtags in my Facebook posts just because it's entertaining – just as people use hashtags that don't exist, on Twitter.

    So if my friends see a hashtag in my FB post it doesn't mean I've said the same thing on Twitter.

    Yesterday I put something really shallow about some fit bloke on FB and ended it with #shallowisthenewdeep … never went near Twitter with it though!

    I think cross-posting just takes all the spontaneity (real or imagined/fake) away from whatever you're saying.

    Reply
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