Papa Ces: February 2009

Facebook Has Millions of New Users: But Is It a Good Thing?

Thursday, February 19, 2009 | Labels: Facebook, social media | 2 comments |

I'm starting to enjoy Facebook more than Friendster. Don't get me wrong. I still like Friendster, it's just that Facebook's layout is more intuitive, I get things done faster and, at least in my opinion, Facebook has more interesting apps and features.

Last night, while casually browsing, I stumbled upon an online column (I'll try to find it and post the link here) wherein the writer mentioned that although Facebook is growing exponentially, they are growing in the wrong market.

The writer argued that most of the new Facebook users are people outside the United States who generate very small advertising revenue for the social site. What this means is that few advertisers are interested in having their ads shown to these demographics.

Being here in the Philippines, I am pretty sure that we belong to that demographic.

Facebook needs servers to provide the service to all these new users. And servers cost a lot of money. If these new users are not generating enough income to contribute to Facebook's finances, should the company just close their doors to these people and instead focus on U.S. members instead?

That would be a sad day indeed should that thing happen.

Is Twitter Killing Blogs?

Sunday, February 08, 2009 | Labels: blog, blogging, micro blogging, twitter | 2 comments |

A friend of mine, who is so much into Twitter, argued that Twitter is starting to kill blogs. He gave me these points:

It is very popular today. There are already millions of users worldwide.
The 140-character limit forces you to be creative and to make you write down your thoughts more effectively.
You get faster comments / responses to your Tweets than when you make a blog post.
Your Tweets instantly reaches as many people as you have followers.

I can understand my friend's points there but I completely disagree that Twitter is killing blogs. With blogs, you can expound on your thoughts and even write about it in as many words that you want or need.

You may get faster replies on Twitter, but the comments made on your blog is more properly documented. You can always go back to your comments section and ponder upon the interaction that happened there.

A lot of people use Twitter as just a tool to support their blogging. They would usually announce a new post on their blog or engage in communication with other people, trying to get them interested enough to go visit their blogs. If just for that, I believe Twitter is indeed a great tool.

But Twitter is not a replacement for blogs. In its current state, Twitter cannot kill blogs.

People who are into marketing, who are trying to attract people to try out their own services or products should not rely too much on Twitter for those purposes. My point is this: why invest the majority of your marketing efforts on a platform that you have no control?

With a blog, at least a self-hosted blog, the platform is yours for as long as you want it. You own the domain. You own the hosting space. It is all yours from whatever angle you look at it.

I'll repeat what I've said earlier. Twitter is a great tool, but as of today it is not a blog killer. Perhaps more than anything else, Twitter is a blogging tool.