Lately two of the biggest social media sites, Facebook and Twitter, have been rolling out updates and experiments, which is great because we all love new features and improvements. But recently Facebook has had issues with its newest terms of service that caused so much of a stir it had to retract them and revert back to the old version. Now its latest change involves what I can only see as a step very firmly into Twitter’s domain.
Twitter on the other hand has been experiencing a few glitches, and this time it’s not just the appearance of the infamous Fail Whale. While at Think Visibility, I was searching Twitter for the hashtag #thinkvisibility to reveal feedback from delegates real time. It seemed to work well until I saw my friends tweet with the correct use of the hashtag, but noticed their (un-protected) tweets never appearing in the Twitter search results. More recently there have been issues with direct messages being delayed – something I actually first experienced about a month ago – and @ replies going missing.
Do you need trust in order to engage fully with a social media website?
Before I hand over my personal information and fully engage with a social media website, I need to trust it. I don’t know if I’m the only one to feel this way – perhaps I’m in the minority? But seeing the aforementioned glitches and issues has made me lose a bit of trust in social media in general. I want them to work as I find them rewarding and fun to use, both personally and professionally. But how can anyone be expected to trust a website with their personal information when it is not technically sound, can’t decide how it will use the information or has no clear strategy?
With Facebook having more than 175 million active users at time of writing and Twitter growing 1,382% year-over-year in February, that’s a lot of valuable, personal information that should be protected. Facebook is lucky that its users have integrated it so much within their lives that it will be a long time before people begin to quit. Although saying that, I overheard someone yesterday say that they quit it for the exact reasons above. Is the tide turning?
Have you experienced the glitches? If so, have they changed the way you use social media websites?
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March 17th, 2009 on 11:29 AM
Your “What am I doing” Twitter update seems to suggest you haven’t tweeted in 3 days – another glitch?
I haven’t experienced any of the glitches you mention but I don’t entirely trust these sites to protect my info and to work properly at all times, and that’s why I use social media extremely cautiously, the same way as I use the Internet in general.
March 17th, 2009 on 12:01 PM
Hi Joanna,
Re: quitting Facebook. A friend of mine quit the other day when an old high school friend of hers posted basically her entire life story on a Facebook group’s wall. Personal family history stuff that would have been better shared through a private message. Maybe this is more a lesson of social media etiquette rather than trust, but it seems that the more people join Facebook, etc., the more there needs to be an awareness of that etiquette and common courtesy to other users.
March 17th, 2009 on 1:52 PM
Hi Joanna,
I’ve seen problems with Twitter losing replies, failing to post tweets from SMS. Annoying.
Facebook privacy. I agree but I anticipate a reduced level of security from Facebook and I’m careful what information I make available. The very young generation seem blissfully unaware; I saw one group where a friend of a friend lost his mobile, posted his mobile in the group and asked friends to post their numbers to the group too. Many did so :-/
March 17th, 2009 on 2:19 PM
Hi Joanna,
I have experienced some troubles with facebook applications and some other with Twitter. The worst have been with Facebook, and right now i’m using it less than before, emailing more my friends than sending messages in their walls. As well i don’t like how they manage with the police privacy, and some holes that allows people to get information that they are not allowed.
All of that, means that i’m not using facebook as a professional tool, or only a little, and it’s something more personal than any other social tool.
With twitter i have experienced some delays with the DM and with @ but nothing worring yet.
Regards
March 20th, 2009 on 10:07 AM
http://is.gd/oa8b @JoannaButler: Social Media Websites: A Trust Issue?