Why I’m against a ‘Status Standard’.
Steve Rubel had an interesting post a couple of days back that made several interesting points about the values of having a standardized method of updated Status messages across many social networks.
I’m against this as a matter of principle, although I’ve definitely been guilty of importing Twitter updates to Tumblr, etc. I’m against it because I think it ignores the difference between networks.
If you’re automating the posting of your content to multiple, very different, social networks, you’re applying old media to new, and calling it innovative. Giving people the same content on Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr is a great indication that you don’t understand the communities, social contracts, and accepted behaviours of each of these communities. Twitter is conversational. Facebook is (IMHO) an info clearing house that often caters to radical transparency / not-creepy voyeurism. Tumblr is a publishing platform with some social network elements that help to build a reactive community around content.
If my Tweets immediate became Facebook status updates, my FB account would be cluttered, have no topic, and be mostly directed at a small group of friends who aren’t necessarily interested in my Facebook account. When my Tweets appeared on Tumblr, my blog was an endless stream of one-sentence content - readable, and arguably interesting, but anyone interested in my one-sentence content was probably already a Twitter user.
The idea that the same content fits all of these different channels is also a statement that some of them are irrelevant.
If you aren’t tailoring to each specific platform, to each specific audience, you aren’t generating content to be enjoyed or shared - you’re generating content and throwing it at as many walls as possible to see what sticks.
That’s old media thinking. That time has passed.
