However, it incresingly clear that Twitter will one day soon overtake Facebook as the social networking champion for a number of obvious reasons...

1- Connections - Its much easier to add connections (followers) on Twitter. With a click you can see 30 or more followers of any one person and by reading a Tweet or two, determine whether you want to follow them (and often, by custom, they will automatically follow you... opening up exponential connecting opportunities amongst respective followers). Additionally, Tweeps don't have to ask for permission to follow someone, its automatic with no approval process. Typically, Facebook friends know each other in real life... this is not the case on Twitter.

2- Security – Twitter doesn't breed the same security and privacy concerns that are associated with Facebook and the Facebook platform. Tweeps only post one photo, often an icon, or representative image rather than themselves, and a very short bio with a link. Facebook openly encourages you to share as much about yourself as possible and encourages the use of applications that want to grab as much personal information about you as possible.

3- Interface – The Twitter user interface could hardly be easier to use: quick hit posts or micro or mini blogs, a quick glance at other Tweets, and you're out. Facebook is increasingly heavy and cluttered: a myriad of applications, information feeds, photos, ads, etc.... one is left wondering where to look. I have no clue where my “Wall” is anymore, and I now find it stressful to look at Facebook as there's simply too much to digest, and I can no longer do it at a glance.

4- Big brother – Facebook's ownership and management has made conspicuous effort to get tough with its members in recent months. Rather than listen, read or watch what users want, Facebook had decided to do what it wants, in spite of its users. Recently there was the infamous new Terms of Service that implicitly said, “Screw you guys, we'll do what we want with YOUR content.” Follow that up with recent changes to the interface despite massive outcries and user complaints, and Facebook has taken on a reputation of being a bullying 'big brother'... and some members have started deleting their accounts.

5- Applications – There are thousands of Facebook applications, but so many of them serve little or no value, are frequently invasive, if not down right abusive. I have no interest in chomping vampires, finding out “what kind of sandle” I am (are you frickin' kidding me?!), or surrendering my soul for a cheap IQ test, let alone selling all of my personal information for free. Twitter applications are fewer and far-between, but can be tremendously helpful. Tweetdeck is a god-send to Twitter, its founders, and users – it has quadrupled the Twitter experience for highly active Tweeps (ask anyone who uses it). Those that operate multiple Twitter accounts swear by the Twhirl application; and the Tweetpic is now taking Twittersville by storm.

There's another key differentiator: people "join" Facebook, but they "use" Twitter. That's not to say that people don't "use" Facebook, but most are passive members that check the site when they get a note or a friend invite, or once-in-a-while to see what people are doing. Twitter's community however is extraordinarily active -- the average Tweep is on the site several times per day (or using an application that connects to the site). So while Facebook will continue to have a larger membership, Twitter will grow at a faster rate, but will be far more heavily used. Additionally, the mobile use of Tweeps who Tweet from their PDA will begin to skyrocket and far eclipse anything Facebook has ever seen from mobile users.

Facebook is great social networking, but Twitter is more viral, and better used -- it will overtake Facebook someday soon....

--

Toby Ward is an Internet & intranet consultant, writer and speaker, and the Founder of Prescient Digital Media. Feel free to look him up on Facebook or follow him on Twitter @tobyward.

Need help working with or implementing social media? See Prescient Digital Media's Web 2.0 Blueprint.

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Google Maps is an example – it draws all the listings and information from many different sources without having to use an expensive piece of portal technology. These are quite simple to do, and for some represent most of the desired content for integration into a single view or portal.

Even though most don't use or understand mashups (sometimes spelt with the hyphen 'mash-up') , this nascent technology is about to break-out on a corporate intranet near you:

• mashups will be a $682 million industry in the next 5 years (Forrester)

• 64% of companies are already adopting mashups or plan to within the next two years (Economist Intelligence Unit)

• Web mashups, which mix content from publicly available sources, will be the dominant model (80%) for the creation of new enterprise application by 2010 (Gartner, which also cites mashup technology as a top 10 'disrupting' technology over the next 4 years)

• RSS (the dominant technology delivering data to mashups) has been adopted by 37% of organizations; an additional 53% of organizations plan to or are considering their options for adopting RSS (Intranet 2.0 Global Study)

“Mashup technologies can and will disrupt enterprise applications,” says Renat Khasanshyn, author of the Naked Open Source blog and CEO, Altoros Systems, LLC. “During the next three years, mashups will open up a new enterprise application market, providing business users and IT departments with a quick and inexpensive approach to develop and implement applications. And during the decade following 2010, maturing mashup building technologies will shrink the enterprise application market.”

In other words, the mashup provides a light-weight alternative to portals and personalization features (see Alternatives to intranet personalization).

On the corporate intranet, a mashup would typically combine information and data from two to six different sources and might include:

• a news feed

• sales figures

• a widget that displays the most recent comments posted to the CEO blog

• inventory levels delivered from a back-end database

• a map pinpointing active client projects

InformIT, republishing an original article in SOA magazine, offer six major characteristics to an enterprise or intranet mashup (see Enterprise Mashups Part I):

• Collaborative - Mashups are designed to be tagged/searchable/shared with others. User tagging, often called a 'folksonomy', helps users put meaning for themselves and others.

• Have a face - Mashups usually have a face and the face is a widget. Just like mashups are "micro", so are the applications that front-end them. If the user is the recipient of the mashup, it's only natural for the user to be given a way to interact with the data.

• Focused on the 'pack' - Mashups are typically created, used, and shared among a small number of related individuals. Knowledge workers collaborate in small packs. Although they may be part of a larger group, they usually function as small teams when it comes to discrete information needs.

• Time-sensitive - Users need data now. Mashups usually have near real-time delivery requirements. They don't have time to wait for IT to "pre-integrate" data so they can get at it. The Web is real-time and business users have evolved to expect the same inside their enterprises.

• Non-invasive - There's no need to bring in a whole new set of infrastructure, as enterprise mashups run inside the current enterprise stack. This includes both mashup sources (databases, SOA services, etc.) and mashup destinations (portals, blogs, wikis, email, spreadsheets, etc.).

• Limited cleansing - The amount of data cleansing and normalization needed should be comparable to the amount of cleansing and normalization a user does in Excel. If there's more, you have a bigger problem that should be addressed concurrently with your mashup initiative.

Have you considered intranet mashups? Are you using a portal for intranet home page customization / personalization? Have you considered RSS? Continue the discussion on the Intranet Global Forum (Facebook community).

Wondering how to use mashups and other 2.0 technology on the corporate intranet? Have a look at the Intranet 2.0 Blueprint.

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Steve cites the emergence and proliferation of “Buzz word Bingo” in board rooms and meeting places all over the U.S (see Buzzword bingo). Every time a suit spews a buzz word such as “paradigm shift” or “value add” an employee marks a bingo card with a bushel of buzz words; get five in a row and shout “bingo!”

The new way: “Creative” social media writing:

• More voices, more people

• More conversational language

• More storytelling

• Dramatically less jargon

• Being driven by social media

“Corporate communicators fight the same battles: deadlines, and creating safe copy (something that will safely go through the approval process),” says Steve, founder of Crescenzo Communications. “Content is king, and content comes down to writing for social media, which is about people: conversation and story-telling,” says Steve.

Case study: Children's Hospital of Atlanta

• Sitation: recruit people to work at their organization.

• Program: lots of competition.

• Solution: Set up a social media rectuiting site “Are you strong enough?” (http://blog.areustrongenough.com). Includes a blog from current employees about what it is like to work at the hospital.

Example: “I am a nurse in the PICU at Egleston where team work is seen every day”

Case study: Electric and gas utility in Arizona

• Situation: to educate people about safety.

• Problem: really boring topic.

• Solution: story-telling: find actual people to tell their stories.

Example: “It happens in a split second and nothing is ever the same again” accompanied by a video of the person affected.

Tips for social media writing

1- Follow the 3-30-3-30 rule. Let pepole choose how much time they want to spend: 3 seconds, 30 seconds, 3 minutes, or 30 minutes.

• 3 seconds - consider the headline or Tweet

• 30 seconds - read a headline and a blurb / summary of a story

• 3 minutes - read a story,watch the video clip or listen to the auido clip

• 30 minutes - read, watch, listen, rate the content, follow links to friends, discussion forums, etc.

2- Don't be afraid to take chances.

3- Come down from 30,000 feet!

4- Always tie it to the business.

5- Report from the field whenever possible.

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(COPENHAGEN, DENMARK) Full slides from the “Integrating Social Media Into Intranets” with added insight on marketing and promoting the intranet below:

Marketing Intranet 2.0 is not unlike marketing the original intarnet – emploeyes have to...

1- know that the tools exist, and how they work

2- understand why the tools are of value to them and the organization

As I stated in Marketing the intranet, “If you build it they will not come. Of course, there will always be the curious and keeners and those that inherently understand it, but an intranet firing at maximum value requires marketing.”

A number of recommended insights come from Sodexo USA (thanks to Angelo Iofredda and Eileen Daly) who were very active in marketing their intranet, and shared their intranet marketing plan that focuses on six major components:

• Promote ongoing SodexhoNet name recognition and key wins.

• Highlight the variety of useful content through on- and off-line.

• Increase essential content and applications available only online.

• Increase content – including fun content – that drives repeat visits.

• Encourage continued endorsements from senior leadership.

• Support content owners – increase skill level and enthusiasm, identify and leverage best practices.

As far as tactics go, tried-and-true practices are still relevant for intranet 2.0 including:

• E-mail broadcasts

• Home page and newsletter stories

• Cross link from blogs, wikis, discussion forums, etc.
  

• Executive promotion

• Hosted chats with the CEO

• Posters and mousepads

• Premiums (handouts)

• Screensavers

• Twitter/Yammer, etc.

Not to be underestimated, and probably the most valuable tactic would be to create stories or features that quote your own executives that relate to subject matters discussed on a blog, wiki, or in a discussion forum, that links into the related social media tool while encouraging employees to “join in the conversation” or to “agree, disagree or comment” on the subject at hand.

Continue reading:

Marketing Intranet 2.0