Choice is a better UE
When users are given choices as part of the user experience for a product or service, we notice and appreciate the respect.
I recently read an article by Danny Sullivan on MarketingLand.com where he says,
Just like Facebook, what you share on Twitter isn’t seen by all your followers.
Facebook has been under fire for over a year as brands have noticed that their posts have gotten less engagement than in the past. A common reaction is that Facebook’s news feed shouldn’t be artificially deciding what to show to a brand’s followers. “Just show everything, like Twitter does it,” is a general refrain.
Just Like Facebook, Twitter’s New Impression Stats Suggest Few Followers See What’s Tweeted
He writes, “The reality is that Twitter has never shown everything a brand (or anyone on Twitter) tweets to all a brand’s followers.”
There are some analytics offered as well to support his feelings.
However, for me, the bottom line in the argument of reach between two companies – Twitter and Facebook – is that the one who offers a choice to users is the one that I support the most because that approach respects our ability to decide what we want.
Sullivan writes,
Unlike Facebook, that’s not because Twitter is trying to filter tweets in order to somehow show what it considers the “best” stuff. Rather, it’s a consequence that it’s never the case that all of a brand’s followers will be on Twitter at the same time, all seeing each tweet that goes out.
I’d argue that if your content provides value and interest, your tweets will reach out better than what Mr. Sullivan suggests. For me, this has been true.
I may not see everyone’s tweets that I follow on Twitter because I’m not logged in every minute of the day, but on Twitter, I have the choice to see it all. I can start at the top of my timelime and scroll to see the tweets I missed throughout the day – it’s my choice and not decided by some algorithm.
The clincher is that if I really like someone’s content, I can add them to a list on Twitter so that when I decide to view the list, I can see the tweets that I might have missed – it’s a way to really surface and not miss interesting tweets if you follow many people.
Twitter search has always been the best feature for me to find tweets related to a particular topic. Search on Twitter gives tweets even greater reach than can be found via Facebook Search. The public nature of Twitter assures this. I personally share more on Twitter because of the user choices it provides.
Where Facebook uses algorithms to decide what to display in a newsfeed, Twitter gives users the choice to read what they want – when they want.
The public nature of Twitter will always be a superior experience for surfacing content and providing superior reach in my experience and opinion. I’ve spent some time on this topic as well as with User Experience.
Choice always wins!
