Facebook or Twitter? Facebook and Twitter? Neither? YouTube?

Greetings, denizens of SportsJournalists.com.

Just looking for your thoughts on which social media you use, if any, and why. What you think are merits, what you think are non-merits.

Not for a project or anything. Just interested in the group's views.

Thanks in advance.

 

Have never been on Facebook. Not for any anti-Facebook reasons or anything, just always felt like too much work. I'm already terrible keeping up with people in person, over phone and email. I didn't need another way of failing. That said, I use my wife's log-in to check in on my nephews and niece to see what they're posting on their pages, because I know their parents don't.

On Twitter and love it. I follow "only" a few hundred people as I do always wonder how anyone really sees anything if they follow thousands of people. Seems like everything would get lost or just be too overwhelming. With the people I follow, I feel like I see everything that interests me while also realizing it can be something of an echo chamber. It makes sports events more entertaining to follow as they happen. Will actually avoid it though during a lot of breaking news, giving it a few hours or even a day or two because you know there's going to be so much wrong information at first, even though Twitter is also good at regulating out the nonsense as well.

On YouTube all the time of course but only for watching, don't upload or interact, as tempting as it is to wade in and start from commenting on all Jordan vs. Kobe arguments/videos and anything involving religion.

No Linked in or any other social media.

 

Facebook: From a personal standpoint, has allowed me to stay in touch with people who don't live where I do (like all my relatives, for example) and catch up with those I haven't seen in years. From a work standpoint, there's a big push to put links on here to drive traffic. Not sure it is working that well, but we're still trying. I also use FB for other pages - Little League to help spread the word about stuff not necessarily worth putting in an email and for a book I have coming out.

Twitter: From a personal standpoint, I just love it as a place to get information. I find out stuff on Twitter well before our newsroom does (including the night Bin Laden was killed; but plenty of sports stuff, like coach hirings/firings, free agent signings, etc.) and it is also a great tool for the team I cover. Also for finding info that I care about (my sports teams, TV stuff I care about, etc.). I also use for work to get info (and links) out about the team I cover. I absolutely love Twitter and have Tweetdeck open all the time whenever I'm on the computer.

Youtube: Don't really use it, but my kids do all the time.

 

Lists.

Managing my company's account, I follow thousands of people. But I have a list of about 200 or so that I actually pay attention to (and retweet/interact with on a daily basis.)

 

Heavily into Facebook and YouTube.

Have no use for Twitter. Seems like that would be endless, especially for media types who would follow hundreds of big-name tweeters. I don't want any part of that circus. Good for reporters, I'm sure.

 

I thought YouTube was the greatest invention since the remote control. And now, so is Twitter because it's a conveyer belt to the human condition.

Facebook is one of the go-to toys. In Trenton I was really big on Google+ because of the Hangouts. I don't use it nearly as often now, but it's in the rotation.

Back to Twitter, I'd say half of the 1,100 people I follow were related to work in Trenton. I try not to unfollow. It makes for a never-ending stream, so sure, I don't catch everything. But I like having it all there. I scroll thru Twitter all day into the night, and I'm always finding something cool, funny, sad, infuriating, stupid or interesting.

 

As a junior college SID, I'm on all three - Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Fortunately, the website software we run allows me to post to Twitter as I'm updating the site, and my Twitter account's settings automatically post my tweets to Facebook so I don't have to bounce from site to site.

So far, I've been surprised that we have almost twice as many followers on Twitter as on Facebook. I'd imagined it would be more or less even.

 

All of them. Facebook is more for friends/family. Youtube was more for work at my last job and I don't use it anymore other than to post vids of my kid and dogs now.
Twitter is kind of for work/my freelance gig....but it's really just me retweeting crap I like, which seems to work since I get new followers every week that aren't fake porn sites and the like.

 

I've had Facebook since early 2004, when it was only college students. I use it mostly to promote work now. It's definitely lost its shine.

Twitter rules, but only if you don't follow too many people. The list thing remedies that, but I don't like using lists. I have a work Twitter and a personal Twitter so I can follow only work-related people/athletes on one and friends on the other. Follow 125 on my work and 92 on my personal, so I can just about keep up with everything in my timelines.

 

I follow hundreds of people for work, which I carefully group into lists, and find it to be really valuable. Then again, my "beat" is two towns of people, so it makes sense for me to cast a really wide net. If I was just on a local high school sports beat, it would be useful, but not as useful, since the "target" group would be smaller. I also have a personal Twitter that I mostly use to promote my blog from time to time, when I can be bothered to write a new entry, which isn't often nowadays.

Facebook, I have a personal account, plus accounts for work. I've been on it since the early 2000s, and the demographics definitely have shifted - it's gone from a service used entirely by college students to one split mostly between college students and middle to upper middle families (mom, dad, their kids, etc.). Facebook tends to provide more of a tangible connection, at least IMO - It's easier to hold a conversation, whereas Twitter is often just quips.

YouTube, I've only used randomly here and there for clips and videos for my blog. The comments section for pretty much any video can be disturbing.

LinkedIn, seemingly useful for professional networking. A few of my friends have gotten jobs from it, and I got offered once via it. It seems to be pretty low maintenance, especially as compared to all of the other services, and unlike a lot of things out there, employers don't seem to care that employees maintain a profile on it.

 

Another social media device is Instagram. I am not on this, although I see many athletes use it. Also, my youngest son and his friends/classmates are all into it. I have no idea the appeal/use of this one.

 

I use Twitter a lot but exclusively for work. Every tweet I post somehow connects to sports or journalism. Almost everyone I follow is involved in sports or journalism, with a few comedy accounts. I also use Tumblr for work.

I use Facebook much less but exclusively for keeping in touch with friends. I don't like keeping in touch with friends much, but Facebook is useful in case I ever need to. I almost never post on my wall and only occasionally post snarky comments on someone else's posts.