My Facebook stream is being clogged with updates that people probably barely realize they’re putting up there, and it’s frustrating.

My opinion is that you should actually be in the space that you’re posting to, and be prepared to interact in that venue. Otherwise it’s mostly just noise.

Alora : My point exactly. Whether it’s personal or business use, if you are going to tie in both platforms and use them simultaneously, you need to be their to see if anyone is trying to get in touch with you. My post was in regards to people who have been importing tweets but failing to realize that they need to get back to Facebook and see if anyone is connecting with them their as well. Many are using Facebook simply to populate their profiles with updates and I for one didn’t add someone on Facebook to see a feedreader . I want to connect and interact with them.

Alex : Great tip Alex. However, the selective twitter app is pretty simple. You add the application and after that all you do is add #fb to your tweet and it is imported to your Facebook.

In regards what is ok for twitter and what is ok for Facebook is a question of personal preference and the network that is surrounding you on two platforms. For example, if your twitter account is mainly to interact with people you have met online, share links and stuff and your FB account is friends and families, I am not sure if they would be interested. Once again, it all depends. Like I said, I think it all depends on preference, what you are trying to achieve and who belongs to your network.

note: Andy has answered to your question as well in his comment below. Be sure to check it out.

@Bob : Exactly! This way it’s much more easier to manage and connect with people on two different platforms and share views and opinion. Imagine someone tweeting 50 times a day and those 50 updates going on facebook as well. It would be pretty hard to be at both places and when you do it might suck quite a bit of your productive time simply networking which can be quite time consuming.

@Andy : Andy I see your point and I am glad you disagree with me to a certain extent. My post wasn’t targeted towards people like you who use two platforms in moderation and are able to be in both places. Many people don’t. They tweet way too many times and everything is imported to twitter. Most of these tweets are RTs and it can create confusion and can populate your facebook profile way too much. But the post was geared towards those users and not towards users like yourself.

For me, I would go by the rule of “Would I be happy with a potential or current client reading this? Does it portray my webdesign business in a positive and professional light?”

If it does, and I also feel its interesting / relevant, then it gets Tweeted, (and consequently updated on FB too). If it doesn’t, or I’m in doubt, I don’t Tweet it, but I have no problems putting anything and everything up on Facebook.

And if it really is not relevant to FB, then I’ll just remove it from inside FB, but that very rarely happens.

I love the ability to interact more openly and honestly with friends within FB via the comments system, and auto-tweeting updates is way to increase that chatter.

With that, you can choose on the fly which network you update (or both), as well as see your friends facebook updates. Integrating them allows you to keep better connected between the two circles without too much work on your part.

Also, just doing a quick check of Facebook every few hours is all it takes to keep caught up with any comments you may have on there with your updates.

Regardless, great post–I find myself contemplating all the time which tweets I would like to syndicate with my Facebook account.

I would be curious to know–how do you determine which posts you put on Facebook and which ones you keep Twitter-exclusive? Are there any criteria that make them Facebook worthy, or vice versa?

*Follow me if you like: twitter.com/alexpriest

Anything I publish on Twitter is fine for my friends (most of whom I originally met through work) and family. My Twitter feed is totally fine for 100% public consumption; my Facebook feed is not. But most of what goes on in my Facebook feed is built off what originally happened in my Twitter feed. Without having my original Twitter feed in there, the additions in Facebook have no context and would make no sense.

I think that, like most things, the problem is haphazardness and lack of follow-thru. If you are managing both and actively set it up to accomplish a specific objective, then there can be perfectly valid reasons to do it.

Hmmm… Whilst I see your point Ritu, personally, I’m all for combining the two.

This does come down to a few reasons though, that I think you and a couple others have touched on. From my perspective, I use Facebook more than Twitter. Facebook to me is, like Chinarut said, a more private place for me to say stuff, post links to whatever stupid video I found on youtube, me slating the 80′s for the hideous music – that kind of stuff – I don’t really accept people on Facebook I haven’t already met, so I know there’s already some relationship there.

Twitter on the other hand (again mentioned previously) is completely public. I use the two for separate reasons – also being a webdesigner, Twitter for me, is a public forum to talk about, for want of a better word, more serious stuff, as well as follow more public events and movements (like MJ’s death or the Iran elections for eg). Facebook is not where my professional self lives – I need that separation, and Twitter and Facebook provide them very well.

The fact that I can set them up so FB updates with my tweets I love as it means my friends get to see and interact with the more public stuff going on with me.

I generally don’t retweet stuff, or reply much, altho I do tag. I guess there is another part of me that likes seeing those little #tags in the FB updates as it provides a connection back to my Twitter world, and maybe prompts friends who don’t use Twitter to start.

Don’t get me wrong, I can see where you’re coming from, and I love how you use Twitter, and enjoy following you. I think you’re right in what you’re saying, but hopefully I’ve been able to explain that in different circumstances, auto-updating FB from twitter can also work very well.

for me, Facebook and Twitter have distinct boundaries in that one is closed (need an invitation to see my profile/updates) and one is open (read: updates are public)

thus, I consider my Facebook mini-feed available to my inner circle of friends and my Twitter timeline avail to the general public (i don’t protect my updates)

I’ll often post updates on Facebook I don’t necessarily feel in the space to post publicly. My friends in my network appreciate this level of intimacy.

so updating twitter feels like i’m standing on a podium facing the world and my facebook friends feel included.

as I consider facebook my primary page, i do what I can to make my mini-feed rich by reviewing books, movies, favorites, bookmarks and stay pretty active commenting (and “liking”) on items in mini-feeds of others.’

this is my 2 cents of how i integrate the two!