On Facebook, my friends would comment on nearly every post and I would recieve friend requests and such daily. On Twitter, I would post regularly but I found the constant spam and gossiping frustrating and annoying. Thirty year adults were “venting” and putting their juvenile drama and love struggles for ANYONE to see.

I use Facebook far more powerfully for fun, networking, and friendship. It is a better “fit” for me than the tabloid title driven Twitter. It is my own selective sphere of people who are generally posting interesting information instead stupid thoughtless tweets.

Fast forward 6 months later, nearly everyone’s (in my FB network of friends) heard of Twitter. It kinda feels good to be one of the first few individuals to have some proof that I was there ‘first’ among my friends – LOL. But after reading @Mathew’s comment here – I must say, I feel a wee bit shameful now for not according the respect my social network of friends deserve on FB. But then again, come to think of it – I honestly don’t think my friends would be sitting infront of the computer brooding about my supposed lack of disrespect for them via my seemingly thoughtless Twitter updates on FB! In fact, if they were truly my ‘friends’ on FB, I’m pretty sure they’d understand my nature to some extent (that I’m a social media nerd) to know why I manage my status updates that way.

To me, if it strikes a chord with them (even if it’s one of those cryptic @msgs) – they will be bothered enough to leave a status comment on FB asking for more info. To which, of course, I’d happily comply…

I completely agree with you on the audience factor. Anecdotally, my Twitter updates are geared miles from my Facebook updates. Both are rather infrequent, perhaps one to three a day for Twitter, and once a week for Facebook I gear both of my posts completely different – as part of an attempt at personal branding, I use Twitter as a point to share my views on industries and things that interest me. Facebook is veiled behind a “wall” where I believe only those I’m friends with can see my posts. This may not completely be true, but I certainly do my best to keep my professional and personal life somewhat separated.

It’s also an interesting note that Twitter, when in rare instances I do use it to update personal things, I’m as careful as possible to only link and speak to what is very light. For instance, I may only update with a picture on where I am eating if of note but nothing to do with my cat, where I’m sitting, etc.

These principals surrounding audiences are no different than traditional marketing or even physical social interaction. In public, you would do you best not to shout via a megaphone to a crowd about your deepest secrets but rather whisper them to a friend across a table.