by Annicka Campbell
In early September, Facebook announced that it would be rolling out its own tagging system, which allows users to tag friends in their status updates using the “@” symbol. The new feature is another clear indication that Facebook is doing everything it can to position itself as the default “home base” for users of the social Web. Some have decried the new feature, citing its obvious similarity to Twitter’s @replies. The reality, however, is that it was Twitter’s users who came up with the @replies system, not the company itself. Facebook’s new tagging system trumps Twitter’s reply system on multiple levels. Facebook tags are more robust and interactive than Twitter’s, allowing users to tag groups, events and Pages in their status updates (on Twitter, only usernames can be @replied). The new feature isn’t a “Twitterfication” of Facebook, as some would say. By replicating the most social element of Twitter, the new tagging system takes Facebook a few steps beyond its microblogging competitor.
Facebook has traditionally lagged behind the pack when it comes to status update functionality, and it represents another move by the dominant social network to steal Twitter’s market share. After Facebook’s failed acquisition of Twitter in late 2008, Mark Zuckerberg seems to be making a point of introducing features that compete directly with Twitter, including Facebook Lite, acquisition of FriendFeed, and the new Facebook Search. On August 10, Facebook acquired FriendFeed, giving Facebook a foothold into the world of microblogging and feed aggregation. On the same day, Facebook announced the introduction of a real-time search function, which competes directly with Twitter Search. Unlike Twitter Search, which only scans 140 character updates, Facebook Search crawls notes, videos, photos, public profiles and status updates, opening up the notoriously private social network to an unprecedented degree (for users and marketers alike). On the following day, August 11th, Facebook announced the beginning of beta testing for Facebook Lite, a “faster, simpler version” of Facebook that resembles an Twitter (or FriendFeed) feed.
It’s already clear that the impact of Facebook tags will be big, for users, marketers and Twitter alike. For marketers, it means that Twitter is not the only social network that allows for easy customer service outreach. Tags allow brands to identify complaints and communicate with customers on Facebook, making the social network a much more attractive platform for customer outreach than it ever has been. It will be interesting to see how users adopt the tagging system in the coming months, and to see whether usage of Twitter will decrease (not to mention how Twitter will respond). One thing is for certain - a little healthy competition has never hurt either of these social media behemoths, and the real winners of any competition between Facebook and Twitter will ultimately be the users themselves.
