Facebook finally did it. After years of people like me begging them to adopt a friend and follower model, Facebook rolled it out today (well, it sort of was already available, but it wasn’t obvious at all — now it’s a feature). But buried in their documentation on the feature is something else interesting: soon, you’ll be able to update Twitter from Facebook.
As you can see, point 14 in this document (PDF) clearly states this:
14. Can I update my Twitter followers from Facebook?
Yes, soon you’ll be able to update your Twitter account directly from Facebook. To get started:
1) Go to facebook.com/twitter
2) Link your profile or Page to your Twitter account
Once you link your accounts, your Twitter account will be updated every time you post a public update to Facebook. Note: Only posts whose privacy you set to Public using your inline controls are eligible for this.
This is noteworthy for a few reasons. First, while you have been able to do this from a Page for sometime, Facebook has avoided doing this for actual profiles. This is about both Pages and profiles.
Second, Facebook was testing out this feature for proiles almost two years ago — we caught them doing it. At the time, we were told that functionality was launching that week. But it never came. That may have had something to do with our post, or it may have been concerns over the privacy ramifications. Now that Twitter has easier to understand public vs. private sharing, maybe they’re comfortable with it now.
But since then, the relationship between Twitter and Facebook has been pretty strained. One side tries to do one thing, the other blocks them, etc.
We’ll see what Twitter’s reaction is to this. You’d think they might not mind because the ability to update Twitter from Facebook means more content from them — but… we’ll see. Such a move could mean that many people will use Facebook as their main way to Tweet. Awkward.
Update: Facebook profile posting to Twitter will come within the next week, a Facebook representative tells us. Twitter has no comment.
Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with over 500 million users. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in February 2004, initially as an exclusive network for Harvard students. It was a huge hit: in 2 weeks, half of the schools in the Boston area began demanding a Facebook network. Zuckerberg immediately recruited his friends Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes to help build Facebook, and within four months, Facebook added 30 more college networks. The original idea for the term...
Twitter, founded by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams in March 2006 (launched publicly in July 2006), is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to post their latest updates. An update is limited by 140 characters and can be posted through three methods: web form, text message, or instant message. The company has been busy adding features to the product like Gmail import and search. They recently launched a new site section called “Explore” for...
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