Subscribe to this feed via RSSWhen introduced to Google+ and the “circles” aspect, many were praising the “selective post sharing” features and wondering why Facebook didn’t allow you to choose who you wanted to share your posts with. Well now you can. I find the inclusion of this option to be very helpful but I’m just challenging the thought of it actually being put to heavy use. Although these are helpful sharing updates people are creatures of habit, and Facebook has effectively cultivated a culture of user “laziness” when it comes to operating daily Facebook functions. Information easily “comes to you”, and dispersing information (posting) is just as easy.
The “circles” aspect and ability to choose who sees what on Google+ makes this process a little lengthier, but this works in Google+’s favor. I say this because the ability for your posted information to have “selectivity” was apart of Google+’s early functions. People will get use to this and it is at the core of Google+’s operational protocol. For Facebook this could prove to be harder because this is being interjected into its operational protocol late. People are already use to the way they share “in general” and more importantly since relationships on Facebook aren’t heavily segmented and compartmentalized like they are on Google+, this feature may not really be “touched” at all.
Also, there is only one prominent way of communicating on Google+: with a post as a form of sharing/broadcasting information just like you would on Twitter. This makes it much easier to apply the added steps of “circles” and selective posting to their protocol. On Facebook though, you can communicate multiple ways: You can post on all of your “friends” walls, you can post on fan pages, you can post on business brand pages, you can post on Group pages, you can post on event pages and you can post status updates. Though there are many ways to communicate, Facebook posting has always been easier to do. Adding the “select/share” aspect to this protocol will challenge that because no one has had to do it before.
Facebook users have been conditioned to “post with ease”. The use of the “selective post sharing” feature will add steps to Facebook’s operational protocol, and since people have gotten use to the ease of communicating on Facebook, this tool probably won’t be heavily utilized.
Older Post
