Twitter Needs to Compete with Facebook’s Open Graph. Here’s Why:

This just in from InsideFacebook:

Six years since Twitter founders sent the first tweet, we wonder how the microblogging network might build on Facebook’s Open Graph.As Facebook encroaches on Twitter’s territory with the subscribe feature and interest lists, Twitter should consider ways to use Facebook’s own platform to protect itself. Early examples from Pinterest and Foursquare show how would-be competitors can benefit by embracing the social network’s tools. Likewise, a Twitter Open Graph app could improve user experience and drive traffic from Facebook back to the microblogging network.

Twitter already has an official Facebook integration that lets users post tweets to their profiles and friends’ News Feeds. It does not share retweets or @replies. An Open Graph app could leverage Ticker, allowing retweets and replies to appear in the lightweight feed and other tweets to show in News Feed. This would be similar to how Spotify publishes individual song listens to Ticker but puts stories about users listening to artists, albums and playlists in News Feed.

The Inside Facebook goes on to discuss how integrating with the Open Graph would allow tweets to have a dedicated section of timeline’s designated for them. Check out Twittus, an unofficial app that does this already.

I don’t disagree with Brittany Darwell’s approach per se. However, I have another point of view: why would Twitter cede the “open graph” space across the entire Internet to Facebook? Why not directly compete with Facebook’s Open Graph in some way? While Twitter doesn’t have the ability to directly compete with Facebook purely on its merits and capabilities, plenty of large Web players would back Twitter if it could provide a Facebook alternative for carrying one’s social identity across the Internet.

Many people love the adage “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.” If I was Twitter, my motto would be “if you can’t beat ’em , beat ’em anyway.”

 

By jeremygoldman

social media pundit.

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