Tweetdeck, the Twitter service for managing multiple social media accounts launched the latest attack in a widespread social network war on 4 March 2013. An announcement from the company warned that the service planned to “discontinue support” for their Facebook integration. Tweetdeck users who were used to accessing Facebook through the tool were fresh out of luck.
This latest jab is not the first and definitely will not be the last in the battle of the social networks. Earlier this year, Twitter disabled Instagram integration for its users and subsequently launched a native set of photo filters. Instagram shot back by disabling the option for users to share photos on Twitter directly from their app.
Most recently Facebook block users of Vine video-sharing service from accessing their Facebook friends list, and at the end of last year Twitter users could no longer use the feature that allowed users to post tweets to LinkedIn. LinkedIn continued the carnage by cutting of off Google’s access to real-time search data on their platform.
There was once a time when all social media platforms were in harmony. There was no bickering or back handed fighting. Mashable deputy editor, Chris Taylor said:
We simply want any app we use that is owned by either of you to interact seamlessly, the way they used to. We’d just really like to see our Vine videos on Facebook and our Instagram snaps on Twitter.
But why are the social networks throwing their toys out of the cot?
The most improtant thing for a social media network is growth, gaining large sums of users in a relatively short period of time. In the beginning, having a social media platform as an open space or cooperative ecosystem was the most desirable option, but as soon as the need to make money entered the equation, all things changed.
In stark business terms, it makes sense. Why send your users to a competitor’s platform?
The new goal now is to funnel users to your platform, the theory being that better content means users will stay on your platform for longer. And more users translates to more cash. But that may well be a short-sighted approach.
The Economist notes:
[When] it comes to online social networks, the interests of the companies that run them do not always align (and may well conflict) with the interests of users.
For the user, things seem to be moving backwards. The one great innovation of social media as a movement was the liberation of content from platforms – for the first time, everything seemed shareable in a fundamentally personal way.
With enforced isolation, social media platforms are being forced to increase spend on content, and with the great divides between platforms, it is harder now for content to go viral and move across the web.
A few alternative social media management systems remain where users are able to access multiple social networks from one interface, like HootSuit. Users can push messages across various social media platfroms at once, like it used to be.
[Source: Business Insider]
