Twitter has updated its "Find Friends" feature, which could go a long way in getting users who are still skeptical about how Twitter can be useful to them, to have more of a reason to keep using the service.
There are now features to help users find their friends from Facebook and LinkedIn on Twitter. The Facebook app is currently having some trouble working, and Twitter says it appears to be a problem on Facebook’s end. According to Ben Parr at Mashable, Facebook is looking into it. Hopefully it will be resolved soon.
"Our Facebook app, which launched in 2007, now shows which of your Facebook friends are on Twitter and lets you follow them instantly and save them to a list," explains Twitter’s Josh Elman. "The app also lets you post your Tweets to your Facebook profile and now, to one of your Facebook pages too. With the Tweets application by LinkedIn, you can see which of your LinkedIn connections are on Twitter and follow the ones you choose right from the app. The app also lets you save your LinkedIn connections as a list, post your Tweets to LinkedIn, and add your Twitter account to your LinkedIn profile."
"Many Twitter users follow their favorite celebrities, sports heroes, or brands," says Elman. "They often find and follow even more nearby businesses or experts in their industry. And, of course, people also follow friends, family and associates so that they can keep updated on what’s happening with them. In fact, one of our most frequent requests from users is how they can find and follow the people they are connected to on their social networks."
A lot of people think about Facebook as the place to engage with their real-life friends, and Twitter as more of a place for following celebrities and influencers. Clearly either can be accomplished on either network, but both Facebook and Twitter seem to be blurring the lines even more.
If you don’t mind me throwing out a shameless plug, Twellow can be a pretty good resource for finding people in your area to follow on Twitter. This may come in handy for those people you know that you aren’t already friends with on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.