Twitter culture vs. Facebook culture

My husband has watched me loose my mind over Twitter over the last four months. I am always tweeting and reading my tweets: On my PC, on my new MacBook and even on my phone.

He just looks at me and shakes his head.

Well, today, he hears about how Dell announces computer deals on Twitter and has made over a million dollars through their Twitter announcements. Well, being the business mind that he is, Mr. Geek MBA now wants to know all about Twitter.

Imagine my gleeful delight that I discovered Twitter and have been using it religiously long before he even saw the value. Maybe I am a “unfolding geek” after all.

Twitter is a micro-blogging tool that allows you to type in messages that your followers see but you can only use 140 characters at a time.

He wanted to observe my Twitter stream and see what people were talking about. Now he is all excited and wants to get on the Twitter band wagon.

I tried to explain to him, rather disdainfully, that Twitter has a “culture” and he would be wise to observe it.

“You see,” I said, “Twitter people are very nice. They are helpful. They do not like just a strong sales pitch. They want to know who you are and what your message is. You can ask almost anything – people love to help on Twitter.”

“But isn’t that just like Facebook?” he asked with the unspoken look of “What is the big deal about Twitter?” written all over his face.

I sighed.

“No. Twitter and Facebook have distinctively different cultures. People on Facebook either want establish commerce connections to sell you something. (Including myself.) Or they want to connect with their friends.”

“But they are both Social Networking tools. They are pretty much the same.”

“Look, I have spent time on these sites. My ultimate goal is to make connections and expand my knowledge base and make great connections with authentic people. I have been able to do that more naturally on Twitter than Facebook.”

He got quiet and said, “You think they have different vibes, different cultures?”

“Of course. I never really thought about it. But Twitter is more my tribe, my culture. I prefer the vibes I get there.” I said.

Now this conversation taught me a couple of things that I had not paid attention to. I spend more time on Twitter because it feels good. It feels good because I have received a lot of love and support and made new friends on Twitter.

I also realize that as I created more resonance with Twitter, I default to Twitter. Now, being the out of the box thinker than I am, I realize that I want to challenge myself out of my comfort zone.I think I need to spend more time on Facebook and develop those relationships.

I read the feeds. I do connect with some people there. But not like I do at Twitter.

This is how we naturally gravitate to “our own.” Those that think like us, accept us, show us more love and we feel comfortable with that. Every group of people have their own culture. Seth Godin calls it “tribes.” I am not saying it is bad. But sometimes we get too comfortable in that culture or tribe.

What do you think? Does Facebook have a culture that differs from Twitter? Are you conscious of your tribes or the cultural groups that you belong to? Your company culture? Your church culture? Your Internet culture?

I would love to get your response on this.