Here’s the thing:  Facebook relationships are basically a 1:1 ratio.  You’re either Friends with someone or Not Friends.  There’s no real in-between.

Twitter has more relationship possibilities:

1) You can follow someone and they follow you back
2) You can follow someone and they don’t follow you back
3) They can follow you and you don’t follow them
4) No one follows either.

If you look closely at the latest Facebook update, you can see that they’ve realized the value in not treating all friends equal.  The improvements to the newsfeed are aimed at making it more Twitter-like.  Suddenly Facebook looks like your Twitter feed!

S0 why use Twitter?

That’s exactly what the folks at Facebook want you to think…why use Twitter?

I think the attraction to Twitter is simplicity.  It’s easy to wrap your mind around the concept.  You’re a fan of someone/something…you want to keep up with what’s going on…so you see their newsfeed.  It’s like getting your own custom CNN newscrawl.   It’s got the voyeuristic attaction that Facebook lacks (yet MySpace had).

But Facebook is certainly trying to compete…just how far will they go?   Joshua Porter at Bokardo thinks they’ll go all the way…

Relationship Symmetry in Social Networks: Why Facebook will go Fully Asymmetric – Bokardo.