Facebook loses sizzle for Martha Stewart

The stars are dancing away from Facebook. And it's a quickstep.

After Bill Gates recently admitted that he had given up on Facebook because he couldn't work out which of his friend requests came from friends and which from very sad people, another of the world's great famous people has declared her Facebook unfriendliness.

Yes, Martha Stewart, perhaps one of the most iconic cooks, has decided that she is firmly in the Twitter camp and that Facebook just has to face her rejection.

"I just love it (Twitter) so much more than Facebook," she told the Daily Beast.

Stewart claims she gets more bang per tweet. But why knock Facebook? It's so homely, so friendly and so very inclusive of every possible political and social view, even frightfully repulsive ones.

It seems Facebook's recipe is far too complex.

(Credit: CC Art Comments/Flickr)

Stewart explained quite fully: "First of all, you don't have to spend any time on it, and, second of all, you reach a lot more people. And I don't have to 'befriend' and do all that other dippy stuff that they do on Facebook."

The other dippy stuff? Perhaps she means the throwing of sausages at each other or whatever it is Facebook people love to do. Or perhaps what irks her is people posting hundreds of pictures of their friend's wedding in Tennessee. The one where the catering was terrible.

Her words, however, seem to have pained the Facebook fraternity.

The Daily Beast quoted Facebook's communications director, Brandee Barker as hoping that the culinary queen "finds more ways to use Facebook." Suddenly, the Beast's Lloyd Grove had a second phone conversation with Stewart, in which she said:

"I'm not knocking Facebook. We use both Facebook and Twitter [at MSO]. They're very different tools, and I personally don't use Facebook. I prefer Twitter as a means of mass communication--it's the Wal-Mart of the Internet."

The Wal-Mart of the Internet? Is that similar to "the Pulse of the Planet," which is, according to hacked internal documents, one of the possible aims of the Twitter brand?

While Stewart's Twitter page is a sight to behold, I am extremely concerned that she may have happened upon some very inside information when she commented on the future of Facebook and Twitter.

She told the Beast: "They're all going to be owned by the same company eventually."

But which company, Martha? Which company?

[monkeyfun14]

"it's the Wal-Mart of the Internet."

Hard to tell whether twitter should take that as a compliment or be ashamed.

[The_Decider]

I don't think facebook has done nearly as much damage to local communities, the environment, and overseas slave labor as walmart has.

[ddhboy]

Who cares what some old woman thinks about the internet? Teenagers and 20 somethings decide what websites survives and which ones die, not commercial users. If that were the case, Myspace would remain king.

[cvaldes1831]

Effective Facebook use requires careful user management, but the tools that Facebook offers don't scale well. It's unsurprising that Gates and Stewart abandoned Facebook. Twitter was the last social networking tool that Trent Reznor used (after previously abandoning Facebook).

Heck, I don't have "followers" but I've abandoned Facebook largely because of the same reasons. There's no easy way for me to separate the people I knew from high school from real friends, plus I spend too much time trying to figure out if someone's legit.

I'm a nobody, but I'm going through the same issues that others are suffering through.

Social networks are a ********* time sink.

[bithaze]

There's a very easy way to "separate the people" as you say: friend lists. It seems to be an underused feature for whatever reason, but it's very useful and serves multiple functions.

[cvaldes1831]

I don't deny that the tools for effectuating triage exist. The problem is that the tools don't scale well and/or aren't well known.

Dear Facebook: make this easy or be prepared to see people back off from using your system. The number of Facebook profiles is a useless statistic. That number will continue to climb.

[ikramerica--2008]

I agree Facebook does not make it easy to use all their features, partly due to the way their interface is designed, partly because they don't seem to care if you can do what you want.

[davidmbrowndotcom]

And I am extremely concerned that people can be thrown in jail for the "crime" of selling stock.

[monkeyfun14]

When you know something other shareholders have no access to then you should especially when you know that a company is going down.

[ikramerica--2008]

She was thrown in jail for lying to federal agents. Should that not be a crime? The insider trading would have only earned her a fine (civil) because she was not an officer of the company she was trading on, but once you start lying, you dig yourself into a criminal hole...

[mister_jerry]

These "celebrities" are people that are so involved in managing their business empires that sending a 140 character message on twitter is more effective time management than sitting down and rifling through hundreds of requests

[tektaktyks]

funny,i dont know how new it is but i just saw for the first time(firefox upgrade signed me out)that i can now log in with my cnet account or a facebook account but not with the twitter account...

[vivaglobal]

eligible to receive a compliment.

http://www.mypasifincome.com

[m185874]

The difference between the two systems is simple. Twitter is for people who want to speak. Facebook is for people who want to speak *and* read. Chalk and cheese. Martha Stewart has never shown any fondness for anyone's voice but her own, and is therefore attracted more to twitter.

[lumpoco]

"Walmart of the internet" is not bad considering that Martha could have said that "I see Facebook's future as bright as Gemco, Mervyns, or Sharper Image". These companies no longer exist.