Used under a Creative Commoms license via Gary Hayes

That was the question du jour at the Poynter chat I attended today. I hadn’t participated in one before today, but when I heard about it (via Twitter, of course), it seemed like it’d be a gathering of the top young minds talking about Twitter, Facebook, and the like. It was.

There were plenty of good points made, but guest host Greg Linch had an interesting answer to the one question I asked: With Twitter taking over as the premier social network, how can you still use Facebook to your benefit?

Says Greg:

I think Facebook is still very relevant, but for different reasons. I don’t find it nearly as useful as Twitter on a day-to-day basis, but I think it’s an important long-term tool for keeping in touch with friends and longer-form communication.

A good point indeed. Facebook is the primary way I keep in touch with friends from across the country, and my Twitter habits are much more professionally-based. It does beg the question, though: If Facebook is more of a personal-life app, then what’s the point of a newspaper (or other company) having a fan page? I get my news via Twitter/RSS – an additional redundancy seems a little much.

As for how much is too much, I gotta think it varies person to person. If it distracts you or in any way prevents you from accomplishing your goals in the analog world, then it’s no good. But used as a proper digital tool, it should actually be a boost for professional/personal productivity and advancement. Agreed?