So Facebook is turning into Twitter? Right listen very carefully, I shall say this only once: disable your Facebook account immediately and run for cover before they put all your profile content on display for everyone to see.

But hold on just a minute. In the words of another great drama queen, calm down dear.

In fact what Facebook are doing is changing their business model to include public content sharing, profile ‘fans’ and real-time search (these are the headline grabbers).

Is this a good thing?

It does sound a lot like Twitter doesn’t it – and this is exactly what’s caused the latest drama for social networking. Essentially it boils down to the “public versus private” content sharing debate and whether Facebook and Twitter can co-exist with similar features.

Privacy concerns are all abound but there are now arguments more specifically about who ‘owns’ private and public content sharing. Should Facebook be purist and stick to its roots in private content and leave Twitter alone to share content publicly? I think it’s time this debate moved on.

Facebook have been quick to address privacy concerns: these new features are optional and managed from the Privacy settings area – although it looks like new users will have to switch manually from public to private.

As with anything Facebook does these changes have been met with tremors of outrage and suspicion. What are they up to? Surely this proves once and for all they’re on a mission to destroy our human rights.

This time, however, it’s not just about privacy. It’s Facebook clearly trying to become more like Twitter that’s getting us hot under the collar. Is it a good or a bad thing?

There’s a good article by Mashable today balancing the argument for and against these changes but the results of their featured poll (at the time of writing) is less balanced: 21% say “Yes – this makes Facebook a better platform”; but 58% believe “No – Facebook should not be emulating Twitter”.

But why not? I can understand on some level. Clearly these changes – and particularly the introduction of a public content sharing model – are a significant shift for the Facebook we know and love.

The adoption of Facebook on such a massive scale has been because it has enabled people to connect with ‘friends’ not random strangers (like Myspace for example).

But since then the phenomenal rise of Twitter suggests that there is a huge demand for public content sharing. Why can’t the two co-exist in one social network like Facebook?

I personally see far more opportunity than threat with these changes. Facebook is simply evolving and responding to what our online behaviour suggests we actually want. There is a clear demand for private AND public content sharing and Facebook is stepping up.

Facebook is not going to kill off Twitter or vice versa. They can both thrive even with the crossover of features. They have distinct offerings, users and means of interaction.

For example, there are significant demographic variations between them currently. These changes to Facebook could help increase the use of public communication among a wider, younger audience, for example. This could further evolve the social media society I wrote about recently.

So I see this simply as Facebook responding to changes in the marketplace and developing its business model accordingly. No more drama.

And let’s not ignore the fact that there could be significant opportunities for businesses and brands if this works, especially bearing in mind that they already have a revenue model at Facebook.