Why I Like Micro-Blogging
I have a blog (hello, you are here). I also use Twitter to microblog. I like them both but do we need both? A friend recently told me, “Microblogging is too much.” I disagree and here is why:
- For the person who does not have a blog, microblogging is an easy and effective way to get into blogging
- Microblogging develops relationships and increases your visibility
- Microblogging makes you a real person to those who do not know you personally
- If you want to start blogging it would behoove you to get into the habit of writing regularly — even short quips
- For the person who does have a blog, microblogging is an easy way to augment and improve:
- Stop blogging about what you had for lunch; microblog that
- Use your microblog threads (preferably the popular ones) to inspire your blog posts
- Enhance your blog posts by discussing them on your microblog
- Increase readership by advertising your blog post on your microblog
I also view microblog readership much as I do blog readership. Sometimes I read blogs of people who do not read mine. Similarly, I do not always read the blogs of those who do read mine. The same goes for microblogs. Twitter — for me — is not a popularity contest (although you can easily find places that will help you garner followers). I like reading about what those closest to me are doing. And they are my audience.
Why do you like micro-blogging? Why do you hate it?
FYI: Subscribe to my Twitter feed here. Subscribe to Hello-RightOn here for RSS feed or here for email feed.
Right On! I’ve been microblogging on Facebook for years in my status updates and I recently joined Twitter. I’ve set Twitter to automatically update my Facebook status. Most of my friends only use Facebook so it’s perfect. I typically post updates from my various blogs to Twitter so they can easily find them. TinyURL.com does a great job of this to stay below 140 characters.
I agree with you 100% that microblogging is a great way to view the “tip of the iceberg” if you will.
[...] Now, just when you thought the Internet was slowing down a little so you could catch your breath here comes Microblogging. Zac, a friend of mine, blogged the other dayabout Microblogging. Microblogging is telling a quick idea on a web site such as Twitter or Facebook. If you “do” microblogging you find that it is disconnected at times and can be distracting. I’ve been following a few Microbloggers and I just don’t get it. I really don’t have time to follow people hour by hour and Microblogging can push you that direction. [...]
I have blogged about Twitter before (check the website for a great video about it if you are interested) and while it is very easy to overuse the service, I think that it can be a very useful tool for communicating with a group of friends or a large audience. The headlines from Myspace and Facebook are in essence a Micro-blog, and although these are usually used for quick jokes or casual status updates there are other uses where micro-blogging is a good fit. Live blogging tends to fall in this category, since you can quickly post items about a sports event, presidential debate or technical conference and create an online community around the event where people can share opinions in real time.
I do however find that trying to follow a conversation on twitter is downright impossible, especially after a week or month has passed by. I like the idea of limiting the number of characters in a message, but I think there needs to be a way to exclude hyperlinks or “in reply to this message” from the character count. TinyURL and @Name are a partial solution, but they still do not address the root of the problem, which is the ability to create a connection between the message and external information, be it a conversation, web page, or video. I think that eventually someone will find the right mix and once they do it will change the way that micro blogging is used (think how Google changed email by making conversation view a mainstream feature)
P.S. I stumbled here from Herschel”s blog. Keep up the great work!