RIP Microblogging and Twitter
Is Microblogging all it’s cracked up to be?
You might’ve noticed that one of the widgets in the sidebar is missing.
Twitter has been an interesting experiment, especially some of the exchanges I’ve had with Sam Harrelson, who’s certainly an intelligent and expressive microblogger.
So what’s my opinion of microblogging?
It’s great if you’re at the sidelines of a seminar or tradeshow and a good way to get updates out. We might see some interesting updates from the Blog Haus at Affiliate Summit.
If you’re waiting in transit at the airport, or on a long subway ride, it’s a good time killer [Although I think you’d get more out of a good book…]
Where microblogging doesn’t work for me, is blogging in the midst of work.
If you disrupt your usual work to file a 140 character update, it can mess up your train of thought.
So though I’ll be checking in regularly to my twitter account, I likely won’t be checking it fantatically.
What’s your experience with microblogging?
Sam Harrelson
November 15, 2007 at 11:10 pm (16 years ago)boo 🙂
Twitter really has replaced blogging and instant messaging for me and it’s slowly eroding its way into email with a few of the circles I regularly communicate.
Twitter has also replaced visiting (or subscribing to) CNN, Reuters, the BBC and NYTimes since they all give live updates on Twitter.
Twitter (and all similar micro-blogs) are comletely disruptive. That’s why they’re so valuable 🙂
Andrew Wee
November 15, 2007 at 11:23 pm (16 years ago)I agree with the points you mentioned, esp for breaking news or live sports.
Depends on the intent, right?
For the type of content I aim to put out, it could be use as a flag, but wouldn’t be able to contain the content, unless it’s used as a “traffic director” to a flickr/youtube/revver type site…
Shawn Collins
November 16, 2007 at 12:48 am (16 years ago)I think micro-blogging plays an increasingly useful role, but don’t see it replacing blogs.
I get lots of industry news through Twitter from bloggers posting a link to an article or from a link to some “old media” outlets.
Plus, sometimes there is something I consider significant that I’d like to share, but I don’t think it merits a full blog post.
Andrew Wee
November 16, 2007 at 12:58 am (16 years ago)Microblogging is a good medium for ‘soundbyte’ blogging.
I guess I’m not quite in that head space yet…
As it is, i usually have more info than would fit in a blog post…
Shawn Collins
November 16, 2007 at 1:02 am (16 years ago)You could use it to tease your blog posts, though.
A few days ago, Scott Jangro posted a Tweet about there being a new GM at CJ – lots of people clicked through to his blog to get the details.
By the way, I didn’t put on a wig. Missy associated AffiliateSummit.com to her account on MyBlogLog. 😉
Kevin Makice
November 17, 2007 at 4:54 am (16 years ago)Everyone has a different use for any given tool, particularly one as flexible as Twitter. However, I find the interruptions are well-placed points of closure for me, not a distraction from the work I am doing. I have never found myself in the middle of writing a paper, for instance, thinking about how much I want to send a tweet. First of all, if that happened, the 140-character constraint means I can do that quickly and move one (so it would be a healthy interruption). Mostly, I find myself looking for Twitter at the natural moments in between chapters in my day.
Twitter doesn’t define my life. It describes it.
Loxly
November 17, 2007 at 6:51 pm (16 years ago)lol, I was going to ask why Shawn was posting under Missy’s pic. Does she know you are impersonating her???
I agree that Twitter isn’t for everyone, but for the people I am following and that are following me, it is a quick easy way to get updates out. Especially when I was ill this summer and people just wanted to know I was ok. I didn’t want to keep blogging updates, or to have to drop 30 messages into Yahoo individually, or keep posting “I’m ok” on ABestWeb, so I would drop a message into Twitter every day or two, just so people knew I was ok and alive.
And like Shawn, I click on the urls in the Twitters that are of interest, mostly things I would have missed because **shudder** I don’t have time to go visit everyones blog everyday. So I get the highlights between Twitters and ABW.