Micro-Blogging - How Useful Is It?
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What i’m getting at here is, we want to increase our page rank, build an audience, get more traffic, and have control over our blog (or for some it’s the opposite, hehe). I’m not talking about blogs that are hosted on blogspot or a similar service, i think that’s real fine, though i prefer having my own domain name and hosting. But seriously i don’t get it, what is it that twitter has that makes it so popular? (you can write posts of max 140char! Come on! 140 characters! This very post is already over 140char!)
We already have community sites like mybloglog and blogcatalog, where we can send “instant” messages, so why spend time writing on twitter? (to let the world know what we’re doing right this moment?) Can it help build an audience and have people interested in our blog(s)? Shouldn’t we focus on writing interesting posts, that would attract “natural” traffic and links? Is micro-blogging services like twitter and tumblr, just another waste of time? (like we need that!)
John, over at Finding The Money, has an interesting post about annoyment in the blogosphere, that i think is worth the read and is relevant.
I’m kind of a relationship geek (yep, i got that from Liz Strauss! hehe) and even being someone who loves to interact and engage in conversations and discuss with people, i see no point in micro-blogging sites… maybe because the posts you write stays on the main page for less than 15 seconds. Sean Dinner had an interesting (and fun) post about twitter some time ago.
What’s your take on all this? Do you use services like twitter or tumblr? If so, why? If not, why? What’s in for the writers? Please help me out here, i have many unanswered questions! And others could benefit from reading your replies ;)
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22 Responses to “Micro-Blogging - How Useful Is It?”
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I’m with you — I think they’re pointless.
And we’re not alone… :)
I’m happy to hear (read) that i’m not alone hehe And nice post over at headrush ;)
Well, reading the comment stream at their page isn’t perhaps very interesting.But they do have these things that you can put in your sidebar so you can see what your friends are doing right now.
Fun for some i guess, but i don’t know if it’s very useful for building traffic no…
Hi Wiz, first welcome to SWR! ;)
You’re right it could be cool to have this widget, but to me, writing on twitter (meaning, taking the time to login, write and all) is just “one more thing”. Maybe i feel this way cause i spent couuntless hours messing with twitter lol
Frankly, I’m not a twitter or tumblr type of person. I haven’t joined, nor do I plan to join.
But, I can see the importance for some, as it can be used as a teaser for the meatier substance on your blog.
But, I honestly can’t stand the reason why I would want to know if someone is making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. That, to me, is pointless.
Hey Nicholas, thanx for stopping by! I feel the same way, if i’m having chicken-rice, or am drinking iced tea, i’m not sure the whole world is interested in knowing that. ;)
I use Twitter, with a link to my site in the profile, to get Twitter users over to my site. I’m still new to it. It serves as more of a time killer than anything else.
Hi Angela, thanx for replying, make yourself at home!
Yeah i did the same thing, but had only 1 “follower”, maybe if i had spent way more time on twitter it would drag more traffic to SWR, but it can get really time consumming.
by the way, i have to say, your blog design rocks! :)
I use the twitter tools plugin on my blog and I have found it extremely useful. Twitter allows me to blog when I’m out and about discovering far-off places here in Ireland since the plugin summarizes my daily tweets as a blog post. Secondly, when I write a new post, the plugin sends an automatic tweet with a tinyurl link. This has driven new traffic to my blog. I don’t see twitter as replacement but as an extension to blogging.
James, good point there, twitter may be cool for personal blogs or journals, if it helps bring some traffic and makes it easier to update and post some short posts, i think it’s good.
Thanx for replying James! You’re always welcome on here!
Thanks for the mention! :D
Boo Twitter! lol
I’m sure though that it COULD be useful to be using it, but I see no point. It’d be best to not spend all of your time on Twitter, stick to the blog, but use Twitter and such to help promote it.
I actually hadn’t heard about micro-blogging yet, but the way you describe it, it seems a bit pointless to me. I agree that it is better to just concentrate on your blog!
Sean, you’re welcome buddy! Think i should give Twitter another shot? Never know.
Sandra, well i’d encourage you to try out twitter (and some other micro-blogging services), some simpple looove this. I mean what works for one may not work for someone else, or the other way around ;)
I have never even heard of Twitter, leave alone micro-blogging and the way you put it I think they are pretty pointless so I am not even willing to give them a try…lol. Its better to just concentrate on my blog.
Cheers mate and take care.
Hey Robin, yeah i think i was maybe a little “radical” in my approach. But i’ll give twitter another try. I fnd it hard to find good points to services like that, take myspace.com for example, i think it’s completely useless, and shouldn’t even exist, or at least be so much popular, but i guess they filled the spot, and that kind of service was “needed”. But twitter is a little different. If you never used it, you can go and sign-up, like i said, even if it didn’t really worked for me, doesn’t mean others won’t find it useful. ;)
When I checked out twitter because of all the buzz, I felt that it was just another waste of time, too. The comments I’ve read here are giving me a new angle from which to view it, though. Perhaps it could be explored as a way to promote our blogs, after all. Discussions like this are always very helpful. Now I’ll take a second look at twitter, although I’m not totally sold yet :-)
“I’ll give Twitter another try…”
Why, though? What are you trying to accomplish? Not just “what are you trying to accomplish with Twitter,” but in your work? What purpose will this serve?
Like you said, will it help you build an audience? links? good content? These are things you mentioned, so I’m just mirroring your goals back to you.
It’s really only right for you if it’s in line with your goals and strategy. No judgment; just a call to know yourself. :)
Hi Manila, first, welcome to SWR! I’m starting to think it could indeed be used to promote a blog, sure there are other ways that are definitely more fun and that can bring more traffic, but twitter is another option.
Adam, you have a really good point, what i’m trying to accomplish here is help people, write (write, write, write), learn, get traffic to my blog, an audience, readers, visitors.
I just have a feeling i haven’t tried twitter “enough” and what i wrote on twitter so far, was more in the likes of “i ‘don’t get it, wtf is twitter” hehe, so i might give it another shot, with a different approach, it certainly wouldn’t make “good content“, but after re-reading the replies here, i can see there’s some “interest” in micro-blogging (or against it) i’ll see if it helps bring traffic, if not, well i’ll have tried ;)
While some services are trying their best to bring in millions through funding and acquisitions, I am also wondering the same thing: how is the fact that my readers know about me slipping and falling down the stairs 2 hours ago going to make me more connected with them?
Look at it like this: if you live with someone and tell them everything that happens to you every minute of the day, they might get fed up within a week. How can we change such a human nature online? Or does the online world warrant such a change since we cannot touch other human beings, and thus keeping updated on everything from their toothbrush being broken to their head going bald is going to be something we consider a way of being connected the human way?
I am not sure still: it all depends on how human beings usually react around being notified about everything that another human being does constantly. At least the internet allows you to close a browser window or move on to the next page, right?
Hey Bes, right on! It’s exactly like in a relationship, I’m sure if i told my girlfriend every single thing i do in a day, she’d be pissed. To me twitter is exactly like that. I sure like to talk about what’s going on in my life, but i don’t force anyone either to visit my blog or read the stuff i write, and i am not really reading what others are talking about on twitter. And as soon as you refresh the page, the posts are gone and replaced with new ones. So you can’T even follow a conversation…
To a certain extent, who are we to “think” people would be interested in knowing our every move or everything we do?
The internet sure allows you to close a browser window! Imagine what it would be like if we we’re stuck with twitter windows opened all day? ahhhrrgg!
Great reply Bes, enjoyed reading it :)
I agree. sites like twitter and orkut are a waste of time unless you 12-16 yrs old.
every time you fart, you post on it the site.
WHO CARES?