Saturday morning, before I went into town to see Wicked, I had a little twitter-chat with Steven Streight "Vaspers the Grate" (quotation marks not superfluous) about blogging versus microblogging using Twitter, Jaiku et al.
Personally, I seem to be back in a "twitting" mode after a few months of just occasionally checking in. That, combined with the interchange with Vaspers got me thinking, again, about how blogging and microblogging fit in the total social media scheme, and especially how they both relate (or not) to marketing communications.
Here’s the back and forth over about a half hour before I had to leave for the play:
vaspers – Marketing experts *have* to be on Twitter. Fear of fast messaging and loss of narcissistic platform (slomo blogs) are two major impediments.
vaspers – "slomo blogs" = conventional blogs, where new posts take a whole day to appear, and comments accumulate less than every few seconds. LOL
sgetgood @vaspers but there is place for both slomo and microblog, it’s not either/or
vaspers @sgetgood – Correct, but for a marketing expert to shun Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, YouTube seems rather drearily Luddite and egotistic to me.
sgetgood @vaspers agree that is dumb to ignore twitter et al off to read about target
vaspers @sgetgood – I stick to my claim that slowmo bloggers hate the anonymity, loss of ego, loss of message control that microblogging represents
vaspers @sgetgood – I’m not trying to be mean-spirited to non-microblogging bloggers, just wondering why they resist the evolution of blogging
sgetgood @vaspers fear, control issues, attention disorders, difficulty following threads, not good at sensemaking
I agree with him 100% that to ignore the microblogging platforms, and particularly Twitter where so much of the microblogging conversation happens, is extremely shortsighted for any marketer, particularly marketers in the tech space. The conversation that happens there is just as — if not more — important than the conversation that happens on our blogs, in email and through social networks like Facebook. And the reason some balk is most likely fear of losing message control. Just think about how PR pros stress about each and every word in a PR message. Those same messages that may be becoming the biggest anachronism in marketing communications today.
It’s also hard sometimes to follow the disconnected conversation on Twitter. Nevertheless, that, in my personal opinion, is where the real power of the Twitter network is, and I’ll get to that in a moment.
Microblogging doesn’t replace blogging. Sometimes 140-characters won’t do, and we need the longer format. I know very few bloggers who have completely abandoned their long format blog to just converse on Twitter. Blogs and microblogs have different roles.
The microblog. Twitter. Sure, it’s where you can find out who is free for lunch and literally twitter on about nothing. But it is also fast and close to real-time. Not unlike the old news ticker. In fact, it is where news happens. Follow the thread and you can learn and influence the conversation much more rapidly than ever before.
The blog. The blog is for analysis. It’s where, yes, as long as a day later, a blogger can sit down and put the perspective on the news and comments issued in rapid-fire bursts on Twitter. And it’s where bloggers, and ultimately, reporters will write the longer stories about the things they read in Twitter. Like this post from BL Ochman about Spirit Airlines’ customer service problems, which she initially read about "via Twitter from Mack Collier."
But the thing I find most fascinating about Twitter is the discovery. Each user only sees the messages from the people he is following. When someone you know replies to someone you do not, you only see half the message. And that is the opportunity for discovery. If it interests you, you can follow the trail back, check out the Twitter profile of the unknown person (assuming it is a public profile) and perhaps make a new acquaintance. That is how social networks grow in interesting and unexpected ways.
And the real reason I think marketers who ignore the microblogging tools are missing out.
Tags: twitter, microblogging, blogging, marketing
vaspers the grate aka steven e. streight on the bleeping edge of Web 2.0 trash talk says
I am deeply humbled and honored that you mention my Twitter messages and link to my blog here. Thank you. You are one of the self-chosen few who “get it” and “geeter dun”.
I enjoy our discussions. You understand more than most.
http://twitter.com/vaspers
Geoff Livingston says
Great post, Susan. Slowmo is a critical part of a social media strategy. Anytime someone actually becomes interested in you via Twitter, Pownce, Facebook, etc., etc., they will check out Slowmo and see what you really have. That’s when you begin building communities.
Kathryn says
I found this blog particularly interesting. In class, we were recently introduced to the idea of Twitter. I must admit, that at first I thought Twitter was a little silly. I viewed it as another form of AOL instant messaging that I used to chat on as a kid, not as microblogging. However, upon further consideration I understand the benefits of microblogging. When I first saw a Twitter conversation it was personal and had nothing to do with social media or public relations. I now realize that the benefits of Twitter include a means of networking, sharing ideas and making new contacts.
Jordan says
Until I read your blog on micro-blogging vs. blogging I didn’t realize how important twitter and other micro-blogs alike were in a developing marketing and PR world. I am a senior in Public Relations at Auburn University and most of my PR classes this semester are focusing on social media. Twitter was a point of conversation in one of our lectures and when I first heard about this concept I thought how bizarre micro-blogging was and how irrelevant it was PR. But now I understand why our teacher was emphasizing twitter so much in class.
It is important for us, as future PR practitioners, to be up to date and aware of PR and marketing conversations around us. Twitter is the new way of being in on the latest news.It is also another way of getting your message out there, or creating traffic to your more in depth blog. In order to utilize the potential of social media we must know what is going on.
Beyond this it is important to use micro-blogging and traditional blogs in conjunction with each other to maximize readership and getting your message out there. Thanks for the very encouraging and informative post!
Yvonne DiVita says
But I’m still Twitter ignorant. I have an account. When it’s open… it tells me nothing. It sits there like old toast, getting crumby. What am I doing wrong?
mysterymika101 says
I talk to at least 50 men, 3 times a week, face to face who make money to burn in Chicago- about 1 in 25 have heard of microblogging. i think that it is very interesting how slow mo the old schoolers are in stepping up to the times… only time will tell if the old school is completely taken over by the new school- at least there will be tracks of my presence as pioneer.