Twitter has become all the rage, thanks to Oprah Winfrey, Ashton Kutcher, and a lot of network and cable news programs that have all been talking about Twitter. And a lot of social media “experts” (don’t get me started about that) who think Twitter is about to make real blogs obsolete.
First, Twitter’s not going to replace blogs because we’re still adding new blog readers and bloggers every day. There are 208,000 bloggers on WordPress.com, and there were 3,816,965 WordPress.org downloads. That doesn’t include Blogger, TypePad or other blog software-as-a-service companies, like our friends at Compendium Blogware.
There are more than 50 million blogs in the US, and over 74 million in China, and the numbers keep growing. More TV news stations, small businesses, corporations, and nonprofits are starting blogs as a way to communicate with viewers, customers, and donors. More people are discovering blogs as a way to communicate and publish their stories. Blogs are going anywhere.
Secondly, if anything is in danger of being rendered obsolete, it’s Twitter with the overgrowth of spammers, Internet marketers, and new so-called social media “experts” (there’s that word again). Several people are taking steps to get rid of Twitter spammers by blocking them, referring them to Twitter Spam (just follow @Spam, they’ll follow back, and then DM the name of any spammers to them), and making life hard for the spammers to get a foothold.
Finally, and most importantly, if you’re able to consolidate your life’s most important issues to 140 characters, they couldn’t have been that important, could they? This post alone has more than 450 words. (And this is one of my short ones!) Other posts have taken upwards of 750 words, to discuss important issues like how crisis communicators can use social media, what the future of social media looks like, or why creating blog content is better left to professionals. If I can fully explain important issues like that in 140 characters, then I have either not given them enough thought, or I really suck as a writer.
Twitter is first and foremost a communication tool. They may call it a micro-blog, but it’s not. It’s a texting program inside a chat room. You use it to start conversations, ask questions, tell people what you’re reading, or even promote your real blog.
In short, your blog is your anchor, your Twitter account is a promotional tool. One will not replace the other.
About Erik Deckers
Nice post. Do you like britney ? You can find Britney’s new Songs and MTVs at
Britney Times