I’ve mentioned my love of Twitter several times. It’s become so much a part of my day that I feel lost when I go hours without twittering. I now have hundreds of friends on there and honestly try to follow and keep up with all of them.
I’m finding though that the more people twitter, the less I and others are blogging. My reader used to be filled with unread posts but now, it is my Twitter account that can’t keep up.
For me, I’ve noticed that once I’ve said it on twitter and people respond, I’ve gotten it out of my system and it seems redundant for my twitter/blog readers. For example, there were at least three topics I twittered about yesterday that I could have extended to make half-decent blog posts..
Movie watching/reviews
- Blockbuster just sent me Bridget Jones Diary. Worth the time to watch it?
- watching the end of You’ve Got Mail. i love this movie. in a big way.
- Sleepless in Seattle is coming on at 8:30. may have to skip it to watch Bridget Jones though.
- daughter is finally asleep. finishing sleepless in seattle before starting bridget jones. another late night here!
- A few years late but bridget jones was good. The end made it worth it. And colin firth.
Funny kids story
- the girls are singing High School Musical karoke in the living room but i’m not allowed out there. i can only listen, not watch them?!
Upcoming shows including The Bachelor
- DeAnna is coming back to the Bachelor for Jason?? this is going to be so good!
But now that I’ve twittered, it seems that there is no point. Plus, really, I got the jist of what I was trying to say out in a sentence. Yes, I could have made it more entertaining and included the full story but really, it’s there. I have a feeling that many people are in this same boat. So is this a good thing or bad thing?
The Good
- I get my thoughts out and don’t need to make a note to write about it later.
- It doesn’t take as long to write about it since you’re writing it in parts, 140 characters at a time.
- You get instant feedback. In the case of Bridget Jones, I had several people say it was worth my time but I could have saved 90 minutes of my time had it been a horrible movie.
- People get to be involved in my life in more of reality tv vs. documentary sort of way.
The Bad
- People that don’t twitter miss out on what I don’t blog about
- The blog itself and hence readership suffers from lack of posting
The Ugly
- Twitter can be time-intensive on all parts involved. Now that I have hundreds of followers/following, it takes a good amount of time to keep up with everyone’s tweets. With blogging, it is easy to write the post and leave it be. And as for reading others’ posts, it is easy to figure out the topic and skip if necessary.
As I write this, I’m realizing the ironic thing is I’m taking the day off from Twitter because it was getting to be too much and guess what? The blog got a nice, new shiny post. Go figure.
So I’m curious, anyone notice the change in blogging to twittering? Do you think twitter will ever replace blogging? Which do you prefer if you do both?
I don’t think Twitter can cover the gamet. 140 characters sometimes is just NOT enough. But I’m not sure blogging covers the gamet either. I enjoy the immediate reaction and the socialization of Twitter that is different than the blogosphere although they do overlap. I don’t know, I guess eventually it will all shake out and I believe we’ll all find a balance of both. Mashable had a pretty good article today about how Twitter will change blogging this year. I tend to agree something needs to happen to mix the two to make both blog-only readers and twitter friends happy. For now, I’m going to go Twitter this blog post ;).
I’m trying to balance both. Been blogging since June 2006 and only Twittering a couple of months. I have noticed that there are things I’ve mentioned on Twitter (and Facebook) that I could’ve turned into a post on my blog. Dang it! Hard to see good material slip away that you can’t use because you already tweeted about it.
JourneytoFamily’s last blog post..TV Top Ten
Good Post, Amy. I wonder the same thing too, but at the same time:
-My blog isn’t cluttered with incidental things I could just tweet.
-I have been re-energized in my blogging because there is a better way to get people to read it. and have instant feedback.
However, I don’t really open my RSS reader anymore. I just read blog posts that people tweet.
I think my blog is going to be more deeper focused and meaningful, since I can just tweet the quick things, like contests and stuff.
Sarah (Real Life)’s last blog post..The Only Successful New Year’s Resolution
I actually blog more since I joined Twitter. I read more blogs too, as people include links in tweets!
Heather’s last blog post..It’s time for another "Good Idea/Bad Idea!"
I twitter what’s not worth a blog post. So I love it. And really, Deanna is back??? Woo-whee! Fun!
EDW’s last blog post..Push me back to the start
I absolutely prefered your blogging before twittering. But that’s your mom for ya!
I did Twitter for a while and grew to hate it. It wasn’t effecting my blogging at all, but I just didn’t like Twitter. So I stopped Twittering about a month after I started. I much prefer blogging. Facebook is different – I love Facebook because it’s a bit more personal than Twitter. Because I’m only linked up with people I actually KNOW on Facebook, instead of random bloggers on Twitter.
Jaynee’s last blog post..Refinancing Our Way To Better Financial Health
Sarah, I’m torn on that because some things I would consider “clutter” to my blog, some people like to read about. My mom reads the site and I know she likes reading about those mundane things I tend to tweet about.
Jaynee, that’s the thing…I feel like I KNOW those random bloggers and people on twitter so I like to keep up with them. And yet I don’t really know most of them and there are some things I wouldn’t want people IRL on Facebook to read that I put on Twitter.
I don’t know, I’m torn on this whole thing. Like the post says, I guess I see both sides of it and am trying to figure out where it fits for me.
Thanks for all the comments so far. It’s interesting to see how different everyone uses it (or doesn’t).
What? DeAnna is coming back to the Bachelor!! I could’ve told her that Jesse was the wrong choice, but I think now it’s just too late. Man… I hadn’t heard that one!
As for the twitter thing, I have to agree that my blog does suffer because of it. I do love it though!
Jen’s last blog post..2009
I think there is definitely a balance that needs to be struck about what gets blogged vs. what gets twittered… but that’s something every blogger needs to decide for themselves.
There is/was a plugin called Twitter Tools that would both twitter out a new blog post and post a blog post of all your twitters from the day. I think that is a great way to keep non-twittering blog followers informed and vice versa.
NYCWD’s last blog post..CerealWednesday.com 2009 Upgrades
I wish more people would embrace twitter because there are those who blog the smallest things, and I have a hard time keeping up with people who do 5-6 blog posts a day some times. I don’t know which posts are the “meat” and which are just scraps.
Basically microblogging doesn’t belong in a macro world, unless it’s in a sidebar.
whall’s last blog post..1000th post: Convoluted wordpress upgrade log
I haven’t posted anything on my blog in MONTHS. But I Twitter every day. I guess I prefer microblogging. It’s easier and more fun.
I echo Heather’s comment above.
I’ve found that I blog more often since I (very recently) started using Twitter regularly. And, as she said, I tend to read more blogs now too, thanks to Twitter.
It seems like microblogging is a natural extension of blogging. I think the key to using them together is voice. In tweets, you don’t really have enough room to express yourself in your own voice. It’s usually just enough to update followers on some current event. What I like about blogging is that I can inject my own voice into even a simple post. I don’t even really care who reads it, I just enjoy writing it.
I think one of the dangers for people who do both is the loss of voice. If you tweet regularly, you may get into a rut of just posting expanded Twitter snippets to your blog. Blog posts shouldn’t just be long tweets. They should be unmistakably YOU and your voice should come out loud and clear through them!
Just my $.02 worth. Nice site.
Mike’s last blog post..Breakfast with the Welches
whall – that’s where having all your blogs in Google Reader make it easier. I don’t mind people making multiple posts in a day, because I’m reading them all in one place rather than having to click around to 100 blogs per day (which is how many I’m following in Google Reader). I even use Google Reader on my Blackberry so that I can keep up with posts while I’m on vacation and without a true computer.
On the other hand, Twitter is exhausting – because people who would post 1-2x quality posts a day are now sending in Tweets every 20 minutes!!
I’d much rather reada blogger’s 5-6 posts in my RSS reader than sift through 100s of Tweets from the very same person.
Jaynee’s last blog post..My 2008 Reading List