We had a great week down in the Austin area. My parents live in Liberty Hill and we spent the week at their ranch. The boys never left the ranch for the entire week. They were occupied by Gator rides through the woods, playing with the dog, feeding the cows, and exploring for rocks.
We had Turducken on Thanksgiving day. It was good. The duck was my favorite part of it. On Saturday, Dad cooked the best Prime Rib Roast I’ve ever had. I’ve recently overtaken him in the art of grilling a steak and simmering the perfect pot of chili, but he’s got me beat in the prime rib category. I can get away with making the above claims because he doesn’t read my blog. Otherwise, he’d be calling for a cook-off.
I’ve been blogging less and twittering more. I like twitter. It feels like blogging, but with less effort. I can see why some say it is addictive. I’m wondering if twitter and other forms of micro-blogging will ultimately kill blogging as we’ve known it?
I can still see how blogging is useful to share longer pieces of content, but twitter seems better suited for the short random comments, quotes, and links that used to show up on blogs. What do those of you who both blog and twitter think?
Telling Stories, Asking Questions, Learning Lessons
I really like Twitter, but interestingly it has me doing more blogging. They kind of feed each other to an extent. Twitter has also reduced my RSS reading, as I do more clicking on links in Twitter. As to the posts that need more than 140 characters, but don’t quite fit the blog category, I’ve gotten into the habit of using Posterous. It handles photos (also sending them to Flickr), sends the headline to Twitter, and will send the whole thing to your blog if you want.
Best thing about Twitter is the new community it helps you develop.
Glad to hear your Thanksgiving was a good one. I have always wanted to try Turducken,
I am new to the twitter thing and as of late I have not been doing much of either, yet have given a bit of thought to this question.
When I think of a blog, I think “manageable website”. In terms of personal use, it was reading your blogs about topics we share interest in that I learned about you and people we both knew. That may have not been possible through twitter. It seems that twitter is a concept that pulls people further from the idea of community than a blog does. I can see how the quick thoughts and link sharing is something I may find addicting as well.
I also see blogs as good for supporting causes, or creating a more dynamic/participatory marketing direction for businesses. The use of both blogs and twitter, it seems, seems to be a trend that is growing as well as producing results.
I am using twitter as an additional source to push people to my blog. I would agreethat twitter is the future… it’s simple and everyone can use it!
i think i blog less because of twitter but that’s a good thing, save the bigger stuff for blog post and share a link or a goofy thought or a good quote through twitter.
I use Twitter to link to my blog and post random short thoughts and updates, and my blog to to write the longer pieces and post pictures and videos.
What I would be curious about is if churches are starting to use things like Twitter to disseminate information to the public and its members.
It still seems to me that they both have their place. Twitter is definitely an interesting phenomena. It is hard to imagine making friends that you truly care about through what they type in less than 140 characters. It is an amazing way to get to know people you have never met.
The blog is a great way to express a thought in a deeper, meaningful way. And it can be pushed out to the mass through Twitter. It’s obvious they both have their place. In fact, I have my twitter updates as part of my blog because I consider it a micro-blog. It might just show others what it can be and do. Thanks for raising the awareness of both!
Twitter is easier when you want to update a quick status – so it’s 140 characters of what you’re doing.
I love the community I have discovered on Twitter. I love following a whole new subset of people, some who I have discovered through “http://search.twitter.com/” by typing in various keywords of things/topics I’m interested in.
HOW MICRO-BLOGGING (Twitter) replaces BLOGGING:
1. it’s faster when you just want to keep people up to date on your frequent status changes during the day. Easier to do this via mobile devices.
2. there is a community-growing capability (not deep, but wide) because I see other Twitterers because of the replies I see other people write (i.e., if I see Guy Kawasaki reply to @ducttape, I’m curious about the name and what Guy has to say to this unique name, so I follow @ducttape). It’s faster to do than following comments on blogs and linking to their blogs.
3. it forces briefer communication (some of us get long winded on blogs . . . and on comments on other people’s blogs!!) GOOD for getting people into:
a. sharing status updates (only 140 characters and you can do it multiple times in a day; if I follow you, I really do know what my friends are doing throughout the day)
b. sharing links (great way to research or discover new ideas)
c. sharing resources/answering questions (one Twitter follower of mine asked if I knew something about Dallas-Fort Worth and I hooked him up with a local resource he would have never known about since he was in Canada! – all within 4 hours time!)
HOW TWITTER WORKS WITH BLOGS:
1. Allows people to offer a teaser of a longer more profound/insightful writing of yours. If you have an opinion on a topic, you can Twitter people and it acts as a great feed to your blog
2. By following people on Twitter (surface level at first), you can learn who you want to know more about which can have you go to their blog to engage deeper
I use Twitter to automatically update my Facebook status as well – some use Ping.fm to update Twitter, Facebook and Blogger at the same time. Lots of ideas out there and it’s changing all the time!
-Randy
I love them both, Wade. I think Twitter carries a lot of humor with it … and interesting small things you wouldn’t normally know. Someone mentioned creating community … and Twitter certainly can give you a taste of someone’s day to day life. I find it very enjoyable. And I think it does contribute to me blogging less often. Which as I look at my backed-up Google Reader, is not necessarily a bad thing.
I hate Twitter!