Twitter::blogging as USA Today::Monocle

For the long silence. 

For anyone still reading here (Hi, Mom!), I've been having a bit of an internal debate on the value of blogging.  It's resulted in my near complete migration to twitter for sharing insights and info. 

And questioning why one would post thoughts to a blog, or provide links to cool stuff via one, when it's so damn much easier to 'bit.ly' great stuff, punch it out in 140 characters or less and move on, and get the 'social credit' for having done so via the twitter community.

Twitter has become a great medium for the zingy barb aimed at a Retweet.  Many of my friends play Twitter like a game, with RT's and @replies as their scorecard.  And I'll admit - it's pretty satisfying to get a reply or RT.  Human beings want to interact. And a comment-less blog post isn't a conversation.  An RT or an @reply feels more like one.  And so the draw.

HBS tells us less the median for tweets is 1.  Yep, one and done.  Back in 2008, Technorati told us 95% of blogs hadn't been updated in 4 months.  Remember Second Life?  I still think 90% of their registrations were from ad agency jackasses trying to figure it out to sell tot heir clients.  But people want feedback.  They need feedback.  We are hardwired to seek it out.

A draft White Paper entitled "Tweet Tweet Retweet" (Download TweetTweetRetweet) by Danah Boyd, Scott Golder and Gilad Lotanon even names the phenomenon of "Ego Retweeting".  Some of the data cited (and yes, the paper leads with a 'do not cite' header):

"Based on 720,000 tweets captured at 5-minute intervals from 437,708 unique users, they found that: 

• 22% of tweets include a URL (‘http:’)
• 36% of tweets mention a user in the form ‘@user’; 86% of tweets with @user begin with @user and are presumably a directed @reply
• 5% of tweets contain a hashtag (#) with 41% of these also containing a URL
• 3% of tweets are likely to be retweets in that they contain ‘RT’, ‘retweet’ or ‘via’ (88% include ‘RT’, 11% include ‘via’ and 5% include ‘retweet’

Based on 203,371 retweets captured from 107,116 unique users, they found that:

• 52% of retweets contain a URL
• 18% of retweets contain a hashtag
• 11% of retweets contain an encapsulated retweet (RT @user1 RT @user2 ...message..)
• 9% of retweets contain an @reply that refers to the person retweeting the post

It doesn't take much thought to zing off 140 characters of self-indulgent crap (exactly the reason many dismissed Twitter in the first place), but it does take time to compose something meaningful. 

We need more ways not just to connect, but to connect with each other.

And we'll migrate to the tools that do it best.

**UPDATE**

Oh thank god there's an ironic T that summarizes this whole damn post.

******

Comments

[reading paragraphs not characters]

http://gigaom.com/2009/08/01/rss-subscribers-or-twitter-followers-which-are-worth-more/#more-61292

title: RSS Subscribers worth more than Twitter Followers.

It's about substance and using the appropriate medium/tool. You can bypass substance and live solely within Twitter, or, you can create substance and use Twitter as a calling card or billboard on side of road. A calling card or billboard is not a business, it is merely an introduction.

Stick to the blog, painful as it may be. We enjoy the substance.

[gkeenan]

you should get on tumblr. it hooks into twitter, is immensely better at posting and organizing information and your not limited to 140 characters.

[paul w.]

From: http://www.watblog.com/2009/07/21/twitter-stats-by-sysomos-an-analysis/

Social Marketers on Twitter: 15% of Twitter users who follow more than 2,000 people identify themselves as social media marketers. More than 78% of social media marketers have more than 20 followers. As well, 35% write more than one update/day, compared with 15% for the overall Twitter population. 65.5% of social media marketers post less than a update a day, compared with 85.3% of the general Twitter population. In addition, 6.3% post two updates a day (vs. 2.8 overall), while 4.3% post at least nine updates a day (vs. 0.17% overall)

/////////

OK, blogs are now old school. But, let's not all jump so quickly into thinking that 140 characters are the ultimate devolution of human dialogue and thought.

From the above, the question is, like SECOND LIFE, are Social Marketing folks just talking to themselves? Are they flying business class, only residing on Coasts and clueless as to real world uses of social media platforms? Do they Follow random individuals to get an idea of how non-zingy Tweets are applied to daily life? Do they communicate with people outside of their circle?

Or, do they just watch each other's RT's and @ replies and collect a paycheck, convinced they are somehow in a cadre of more enlightened beings? Rock Stars who don't create any music?

[renny]

I think the latter - we get a new tech, then we human hack it. It takes us a little while to feel the stuff out...

[Brett T. T. Macfarlane]

It's more than just the inherent nature of the tool isn't it? Half of it is how the tool is being used. And how it's being used shifts over time therefore affecting the migration to/from. Even if the tool is unchanging.

As a focus group of one, after a hiatus I've started blogging again, needed to work out thoughts for myself beyond 140. As the discovery phase of Twitter diminishes it may become a linkfest driving away usage, or maybe we will adopt new habits beyond the banal self indulgent driving greater usage. Then again, deep down maybe the latter is all humankind really wants in anything. Or that's a phase until the initial discovery phase is over and we find ways to give it greater meaning, and connect more personally.

Uh, or something like that...