Twitter and the allure of 140 characters – is it easier than blogging?
I really like 140 characters – do you?
Why Twitter?
I joined twitter and started tweeting in July 2009 after watching a 1 hour demo of Google Wave – the Wave demo changed my perspective on communicating and I realised that real time, live collaboration was almost here. Until then, Twitter was the closest thing to real time communication I could find – I also really like the fact that in the demo they added twitter to a wave creating a twave and there was a heap of people in the audience tweeting about the wave demo.
Personally, I love twitter and 140 chars – forces me to be short, sharp and succinct with my messages. I also love the fact that it’s the same for everyone else. I can organise the people I follow into groups and scan tweets quickly.
The potential of 140 realised
My break through into 140 and appreciation of the value of this tool was when I attended the Online Retailer Conference in August this year where I spent a fair amount of time tweeting key points from each of the presentations – there were a couple of other people that did the same and both during and after the event several people said “thanks for your tweets, it was like I was attending the event.
I also really like the whole concept of ambient awareness (learn more by reading this article http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/magazine/07awareness-t.html or an even better article by Leisa Reichelt who originally coined the term “ambient intimacy” http://www.disambiguity.com/ambient-intimacy/ – thanks to Gavin Heaton for pointing this out). I know what my closest colleagues have been up to over the weekend and I now start conversations with people I follow half way through a topic, I can also meet up with someone I haven’t seen for a couple of weeks and launch into a conversation about what they did last weekend – this is really great stuff.
The short detour
To take a slight detour, I’ve realised, I’m one of those people that gains the most insight by actually experiencing things.
The tweeted question
Tonight I threw out a random thought ( given I’d had some trouble updating this blog but love twitter )
My question:
@MerricReese: Why is it that Microblogging (tweeting) is soooo much easier than blogging – you would think it would be easier to write more than 140 chars
Insightful response:
@servantofchaos Rule #46 – ease of use drives uptake and consumption 
First off – this response was received in less than 5 minutes (awesome & a great attribute of twitter), secondly, I’ve had the capacity to send 1400 characters today and Seth’s blog today was only 1478 characters – I think I could do a lot better with my 10 messages of 140 chars.
Signal to noise ratio
Overall, I sent 10 short messages that were easy to compose because they only needed 140 chars (or less) of thought at a time. Seth’s blog – awesome as always – had a better signal to noise ratio than my 10 messages but may have taken longer to compose. There is absolutely no way that I could even start to compare my 10 messages to Seth’s blog (other than character count) but @servantofchaos gave me the insight to realise why I may lean more towards twitter than blogging.
Ease of use, uptake and consumption
Bottom line – twitter is great because I can send 10 short bursts of 140 characters to increase the ambient awareness of my followers with minimal thought, but to pass on a more robust message you may need more.
Hence this blog… I couldn’t have conveyed the intent of this post in less than 140 chars.
The closing question
Twitter or blogs, which do you prefer and why?
By Merric Reese
October 15, 2009
Great post, Merric. Twitter is a strange beast – it’s hard to understand from the outside. “Social media” can also be called “participatory media” – which gives some sense of how it works, and without participation it’s like the sound of one hand clapping.
Both Twitter and blogs have a role in any digital strategy. The challenge is to be flexible enough to get the most out of both.
Oh, and BTW, “ambient intimacy” was a term originally coined by Leisa Reichelt (which the NYT seems to have claimed). You can read her excellent thinking here:
http://www.disambiguity.com/ambient-intimacy/
Hi Gavin,
Thanks for taking the time to comment and pointing me in the direction of Leisa Reichelt and her excellent thinking.
On participatory media, I totally agree – You will never understand Social Media by standing on the outside looking in – you need to get involved and become engaged.
I love Twitter and I’m enjoying blogging – I will keep working on my flexibilty.
Thanks again for your insights.
Merric Reese
Merric,
nice post and great question, i have been thinking about blogging for quite a while. i havent yet done it but when i saw micro blogging i thought that this might be a great way to introduce me to the concept. like you i find it great to keep my stuff short and sharp but it has also given me a bit of confidence. i think the more i am in the space the closer i get to heading to the Blog. that being said one person gave me a great insight recently, dont blog for others only blog for yourself. if other see it and get something out of it well then that is just a bonus
enjoy
Hi Michelle,
Thanks for reading and taking the time comment.
I agree with your comments around blogging for yourself. In early September this year I had a brief Twitter exchange with Erik Qualman (@equalman ) about blogging and audience, basically he had been on a panel discussing content and blog readership so I sent him a question. He sent back the following (paraphrased) – If you’ve put thought into preparing for a lecture, you show up and give your lecture but no one is there, does it matter?
This was very liberating because it helped me realise a few things :
1) While I’d love a million readers on my blog – probably not going to happen any time soon.
2) While I want my content to be engaging and relevant to others, I’m actually more likely to achieve this by not worrying too much about this and writing about topics I’m really interested in.
3) The act of writing my thoughts down can help me clarify my thinking around topics and there is the added benefit of being able to get other peoples thoughts and engage with them through comments and discussion.
I highly recommend you give it blogging a go – I think you will really enjoy it.
Merric Reese
Hi Merric,
Great post.
Aren’t they both so intimately linked these days… I wouldn’t have thought to revisit your blog until you RT’d my tweet which reminded me of your existence and your new blog which I visited again out of curiosity. To discover this great post that resonates with my experience of twitter.
I too, like Michelle have been thinking about blogging for awhile now, and enjoying watching yours unfold as I get ready to roll my sleeves up.
So right now like you I’m a twitter fan, building confidence for the big league ‘-) And if it hadn’t have been for twitter we wouldn’t have even met.
By the way I like how you’ve taken the signal to noise ratio idea a step further.
Sim
Hi Belinda,
Thanks, I’m really glad you liked the post and took the time to comment.
Twitter is great and I’ve met so many fantastic, talented and insightful people through twitter. I was actually thinking of your comments about signal to noise when I was writing that part of the blog post – so thanks for the inspiration.
I really recommend you don’t hold back, take the next step and give blogging a go – I think you will really enjoy it.
Merric Reese