Blogging vs. Twitter

 

It’s been a little over two years since I made my first Twitter post. Since then, I’ve made over 5,500 updates and lately (like the rest of the web) I’ve been doing a lot of thinking of blogging versus Twittering. At this point, I much prefer Twitter to actually blogging for the following reasons:

  • Easy: Type. Click Update. Done.
  • Short: With a 140 character limit you are forced to be succinct.
  • News will never be the same: Combine the power of democratized reporting with Twitter and the concept of breaking news has been altered forever.
  • No smartphone needed: Any mobile phone that can text can make a Twitter post. If your phone has a camera, it’s even better.  This really places your readers at the scene.

While Twitter is good for quick shots, nothing can replace the impact of a well written blog post. But, as any good blogger will tell you, a good blog post can take some time to write, re-write and touch up before hitting the publish button. That’s not to say that Twitter posts are not impactful, but the character limit provides a fixed runway length for you to (try and) make your point.

 

So, what is my conclusion?

 

With Twitter you gain ease and immediacy, but lose the “room” to go into complexities and details that a blog post gives you. In our quick-cut, I want it now society, is that really a loss?