Blogging in 2009: Sit on Twitter, wait for something to happen, post about it with a screenshot of a tweet.

Is this what blogging has become? Are we so lacking in our attention spans that everything must be distilled in 140 characters? Will blogs die?

Twitter vs. Blogs

I don't really think so. Twitter is the news ticker that just keeps on delivering an endless stream of information. The blogs are the reporters. Start at Twitter to find out what's going on, then go and read some blogs for greater detail.

There is still a place for blogging. Twitter is not ideal for every possible piece of information. Have you ever seen a tweet that is actually too long for Twitter so has to be split up? Have you ever tried to explain something that simply cannot be shortened to 140 characters?

You get out what you put in

Twitter is a tool that can be used and abused in many different ways. Take another look at my quote from the start of this post:

Sit on Twitter, wait for something to happen, post about it with a screenshot of a tweet.

Now, this doesn't have to be a bad thing. Let's break it down.

Sitting on Twitter all day is not a good idea, but using it in small bursts can be highly effective.

Waiting for something to happen might mean you are always reporting other people's news rather than creating buzz for your own projects. But it can also mean you're not blogging when there's nothing to say.

And while a screenshot of a tweet isn't particularly exciting, isn't it worse if you publish a post with no images whatsoever?

An idea for bloggers

Here's an idea. Why not use Twitter to get ideas for your blog posts, then write those posts between tweets, before finally sharing the link with the people you were just chatting with?

They'll be interested if they cared enough to reply to your tweet or re-tweet it for you. So I'd say you've got a pretty good chance of getting people to pass around your blog post.

It certainly seems more likely if you go this way than if you go in cold. If you want to share the post you just wrote, but you haven't talked with anyone on Twitter today, why should they read it?

What do you think?

Are you a blogger? How do you use Twitter?

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