Microblogging is a form of blogging that allows users to write brief text updates (usually less than 200 characters)
and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted
group which can be chosen by the user. These messages can be submitted
by a variety of means, including text messaging, instant messaging, email, MP3 or the web.
The most popular service is called Twitter, which was launched in July 2006 and won the Web Award in the blog category at the 2007 South by Southwest Conference in Austin, Texas. The main competitor to Twitter is Jaiku.
Recently, however, many new services, with the same feature of micro-blogging are being born. Digg founder Kevin Rose, together with three other developers recently launched a service called Pownce, which integrates micro-blogging with file-sharing and event invitations.
The popular social networking websites Facebook and MySpace also have a micro-blogging feature, called "status update".
The microblogging concept isn’t one that settles neatly among a myriad of more intuitive platforms. Regardless, microblogging platforms like Twitter, Jaiku,
Pownce, and PlaceShout are gaining steam in the social media realm with or without you.
The early adopters have been raving about microblogging for months now, even to the point of admitting addiction to sites like Twitter. And when people
are excited about something it’s one of two things: hype, or the next big thing. Which do you think it is?
If you know and/or follow Lynnette Young, a.k.a. LynetteRadio on Twitter, you
would be interested in knowing that she’s on the brink of labor, very near to
producing a Halloween baby. You’d also be aware that her husband is in New
York sans cell phone.
What use is that to the business-minded? At this
point, not much. Later, though, as media converges, especially
social media, one might imagine contextual advertising for diapers
and baby wipes appearing next to the appropriate tweets. (The 140 character
or less posts are called "tweets" on Twitter.)
Perhaps that’s what
Google plans to do with recently acquired Jaiku, a platform similar to
Twitter. Perhaps that’s where all this is headed as the bubble gets bigger:
large companies swallow up social media, interlink them, and monetize them
under one umbrella, carefully targeted by demographic.
Until then,
we’re left with fragmentation teetering on frustration. With so much social
media out there, how does one have time to utilize it properly? Well, just
like you pick your battles, you’re going to have to
pick your social
network.
Twitter, for example, is stuffed with early adopters, thought
leaders, and technophiles. If this is your target market, then it’s a good idea
to be there Twittering too. Verizon’s John Czwartacki takes his
company’s message to the lion’s den. In a crowd most likely to be
pro-Net Neutrality, Czwartacki hasn’t missed the opportunity to present
the positive aspects of his company to industry critics/bloggers.
So, microblogging is a useful
public relations vehicle, or a place to be careful with your words as one PR
pro found out recently. You connect with influencers, and have the
opportunity to connect with the network of
people they follow, but you also
can keep tabs on projects & people
love to talk about their
projects.
Dave Winer, the self-titled original blogger and inventor of
RSS recently Twittered (or tweeted?) about his New York Times
"River" project, which allows readers to order their news to suit
their preferences, rather than, as is tradition, allowing the editors
to prioritize news.
It’s a two-way street. Winer keeps his
"followers" abreast about what might be the next great platform, and if his
followers ever get tired of him, they can simply un-follow him. That makes it
an excellent vehicle for permission-based marketing & choosing not
to follow someone is a built-in user-controlled spam filter.
Bloggers
use microblogging as a supplement to their main blog by posting a short
description of their latest blog post and a link. How long do you think it
will be until the search engines begin crawling for that type
of information?
But the real future blockbusters, I think, will be
the microblogging platforms that are more tightly targeted and present more
intuitively useful variations on the originals. It’s not hard to see how
PlaceShout, for example, has an intrinsic value. It works like Twitter, but
its goal is consumer reviews. Users have 100 characters to jazz or razz a
place of business, and the reviews are overlaid on Google Maps.
The
weakness right now, though, is fragmentation and saturation. Though options
are good, too many choices produce social-media overload. You would have to
hire at least one full time person to maintain your
presences on MySpace,
Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, the blogosphere, the forums, the search
results & the list just keeps getting bigger.
One day, I can
imagine Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft offering full search/social/traditional
media advertising packages that pull all of these things under one roof
– a managed campaign offering. And they’ll probably be expensive.
Until then, choose your media carefully, and use it to its full potential.
Via Web Pro News