Twitter is useful to different kinds of people in different ways. Bloggers use it to promote blog posts and find new audience and friends, marketers acquaint themselves with like-minded people and promote their products, socializing freaks like Robert Scoble use it to befriend 15k users, and Comcast (@comcastcares) (surprisingly, yes) sets up a Twitter account to receive feedback from their users.
In this post, I’ll be rounding up the various uses of Twitter and justifying why one of them is really the best use of Twitter for bloggers. Of course, we all have our own opinions, so I welcome your thoughts on for/against my views.
Twitter for bloggers: Communicate with anyone, any time
Before the advent of Twitter, bloggers were generally segregated into two – the elite, high-end bloggers who were mostly full-time bloggers and excelled in their work, and the hobbyist or wannabe bloggers who couldn’t quite ‘get there’.Being popular and having to work hard for long hours, probloggers were generally found lacking in conversations with smaller bloggers. Of course, you may point out some exceptions, but they were just that: exceptions.
Fast-forward to the age of Twitter, and bloggers of any stature are able to communicate with probloggers. The role of Twitter: to provide a level playing field. No longer would you have to spend time commenting on other blogs to get bloggers to notice you and give you a reply. Michael Arrington, Darren Rowse, Chris Garrett, Robert Scoble – they’re all on Twitter and a @tweet away.
Here’s my own experience: I have contacted and/or established acquaintance with Darren Rowse (Problogger.net), Daniel Scocco (Daily Blog Tips), Amit Agarwal (Digital Inspiration) and of course, PChere (this blog) for this guest posting opportunity.
Some benefits of using Twitter as opposed to IM or email:
- Bloggers can chose to receive tweets when they want. This can be a boon when you’re busy and hurrying to meet deadlines. It is almost like an RSS feed for your instant messages – you chose when to receive content. In other words, it is a ‘pull’ system of communication (where you decide when to get the messages).
- Bloggers are no longer considered rude if they do not answer immediately. When using instant messaging or emails, most people take offense if you do not reply. However, in the ad-hoc world of Twitter, there are several reasons why someone may not reply: Twitter fails to deliver tweets sometimes, the recipient may be busy (and may miss it when coming back later) and/or both parties may forget.
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