Twitter isn’t yet ten years old but in the relatively short time it’s been around, it has revolutionized the world of blogging.
Blogging on Twitter is called “microblogging.” The idea is to only use a few characters to get the same point across that you would normally need a many-paragraphs long blog post to convey. Like the blogosphere, users can follow other users, comment on posts (called replying) and even send a microblog (or tweet) they really like or appreciate on to their own followers (called retweeting).
It’s also become quite a popular mechanism for promoting products and services and every day more businesses are embracing the medium as a means of reaching out to customers. What nobody anticipated was how quickly Twitter would shift from being a simple microblogging platform into a conversational apparatus. Entire conversations take place on Twitter now, with many people using the medium in place of simply texting or calling each other.
Twitter is not the only microblogging platform out there. Another big name in microblogging is Tumblr.
Tumblr, unlike Twitter, has no character limits and was designed primarily for the easy sharing of media. Over time, like Twitter, it has shifted from its original purpose. People now use Tumblr as a fully fledged blogging platform. Users compose lengthy posts about whatever comes to mind and publish them into the system.
What makes Tumblr different than, say; Typepad is that the sharing of Tumblr posts is just as easy as it is on Twitter. Users can simply click a single button and the entire post is republished via their own feed to the people who follow them. Another major difference is that Tumblr tracks how many users have reacted to your post. Each individual post also features a list of other Tumblr users who have “liked” the post and who have “shared” the post.
This has caused the world of regular blogging to shift considerably.
While, five years ago, there were many non-specific personal blogs out there, today those numbers are dropping because people are finding that once they’ve posted their thoughts on their favorite microblogging platform, they lose the urge to compose lengthier and more detailed blog posts about those same thoughts and observations.
Like most other forms of social media, microblogging—particularly where Twitter and Tumblr are concerned—is only getting stronger over time.
