I have come to understand that blogging has evolved from habit of writing diaries. The only difference is people started doing it online, therefore being christened a ‘Blog’ (a contraction of the term “Web Log”). People wrote lengthy, detailed accounts of events, activities and what not. However, as time went by, they started writing more condensed, portable and personal versions of their blogs. These were in 140 characters or less and were called “microblogs”.
Microblogging is as easy as sending a group text message to a select bunch of friends. It has now become a very popular mode of communications primarily due to the ease by which people can share and seek information on a daily basis. The fact that it is only 140 characters or less often makes it more palatable and allows people to communicate in a concise manner. It’s context however, is often very different from that used in emails.
One of the first companies to provide a microblogging platform was Twitter. It has now become a platform extensively used by individuals, brands and companies in a variety of different ways. Since then, there have been numerous other services which provide a microblogging platform.
The reason for which microblogging gained such popularity is the fact that while it is fairly simple to maintain a blog, it is easier to write short (often 2 sentences) updates. They are often easier to comprehend than regular blogs. However, on the hand, its brevity can mean that readers may misinterpret posts if they don’t understand the context of the post.
Many corporates are using Twitter for their social media marketing purposes quite successfully. Companies like Southwest Airlines use tweets (posts on twitter) as one of its standard customer service tools. Other examples include NASA which used twitter to provide updates of their latest space shuttle missions etc.
Microblogging has widespread appeal and has proved to play a vital role during crisis situations like tragedies and disasters. Twitter proved to do a better job in getting the information out quicker than traditional news media for example in the US Airways Flight 1549 crash in the Hudson river.
Microblogging is an interesting and fun way to keep in touch with friends and people who interest you. It’s free (atleast for now) and is definitely here to stay. Get into it, enjoy it… this is what ‘The Social Media Bible’ suggests.
References: ‘The Social Media Bible’ – by Lon Safko and David Brake
