I confess I just started tweeting recently. I had been watching Twitter out of curiosity for a long time before I decided to jump in.
The more I looked at it the more I found it to be … well, random bragging about your unexceptional life. As best described in this SuperNews cartoon.
Slowly but surely I find myself replacing my daily blog reading habits with Twitter. I have a bunch of RSS feeds and a long list of bookmarked blogs. But I find myself just checking in on my Twitter page. Almost everyone I am following on Twitter is someone who has a blog I was checking almost daily.
Some of the blogs I followed are done be exceptionally good writers and story tellers. I would much rather read a full blog posting or story from these people than just a Tweet – and many of these people have already effectively figured out how to Tweet and get my attention – and then I’m off to their blog to read the full story.
For the other blogs I check out… Twitter helps me avoid wasting time scanning through their blogs. Twitter forces them to get to the point – thank God.
So has Twitter killed blogging? Not yet. But with our ever shorter attention spans … it’s got a shot.
As I was walking into the office this morning, a man was fumbling through a large and heavy tote, about to pull out a big slab of dead tree and leave it in front of my office door. I could tell by the girth of the thing that it was a phone book.
A phone book? I haven’t opened one for at least 5 years, maybe more. I’m annoyed to keep finding them on my home and office doorstep. Trying not to sound annoyed, I asked the gentleman “do I have to take one of those?”
“No” he exclaimed. He sounded relieved to not burden me with it. “But would you mind signing that you took it anyway?” he asked.
“Will you throw it out for me?” I responded. “Sure!” he said, letting the book fall back in the tote.
So I signed his electronic receipt as “Stuart Smalley” and he scurried off. Walking past our trash bin outside, I saw him toss not one, but several of the heavy books.
This got me to thinking. Does anyone use a phone book anymore? Why to they keep publishing them?
I could not help but wonder what the Phone Company will do with that signature from Stuart Smalley. Most likely they use it to proclaim how many thousands of people still use the phone book. Thus the reason they keep publishing it.
Don’t fall for it. Especially in a slow economy, accountable web marketing from dedicated professionals is your best bet.
Even better, we can show you just exactly how it is working. We won’t have to collect signatures from Saturday Night Live characters turned politicians to convince you.