Should I Write a Blog or use Twitter?

<p><p><img height="46" width="150" align="left" src="http://www.picturethis.org/Portals/0/Images/blogs/blogger.jpg" alt="Blogger Icon" class="PicLeft" />Before blogging came on the scene, there were only limited ways people could communicate to a large audience – essentially newspapers, magazines, books, reports and personal letters; to name a few. No quick and easy way to reach out to the masses for sure! With the internet and the evolution of the blog and other social media platforms, written communication has now been elevated to a higher level. Today you don’t have to get hired by a newspaper or magazine… get someone to publish your book to be heard – to truly affect change. Today anyone can write an article and post it to the internet and it is immediately transmitted all the way around the world as soon as they press the enter key.</p> <p><strong>WOW! But getting the world to actually read it is not quite as easy.</strong></p> <p>Anyone can write a blog if they are so inclined. An ordinary blog will combine text, images and sometimes links to other blogs and websites. Most blogs allow other readers to comment about the blog by completing a short form provided at the end of the blog. There are also other types of blogs: art (Art Blog), video (video blogging), music (MP3 blog), audio (podcasting) and photographs (photoblog). According to the search engine Technorati, more than 133,000,000 blogs have been indexed since 2002.<br />  </p> <p>Blog content is totally controlled by the blogger (person writing the blog). Commenting on a blog is super easy while getting a blog started takes a little more thought and consideration. You will have to choose a blog platform, your niche – e.g. what you going to blog about, buy a domain name and start writing – consistently if you want to really engage folks. Blogging can be a lot of work. However, if you are not passionate about the subject(s) or don’t have the time and energy to devote to blogging.....then</p> <p><strong>Along comes Twitter. </strong></p> <p><img height="73" width="143" align="left" src="http://www.picturethis.org/Portals/0/Images/blogs/twitter1gif.gif" alt="twitter logo" class="PicLeft" />Now you can do just about anything – on your phone – perhaps while in the bathroom! If you don’t want to spend time on a more involved blog concept – twitter might be for you via the “microblog”. Micro blogging is the concept of writing a short message (up to 140 characters) and displaying on site like Twitter – which can then be followed via phone or website access. Obviously by blogging you are unlimited in the amount of writing that you can do versus microblogging which imposes a limit.</p> <p><strong>So, what to do? Why to do it? How to do it?</strong></p> <p>If it makes sense to write a blog and you’ve determined that doing so will have a positive impact on your life, by all means do it. However, if blogging is too much work for you… then microblogging might be a good easy way to “ reach out to the world” (or Tweeting).</p> <p>Writing a blog or Tweeting is an effective way to release creativity, promote a cause, share information, advertise a business, etc. to a worldwide audience. There is also a way to link your blog to your Twitter account, FaceBook and other social sites. By linking, you have the ability to post to both your blog and your Twitter account, etc., you can reach multiple “touch points” more quickly and easily. Now that’s what is called “killing two birds with one stone”. Pardon the pun, Twitter.</p> <p>Check back as we explore the “business” of blogging and using social media in business. </p></p>