Why microblogging has value
That’s right, with the advent of the Facebook status API we may have to stop saying Twitter and start using the more generic term. This is good because it puts focus on the medium, not the branding or cliques surrounding twitter that some have struggled to see value in or make sense of.

• Microblogging Defined
  Twitter has become synonymous with microblogging, but if you take that brand out and focus on just what microblogging as a technology, or information format is, you can see some things in common:
  • Limited amount of characters, 140 at present. Even if Facebook or others allow more, using something like Ping.fm means you have to target the lowest common denomonator. This limited format forces people to be more concise, in an age of info overload this approach is just what is needed.
  • Personal/Professional mix. This varies from user to user, but microblogging commonly features both. From a PR perspective, it has enabled some companies to put a human face on their business, in a way it has turned vulnerability into an asset.
  • Embedded links that are recommended by trusted people
  • Rank based on number of followers/friends. This rank carries with it alot of clout becuse people in this format are generally followed based on authoratative might rather than looks or status in pop culture. Myspace and Hi5 are commonly quite the opposite.
  • A daily ‘life stream’. This is a more immediate and direct stream than trad-blogging in that it can reveal a person’s life style as much as opinion. This degree of personalization is part of the appeal to both the poster and the reader.
  • Friends and associates based on interest rather than social connections.
  • Potentially High content/value to text ratio. A link from a recognized authority to a topic of high relevance is very valuable. Using Twitter search yeilds tens of these per page. which is very valuable indeed.
  • Speed, it is easy to post and therefore remain involved in the community. There are no specific or particularly strict requirements to a post unless you impose them on yourself for reasons of branding or PR. Thus, people can send out posts and updates with greater frequency and a lower exposure to negativity than with trad-blogging.
  • The ability to view the mood of a community or interest group at a glance. because the posts are in real time and of a small word count, a look at one page of Twitter search results and get the current mood in a fraction of the time it would take to go to several well-known blogs and scroll through the comments. Most importantly, one can see the mood or opinion on the topic as it is now. Reading comments may show you how people felt two months ago.
• Why Less is More in Microblogging
  Because the microblog format restricts the size of a status update or post, users gradually finding ways to add more power to their content. This means rethinking one’s message and giving it maximum impact.

  a. Driving more impactful messages – One issue that readers face on the web is that there is too much to choose from. The microblog format provides quick and meaningful summaries of what is to be found at a link. The url source, recommender and tweet content all serve as indicators of the links value. Contrast this with Google search results that typically serve up a few lines from the page. Power tweeting lets a Twitter account control the content of the search result.
  b. Allows for brand experimentation and segmentation – This is quite important, by breaking down a brands messaging into small 140 character messages, a company, blog or technorati does not have to commit too much to a particular identity. This allows for rapid prototyping of a total brand message to see whether the desired response is illicited. Alternative accounts, can allow for the creation and definition of market segments that appeal and speak te language of that group.
  c Allows for brand evolution – As above, brands can evolve slowly and with more certainty that their larger scale changes will be successful. This comes from authentic feedback from a participating community rather than controlled testing or market surveys.
  d. Allows for mass response and communication while still being immediate and personal, When company executives tweet, insight into their decision making processes and inspiration can be shared without the fear of disclosure that comes from blogging. This kind of PR tack is more focued on providing a human face to an organization that may seem unreachable.
  e. Allows for a wider scope of related topics from a variety of perspective at one glance – Users can see what is being said on a particular topic from a variety of angles, all at one glance.
  f. Has created a three tiered system of communication that enables different types of messages, all without additional learning. BBS systems have had a similar setup since the beginning, but having that conversation on the fly and with people who’s authority you can check via reading their tweets and viewing follower count adds to the value of the conversation. It moves the communication beyond bait for flame wars and into a more productive realm.
  g. Retweeting, broadcasting makes rapid browsing and targeting of content possible – Search results via a microblogging search engine yeild results that are fresh, highly relevant and authoratative. Compared to a search engine that is focused on indexing the whole web, the results are frequently of more use. Beyond that, searches can be restricted to area, tweeter, time and a variety of other factors.
  

  h. Retweeting also creates a digg like effect in that popular articles can be found either from the main timeline, those you are following or a specific search.- Contrasted with Digg, twitter searches and referrals to links carry varying degrees of authority with them. No one knows how much success people have gaming Digg, but at present a link tweeted by someone respected in a given field is likely to be of some very practical use.

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• How Twitter and other Microblogging services broaden one’s scope of vision.
  By having a look at who the people you follow are following, you can take a more controlled and filtered approach to finding the information you want while having a degree of certainty that you will be getting links of value.

• The Danger of Social Media’s Summarized World
  Social media, particularly of the likes of the super large Facebook and definitely MySpace can suffer from content banality. Hi5 is a perfect example.
  Obviously, spending a hour or two reading only tweets makes no sense, and does not provide enough information to post a meaningful reply. Instead the referenced article should be read and given some thought. That is what a limited format does. Contrast this with a blog entry where the poster may not have done a particularly comprehensive job of stating their opinion, responses will be of similar thoughtfulness and quality. Overgeneralized, factually inaccurate and frequently uncivil. Microblogs force the reader to do the reading and research before tweeting back, thoughtful comments receive responses while trolling activity is commonly ignored. In short, the potential to elevate the dialog increases in proportion to decreased message size.

• How Microblog services Like Twitter can save us from over generalizations
  At first glance, the web seems like a great place to free oneself from the scourge of the mainstream media and it’s corporate funded over-simplifications, bombastic repetition and patronizing dialog. A closer look reveals that we may not be getting all too far from that fate. The blogs are out there, the alternative views are well written and in many cases supporting video or other media makes for a compelling alternative. There are,so far, no financial or institutional limitations and the technological barriers to entry are trivial. Unfortunately, this is just the problem. There is now too much data to pick through and search fatigue often times drives us to the front page of Yahoo or the WSJ. Social media, and the microblogging format, in particular allows a quick scan of tens of articles at a glance with the following information included:
  
  The topic
  Why it is compelling
  Who recommended it
  Who wrote it
  What differentiates it
  This limitation has forced us, the content distributor to conciseify our recommendations and commentary and provided access to levels of depth as requested. With carefully placed words, the reader can quickly determine whether the article is desirable and can expand his or her knowledge on the subject without causing ’search fatigue’. While the non-social web provided the availability to a wider spectrum of perspective, getting to them wasn’t easy. How many of you go beyond the first three pages of a Google search?. The social web now provides easier access and facilitation to those goods, the actual value of this massive amount of information, perspective and knowledge is beginning to be captured. This is precisely because of the targeted filtering that small formats necessitate, and it all happens on the fly. The user is not required to fill out another form, spin another widget or go to another page. These results are yielded from actions that have already been performed.

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• Why Twitter and Microblogging services need mainstream media and websites.

  Sure, it’s a bit obvious that Twitter, Jaiku and now Facebook are carrying status updates with links or even commentary on the day’s top stories, but what is more significant is that this main stream, if you will, provides a source of what NOT to talk about. People get clout, status and consequent monetization opportunities by getting the attention of readers. Unless you are CNN or another large news network getting a following based on top headlines is unlikely.

  People get followers from having stories that fall just under the radar and have relevance. This is the uniqueness you can bring, and the Twitter search engine, and possibly at some point google offer ways to find these stories well in advance of mainstream notice. These big stories will generally have a cast of characters places and memes that can be expanded upon.

  There is a symbiotic relationship between the two. As the number of microblog users increases, stories will start to break there rather than at the news networks. Later, those networks will pick up the story and expand on it possibly revealing more detail and can be covered again in some length at the microblogosphere.

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