The Miracle of Microblogging

Although microblogging has become a popular form of producing internet content, a lot of people don't even know what it is...much less why they should care. Yet without realizing it, those same people are engaging in a form of microblogging almost every day whenever they text a friend or colleague with their cell phone. Even businesses have yet to discover the true value of this small, but mighty tool.

The biggest question, obviously would be "What is microblogging?" As I've said, it's a form of text messaging, and you use a cell phone to do it. The difference is, rather than a single person receiving your message, the message is sent wirelessly to the greater Internet community. (If that demographic seems a little overwhelming, you can choose to send your "microblog" to a smaller group of friends, clients, or subscribers.)

Now that the difference between a blog and a microblog has been established, the next question is, how does someone microblog, and why do you need to do it?

Some regular blogging websites will make "mobile blogging" an option, but it's generally a clumsy and not always reliable form of entering your posts online. Microblogging, on the other hand, was created specifically for the purpose of mobile blogging, making it more user-friendly and dependable. This can be handy when making an especially important post about your day, or a brand-new product rolling off your assembly line in the next ten minutes.

Length is a factor to consider, so if you have a habit of writing paragraphs in each post, microblogging may not be what you're looking for. Brevity being the key, you need to lay out your thoughts ahead of time, as stream-of-consciousness won't work in this setting.

If you're more of a personal blogger, microblogging communities have even sprung up online to connect with other like-minded individuals. Thanks to these forums, you can easily connect with other people and, just as with text messaging, get equally fast replies to your various posts. An added bonus to the microblog is the faster, easier way to attach images, video or audio to each post-something you can do with a regular blog, but not always as efficiently, and certainly not as quickly.

Why is a microblog sometimes better than its larger counterpart? Ease of use, for one thing: you can say virtually whatever you want, anywhere, at any time of day or night..just make sure it's short. Because of its growing popularity, you have a built-in support group willing to talk about virtually anything. And because the community is well aware of the necessity to keep things brief, you can send several messages with only a few words each without worry. I've included a few links in mthis article to get you started.

As with other blogs, microblogs have the potential to become habit-forming, especially considering how much easier it is to snap off a few comments on your lunch break. This is both a good and bad thing, but if you approach it with the respect and control that you do with every useful tool in life, you may find yourself among the most famous microbloggers in no time.