To kill a mocking blog – a Twitter whodunit

(Update: It seems there are only 2,137 Singapore twitters from a statement in Twitterholic.com)

The Straits Times today reported that blogging is passé and that microblogging is the new Internet rage.

From reading the article, it seem that the stats do show that the while visits to blog sites have slowed, the numbers of visitors to Twitter and Plurk has exploded.

Tan Weizhen, for The Straits Times, wrote “According to research firm Hitwise, blogging traffic slowed last year, while the usage of Twitter and Plurk has exploded.

“The number of Singaporean users visiting and using Twitter's site jumped 602 per cent between January last year and last month, said Hitwise, which does not reveal absolute figures.”

So is blogging so yesterday?

I disagree. Its like saying because SMS growth has exploded compared to voice-calls, is voice-call dated?

Or saying that there is a jump in growth in visits to online media hence print media is dated?

A check at Hitwise paint a different picture.

Blogger.com holds a 1.41% of market share in December 2008. Twitter.com nor Plurk.com is not in the top 20 list.

A visit to Alexa.com top sites in Singapore shows blogging site Blogger.com is in fourth place, Livejournal ranks 11th, Wordpress.com ranks 14th, Imeem is in 21 and Multiply ranks 22

Twitter and Plurk are not in the top 100.

So is blogging dated?

On the contrary, I believe this growth in visits to Twitter and Plurk is actually beneficial to blogging.

First of all, as more diarists tell the world about what they are eating on the microblogs, you get to see more quality bloggers as those who are really passionate about blogging will stay on blogging.

Microblogs are also good for sharing links to your own blog post and to others. With URL tinyisers like www.tinyurl.com and www.is.gd, you can reduce those lengthy URLs in as little characters as possible. 

Even Singapore top twitter, Xiavier Lur, a 15-year-old tech geek with 14,141 followers still has an active blog at http://www.kidtechguru.blogspot.com/.

However the growth of visitors in Twitter and Plurk poses the biggest challenge for those who still do not see how web2.0 can help them communicate.

Though the client or the company may not see the importance of social media, communications professionals should take special interest in knowing and understanding how these tools work. The best way to do so is to make use of the these social media tools themselves.

As April Dunford of Rocketwatcher blog once posted, “I am shocked when I'm questioned by a marketing person about something I've written here or something someone on my team has written elsewhere on a blog.  Any decent marketer out there is keeping on top of this stuff and at a minimum playing around with it to make up their own minds whether or not it's important.  In my opinion, the best ones understand that the world has changed and are diving into it as deeply as they can.  

“I don't understand the marketers that don't think social media is interesting enough to even dip a toe in the water.  Maybe they are too busy buying print ads and booking big trade shows and scheduling meetings with executives trapped on boats.  Who knows?  All I know is that things are changing quickly and it's my job to keep up.  I hope I have the good sense to retire or change careers the minute I catch myself blocking anyone else from doing that too.”