Sarah from Blogversary emailed me earlier today with a question/observation about some people and their use of social messaging tools like Twitter and Plurk. Her email included:
Do think Twitter has had a negative impact on some folk’s blogs? As in, they are blogging less?
My initial reaction to her email was to think of a number of bloggers who’ve all but disappeared from their blogs since discovering Twitter. The ‘distraction’ element of Twitter has been profound for them.
But as I began to think about it I realized that there’s another group of social messenger users that have been energized in their blogging by Twitter and Plurk. I’d consider myself to be in this group.
I personally find that Twitter informs and inspires my blogging. The interactions that I have, the conversations that I see others having, the questions that I’m asked and the answers that other users of Twitter and Plurk give me are constantly feeding me with ideas to blog about.
So my question for those of you who are social messaging users is this:
Does social messaging distract or inspire your blogging?
If you’re one of those bloggers who is inspired by these mediums – I’d also love to hear your reflections on how you keep it from being a distraction and how you shape your use of the mediums to inform and inspire your blogging.
I think Twitter distracts me from getting housework done more than anything!!! LOL.
Twitter really gives me blogging ideas and I have had an easier time coming up with topics based on the buzz!
I’ve kept my Twitter account active because I continue to see people deciding to Follow me.
Plurk is pretty but, to me, it’s just the better-looking sister of Twitter.
I rely on close interaction with my commentors and on-the-ground social networking–forums and RSS-scanned commenting, mostly.
I feel comfortable that my blog keeps being broadcast by Twitter and FriendFeed but, to be frank (even though I’m Alex), I’m kept busy all day writing the blog and maintaining the direct forms of networking I’m currently involved with.
O.K., Twitter and Plurk are “direct” but they feel so cold and, well, like a social networking one-night-stand…
Hello problogger,
I do not think that twitter distract me, twit maybe steal a little of our time, but not all time, twit is excelent to change smal ideas trought a small group of internet friends, and do a better post.
Don’t use twitter :(
I’m know that I will eventually give in a give it a go, but not today! :)
I just can’t get into the whole Twitter thing (but then again, I’m not a big fan of text messaging!). My time is very limited, so I’m focusing on building up my blog for now. Perhaps, I will jump on the Twitter wagon down the road.
For me, Twitter is nothing but a distraction. Peeking into what other people are doing at any moment is extremely interesting to me.
I don’t use Twitter that much but when I do it definitely distracts me from what I’m doing. I definitely should set my status and leave it. I saw the video about the “Twitter Whore” and that’s definitely is being distracted. I suppose it can get that bad for some people and making sure you don’t spend a lot of time on it is essential. It’s like MySpace in terms of consuming a lot of time.
Regards,
Carl
Definitely a distraction for me! Well, it uses the same time anyway; not sure I’d call it a distraction. Competition perhaps.
But it keeps my creative juices flowing, and if I can set aside the time for longer blog posts, it’s a nice complement.
I publish a very successful financial blog and I believe it is a wonderful tool. First of all, during stock market hours it enables me to post my trades on my blog in real time(it’s linked) as I go, as opposed to doing a post every time I want to let my readers know what I am doing. Also my blog traffic has picked up dramatically as a result. People that find me on twitter end up catching my blog feed or e-mail
Hmm. I find it to be a completion to my thoughts and events in the day. I don’t blog about everything in my life, because some things are so small or more of a sudden momentary event that is not worth blogging about, but it is worth Twittering about! :)
@rebelliousgirl … I am very blunt! :P
I’ve found it motivates me and helps me talk to other folks better. This is especially true because I blog about home improvement and construction. Typically this niche doesn’t really have a place to “hang out” and socialize online. So for me it’s a way to meet other folks, share my blog and learn from them on cross-platform ideas. For instance, if I’m talking to someone that is into SEO or techi stuff and they say oh yeah in my personal life I have a home improvement issue that relates….anyway….this medium helps me in that regard and gives me ideas to write about.
Absoloutely twitter is a bonus and a resource for my blogging.
On the one hand, I blog less because Twitter provides an excellent outlet for shorter thoughts and a much better system for conversation.
On the other hand, it’s a perfect way to send up bellwethers and collect thoughts, information, or inspiration for better blog posts.
End result: fewer, better blog posts. And that’s good for everyone.
Twitter has been a very beneficial networking app that has allowed me to dig a little deeper with my writing and provided countless ideas.
A social app like Twitter fundamentally becomes what you allow it to be for you. Some find it to be a time waster, others use it for internal communication in their businesses, other rely on it for the sharing of information that eventually prompts creativity, and others become distracted by it completely that they devote their entire time to it, possibly neglecting their previous interests.
The inspiration from Twitter is priceless and with an information network at my fingertips, I enjoy what it has to offer.
I didn’t actually start a blog until after I started using Twitter. After pressure from Twitterbuds to start a legit blog to organize some of my thoughts with, I finally did. Since then Twitter has shown me many topics not to blog about, no need for me to chime in on a topic that 2 dozen people just passed long links for. But on the flip side, Twitter has exposed me to an entire world of interest, as well as people who share that interest. Because of this, I will soon be starting up a new blog, to focus on a very niche area, as well as finding new inspiration for how to expose Small Town America to the rest of the population.
Twitter @thattalldude
I think Twitter / Plurk have really encouraged me to be more active with my link-related posts. I was in a funk for a while, but getting more active in social messaging has turned that around.
I don’t really do twitter, the entire micro-blogging thing just never appealed to me. It’s like chatting on IRC but then slower or hanging about forums but with shorter messages. As those media can be an inspiration for blogging at times I guess microblogging formats could be so too, but don’t think it’ll be something which really gets me anytime soon :).
Twitter doesn’t distract me, I find alwaye new sources and inspiration. I write on my blog as usual, no…I write more becouse I write also about social network use.
I actually get post ideas from conversations on Twitter and Plurk, so I see it as a good adjunct to blogging and creativity starter, rather than an obstacle.
I’m had a Twitter account for a long time, but only had one “friend”…my daughter! LOL
But in the last few weeks, I’ve really revived my whole writing/blogging/social networking and now I send out and get back tweets all day.
It’s given me ideas; as well as helped me to let people know when I have a new post!
There are some people I’ve had to delete from my notifications, because every 30 seconds from the same person…geez!
I meant “I’ve” had a Twitter account…I must’ve gotten a Tweet while I was typing…distracted me enough to make a typo!
I spend a few minutes in Plurk or Twitter when I need a bit of relaxing time. The posts there spark ideas that contribute to my blogging.
When I saw your note/post on Plurk I was going to say “Yes! It distracts me a lot, hence why I refused to get it when my friends said I should”, but after reading your post and what you get from Twitter and Plurk I reflected on it all and realised that I have actually gotten a lot from Plurk since I joined.
For example, I knew you had a Digital Photography website as I heard you mention it on Yanik Silver’s Underground Online Seminar… but never quite found it (mostly overloaded with other information!), but saw your post about the “10 more tips for portrait photography” and ventured on it (only to end up joining the forums too).
So, to answer your question… yes it is distracting, but in a good way I think. I’ve found lots of new stuff and I’ve enjoyed myself… and I also know it’s the kind of “addiction” which will just simmer and I’ll end up using it, but not being quite so addicted.
Hope I’ve made sense in my rambling. :)
Hey Darren,
You know what’s really cool? I know 2 of the people above because of twitter. And I know where they live, etc. Twitter for me has allowed me to get to know people on a personal level that I never would have (even if I attended many events in person). The ability to interact with everyone enhances my blogging & makes it better. (Does it reduce my time for blogging? umm probably & then there is plurk!) But they are my time to socialize which is important too & self-discipline is key.
There are times when I need to log out of Twitter to focus and get a blog post done. Twitter can be very useful but sometimes it is just distracting. I also have to log out of my IM and not check email for certain lengths of time to be more productive.
So far, Twitter has been a little bit distracting, not really to my blogging cycle but just to my work flow. Or perhaps it’s because I TwitterFox and the little pop-ups are annoying at times.
Twitter is an inspiration and been informative to me. There will be noise, but gems come out of it from time to time.
I don’t think it’s supposed to ‘distract’ us from blogging. Wasn’t it designed for easy going social talk?
Anyway, I would use it to gather idea or learn people’s minds, but do not rely my lifestyle on it.
Twitter and Plurk have kept me at the computer longer. Which in turn leads me to writing more,
I’m in a unique niche, so I don’t often find tons of others blogging on my topics, but I have appreciated the way that Twitter and Plurk have helped me learn to write more concisely – -for the most part it’s reawakening those long-ago journalism classes and I think it’s tightened my prose.
Thanks for the dialogue!
Peggie
@pegkd
I love using twitter, but I have to say I am not lacking in the blogging area because of it. Having my friends at my fingertips and being able to see what there posting is actually helpful to my blogging and my networking.
I still don’t have a twitter account. I might get one of Darren adds me as a friend :)
I have a personal blog, so services like Twitter help me not only think of things to write about, but also how to state them most effectively.
Twitter or any social networking tool and or site can be a distraction. It really depends on how you use it yes I have gotten distracted but I also have gotten good ideas too.
I keep twitter up on my sidebar using a firefox add-on then as I am researching or writing I may send a question to the community. I do similar questions via Myspae bullitins too.
Sometimes these questions can lead to new directions or even help expand on what I am writing or just finished writing. For instance what does making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich have to do with the music business. Some funny answers came from that one along with a couple of potential ideas. I also get to hear on Twitter about local social gatherings happening in the Real World great way to find out what others are doing.
Twitter can be a distraction, but so can email, stats, and comments. I think Twitter is fine as long as we have a little self control.
Twitter on the whole has been a definite plus. Firstly, I can tweet about little personal things that I generally keep off my blog. Secondly, I’ve changed my blog focus slightly because of the folks I’ve found on Twitter: I follow folks who are more “popular” and successful than I am, and learn quite a bit in the process.
Lastly, I get a big kick out of Twitterfeed: it’s very cool to be able to feed my posts on Twitter.
Overall, I’d have to say that Twitter has been a Very Good Thing, and I first learned about how it could be used for my blog right here on ProBlogger, so thanks!
Using TwitterFox keeps Twitter to be very “spur of the moment” for me, but having it across my blogs allows me to keep them updated and fresh with very little effort. So yeah, I think it helps.
I don’t use twitter much, but I do use it to announce new blog posts. I get quite a few hits to my blog from twitter. So to answer the question…I guess twitter enhances my blog by providing a bit more traffic.
It inspires me. I know that when I need to be really productive, I can turn it off. My blog post from today was inspired by my plurk friends – someone said they wanted more info about a comment I had made and thus, my post was born. I also get a lot more hits to my site when active on the social sites.
Ironically I was contemplating this very question today. And yes i distracts. My blogging has taken a dive and so have my visits. I can tweet from my iPhone. It’s to easy….
thank you darren.You always my make money online idol.Thanks for this article.
Twitter has all but killed my blog at points. I’ve reached a point where if I can fit it into 140 characters, why write a full post?
I’m working on getting out of that though. My blog misses me.
I have found twitter has inspired me to blog more. First, I have met some much more active bloggers as a result and that has led me to create an additional personal blog. Second, I have discovered a lot more topics to blog about on my professional blog because of the discussions on twitter. Third, because I can twitter via SMS, I can interact with others in circumstances when I wouldn’t be blogging anyway.
I use TweetBeep to filter my Twitters, so I can lighten up on the time I actually spend on Twitter. Interesting “twits” are emailed to me, based on my keywords. It’s really brilliant and saves me a heap of time.
Since I blog about social media, in particular the unique ways people are using it, I find Twitter and Plurk extremely inspiring. However, it does prevent me from getting things done around the house.
I find that, since most of the peeps on my Twitter list are also bloggers within, or close to, my niche, I get quite a bit of inspiration.
In fact, I wrote a post about how social media has helped me not only in my blogging, but in my work as a worship leader in general.
Twitter for me these days is what craigslist used to be…….constantly checking to see what’s changed…..
That said, I’ve made some great contacts there.
I’ve definitely been blogging less since Twitter. Much that would have been short blog posts go through Twitter now, leaving longer, more thoughtful pieces on the blog. It’s been an interesting transition figuring out which platform to write for.
Twitter has been great for me. I got to know a lot of good information from tweets. Made some good friends too!!
It can be quite distracting as time but definately better then plurk for me( maybe because I still haven’t figured out how to use it properly)
Yes, the answer is YES!
I am getting addicted to these micro-blogging services and really getting away from my daily blogging routine!
They are great for networking but i use them more than in a limit! But still i can’t blame plurk and twitter for that completely.
I wouldn’t say Twitter has distracted me from blogging, but it’s definitely reframed the way I blog.
I’ve noticed that I now lean toward a quick Twitter for several things I once would’ve blogged about – especially while traveling – so in that way Twitter is an outlet for little, spontaneous details that might otherwise have been destined for blog clutter.
Twitter is good. But, too much twittering is not good for our blogging life. I use twitter only to increase my blog’s readership.