Is Twitter Killing Blogs and Blogging? was the question posed by Mark Evans.
My sense is Twitter is emerging as a vibrant alternative to bloggers and blog readers. Some bloggers who may find the grind of writing daily are now able to share their thoughts in quick bursts on Twitter, and still feel like they are contributing and cultivating their digital brands.
Twitter has become a quasi-RSS reader where people gain access to the information (news, blog posts, services) they see as valuable without having to visit blogs directly or use an RSS reader. Many of these people are still using blogs but perhaps not as actively.
Evans also points out that the blogosphere is becoming increasingly competitive as reader-generated content keeps on getting pumped out, especially from the leading bloggers who now employ teams of writers.
It is still the case that, if you blog well and think about search-engine visibility, you can ensure your blog posts will get traffic particularly via the search engines. They are still much beloved by the current Google algorithms.
A much more important factor that Evans does not mention is that the online world is going increasingly mobile. Twitter status reports are ideal for a mobile device. This rapidly changing scene in terms of the typical screen size that audiences are using is critical.
With most people thinking from a desktop PC mindset, they don’t get the message. It is not that Twitter is killing the blog. It is that small screens are taking over from big screens. Make your blog post more Twitter-ish and you’ll do well whatever the screen size.
