Macro / Micro WHAT?! Ok, Let’s refer to it as Twitter vs. Blogging. That should help a little but could still leave a bit of haze for companies still trying to figure this out. Starting at the beginning:
Blogging:
- Our definition – ability to self-publish content digitally (usually to the web).
- Wikipedia says – A blog (a contraction of the term “weblog“)[1] is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order.
Now the difference between micro vs macro, or little vs big, or short vs long. Usually Microblogging tools refer to Twitter, Yammer, or even status updates on Facebook or LinkedIn and has a limited amount of characters that you can use (twitter is 140 characters). Macroblogging tools refer to traditional blogging tools such as WordPress, Typepad, Moveable Type and does not have a limit to the post sizes.
That is the What, now for the Why. Blogging (referring to Macro) is a great way to distribute and categorize content. Like a personal content management system that does not require anything but entry level technical understanding and a web-browser. Blogging is a great way to express expertise on a subject or product in detail and allow some interaction through commenting. This type of interaction is usually a bit more delayed. Microblogging on the other hand, is much more immediate in nature and provides only snippets of information. Companies are beginning to use microblogging for more than pushing content. We are seeing great examples of customer service, near real-time direct communications, and others.
So what should your company be doing? How should you be integrating these styles of communicating into your traditional mix? Liz Strauss will help us work through these issues and more this week during the #socialmedia chat. Liz is adored in the industry and has truly set a gold standard for quality content and interactions at both a micro and macro blogging level. We look forward to learning from Liz’s wealth of experience and professional insight for companies. The topic and questions will be:
Macroblogging versus Microblogging
1) Do they require the same skillsets?
2) Are the objectives and strategies the same?
3) Does micro vs. macro work better from dept. to dept. do the same rules apply?
4) Do the same rules that apply to corp. blogging policies apply to corp. twitter policy?
As you can see we have 4 questions this week so we will run 15 minutes per question. Get ready as this is sure to be a well attended event and will surely go quickly. Tuesday 8/11 noon EST for 1 hour. Mark it down, see you there!
Microblogging is so addictive. I like to Twitter everyday with my friends and talk about just anything. I also have some blogs but i update frequently my Twitter more than my WordPress blog.