Microblogging: the new way of blogging!
Have you ever posted something on social media? You are a microblogger! Do you want to know why?
What is a Micro Blog?
Most of you will know what a traditional blog, people writing about their interests, what they do on the daily, fitness tips etc. in order for other people to enjoy and learn from. The concept of blogging is altered however when we put ‘Micro’ in front, creating a Microblog. In 2007, as Beth Hendricks explains in her article ‘What is Microblogging: Definition & Importance,’ that microblogging officially started when twitter took over the social media platform and allowed people to publish their thoughts and feelings in just 140 words. Beth Hendricks also explains how twitter contextualises the main components of microblogging by stating, ‘Twitter itself was a convergence of sorts between the concepts of texting, instant messaging and mobile technology. The ability to text gave way to short, text-style updates’. Although other social media platforms such as, Instagram and Facebook are microblogging platforms, twitter is the most popular in microblogging due to the character restriction when publishing posts. All of these platforms allow for a difference in traditional blogging instead of having lengthy paragraphs, short snippets of content are used and published, making it quick and easy to read.
Microblogging has developed very fast due to the instant availability and accessibility. When posting on twitter, it is as easy as quoting somebody’s tweet and stating your own opinion and publishing to your own followers or even writing your own tweet speaking about current situations going on in the world on that particular day. This has become so popular due to no matter where you are or what you are doing, you can either read a microblog post or take part in writing your own.
Why are Micro Blog’s important?
No matter what we are doing, how busy our lives are, microblogs allow us interaction with the rest of the world by the click of a button. Microblog’s posts are quick and brief so allowing for a way of the public to learn new information daily and keep in interaction with daily news updates, keeping them connected to the outside world. Microblogging also allows for busy people to access social media, as Beth Hendricks states in her article ‘Microblogs are important because they allow us to connect with the world around us’, discussing how many people can share their thoughts not only from a smartphone but from multiple devices. Unlike traditional blogging, microblogging enhances blogging by publishing all types of content such as, weather updates, traffic news, sports news and many more, enticing the audience as everything is in one quick place!
Microblogs are great at catching the attention of well…just about anybody! Gifs, photos, videos, audio clips, creative colors are all used on social media. Microblogs publish content in ‘real-life time’, described in an article by Daniel Nations stating ‘combination of blogging and instant messaging that allows users to create short messages to be posted and shared with an audience online,’ being published in a consistent manner, providing us with content daily. This content is posted at particular times in the day and consistently throughout. In order to make the update easy and quick to read, the information that is included is short and snappy. Daily updates can tell many people at once what is happening in the world at that exact same time. In order to be able to post in ‘real-life time,’ with consistency, the posts do not take a long time to create like a traditional blog due to the length but the content is created quickly, allowing for the development of a quick and simple interaction with followers. In the day and age we live in, surrounded by technology, microblogging is ticking every box.
Microblogging and Me!
In November 2020, I set up three of my own professional blogging accounts, including Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. I started off with posting daily updates from news stories or including some of my own thoughts and feelings about what is happening in the world. Everyday, I posted Instagram stories, tweets, Facebook updates, including polls, videos, creating Instagram stories on apps such as Canva in order to make my social media aesthetically pleasing.
In addition to posting daily news updates, I enjoy thoroughly engaging in discussions in the comment sections, providing my own opinion of different updates. This showed me multiple other people think of what is currently happening in the world and differentiate between my own personal opinions and others. It was particularly thrilling when I commented on an update from on Twitter by Bournemouth Echo, discussing why Dorset doesn’t get regular snowfall, commenting how interesting and factual it was and Bournemouth Echo liked my comment. This was great as the interaction with the actual newspaper itself seemed very rewarding after engaging with social media for two months now. This proved to me that using social media in a positive way to learn about content I had recognized before but never truly engaged with, has made me aware of what my interests were and have sparked a new hobby for me.
Instagram has taught me how to produce creative posts and stories, containing a small amount of information in order to keep the reader interested. Engaging with Facebook in a different way, discovering features such as conducting polls and using stories to publish updates, has shown me how to use Facebook in a different way. Using Twitter daily has taught me to pick out the most important parts of articles to keep the tweets concise and publish what people really want to know, instead of posting large clumps of information making it hard to comprehend. This will help me in aspects of my life such as writing essays, applying for occupations and engaging in social media on a daily basis.
Although I have thoroughly enjoyed engaging with social media in order to start of my blogging, I have struggled with the amount of screen time needed in order to maintain my social media platforms. I have spent a huge amount of time on my phone, making sure I am posting enough on all three of my networks, making sure every blog is up to scratch and although it has taught me many amazing things it has also taught me to engage with what is happening in the moment.
In order to combat this issue of being constantly glued to my phone, I made sure I reduced the personal time that I usually engage on my devices and turned off my phone for a while and made myself read instead. This has cleared my head greatly and allowed me to engage better in my microblogs as I have focused my time on that, instead of how I usually spend time on my devices. Another struggle that I found since engaging with my own microblog was making sure I was providing enough information without providing too much! Although when using Twitter I learnt how to condense my writing down due to a character count, when deciding what stories to upload for Instagram, I struggled with keeping my updates to a minimum due to a no character count. As I have continued posting, I have learnt how to use skills that I have learnt when using Twitter and transferring those skills when using Instagram and other platforms.
I have learnt a lot since I started microblogging and I know I will continue to pursue all three of my accounts as my interest for blogging has soared since starting my blogs!
Check out my other socials to see what I have been talking about!
- Instagram- @olivianewswrites
- Twitter- @Livnewswrites
- Facebook- @OliviaNewsWrites
