The Case of Twitter v. Blogger (and Other PR Blog Jots)

Twitter Stats

Brand Flakes for Breakfast

Linking to an interesting post from Kottke analyzing the growth in the first 100 days of Twitter and Blogger, Darryl Ohrt wonders if a comparison of the two is relevant.  He points out not only that many people use both Twitter and blogs, but also that the growth contrast is hard to judge considering Blogger launched seven years ago.  He makes a good point; if you account for “Internet inflation,” perhaps the numbers (which show Twitter growing at an astounding rate early on with Blogger lagging behind significantly) would look somewhat different. “Pretty impressive to see what a force the web 2.0 nation has become. And yet the users of these tools are still in their infancy. The future is going to be awesome.”

Keys to Business Blogging

The Buzz Bin

Geoff Livingston offers practical advice for setting up a successful business blog, noting that to do so correctly takes a lot of time and effort. He deems blogging the most “mature” of the social networking platforms, and the one requiring the most effort to do well. He breaks down the key commitments all should consider before beginning any blog: financial commitment, time commitment and thoughtfulness. To lose out on any of these aspects may result in a stalled or abandoned effort, which many feel is worse than not beginning at all (as we all learned from the last State of the Live Web report, of the 70 million blogs, only 15 million or so are still active). “In some ways it would be better not to start at all than to be seen online with a big social media effort that simply disappears or stops with a static blog or a non-participating avatar. Most mature new media users have seen these failed starts, and are skeptical of newer entities online.”

Who is Really Using Web 2.0?

Social Media Club

Jason Chevrokas breaks down the PR blogosphere’s reaction to the results of the Pew study regarding Web 2.0 usage in the U.S., and disputes some of the study’s findings.  The study showed that nearly half of Americans rarely use high-tech “gadgets” or social networks, and that only a small percentage are heavy users of Web 2.0 technology.  Chevrokas points out that not only is the data a year old, but that the sample used to conduct the study was too small for the times we live in. He did note, however, that the demographic information at least seems accurate. “Some of it’s unsurprising–college educated, upper income, men are the most avid Web 2.0 participants. Omnivores, who “have the most information gadgets and services which they use voraciously to participate in cyberspace….,” have the youngest median age (28) among Pew’s strata. And among people with 10 years of online experience there are differing attitudes toward technology, but similar behaviors at least with respect to Internet data usage, although only the so called “omnivores (8%) are avid users of digital media entertainment technology.”