Search Engine Optimisation Web Log (BLOG)
Editor: Matt Paines

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Twitter vs Blogging

Whilst we hear about Twitter all the time, and that Twittering has grown dramatically in recent times, it is still hard to grasp how it can be best used particularly for business except for promoting Blog and News events.

It wasn't that long ago that as an internet marketer, I was telling clients they need to blog, business users found this difficult but when you consider many of them were already building much of the content through their PR departments and by adding general industry News content as well they had the makings of a "blog".

Social media is the new big thing, or so many would have us believe, and yes to a degree YouTube and Facebook (among others) are excellent channels. Twitter however for the ordinary business is not so easy to see unless you have a lot to say.

If you consider Twitter is essentially microblogging, 140 words written at an instant in time about "what are you doing?". Whilst Facebook is more about personalities it has been utilised to a degree by business, Twitter is more about personalities, if you have a profile through politics TV or other then developing a following is reasonable easy. But to develop a following if you are none of these is a little more difficult and even more so as a business - particularly B2B.

Interestingly "Number 10" are using it to reasonable effect although their coverage of the recent budget was a little scrappy, what if you are a manufacturer of roof tiles supplying to wholesalers, should you be Twittering, Blogging or a bit of both?

So how do you get a following in Twitter, and is Twitter any better than a Blog or News Feed or should it not be considered in isolation? As an experiment I'm planning a trip on a motor bike to France starting tonight, to the Le Mans MotoGP specifically.The aim will be to Blog and Twitter on the trip "LIVE" via a mobile then review the visitor stats and "follows" to try to establish which attracts the most activity and their sources (will publish findings at a later date)

Whilst far from scientific, more of a publicity stunt than a serious news piece, I think the exercise is worth doing, if for nothing else than to present a more clearly defined role for the different social media activities and how traffic migrates.

The trip starts 5am tomorrow morning. You can follow our progress at http://www.gpbiketours.co.uk or at http://twitter.com/mpaines

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