How has Twitter helped or hurt your blog?

I can't imagine how Twitter could hurt anyone's blog unless maybe you made your Twitterfeed public on your blog and posted something that offended your readers.

Twitter has helped my blog in that it spreads the word about what I write about. In the case of my TypePad blog, Forever A Fangirl, I write about entertainment and pop culture that I enjoy or sometimes endorse because I like it. Twitter sends people to my blog by making them aware of what I've written. And yes, I do keep track--through bit.ly currently. I also get many story ideas and leads by following sources in the know as I'm a very small fish in a huge pond.

On the topic of Twitter however and this is tangential to the query, since I do a very little bit of sponsored-post writing on this blog and now am starting hand-picked-by-me reviews of music that I'm interested in, I do follow some people who are shall we say, in similar businesses--that of selling. If I wanted to really go off on a tangent I could say that we are all in the business of selling if we desire an audience. If we don't care then really we are just keeping a journal.

Anyway on the business tweeting, I'm  sort of in a conundrum because a number of people including ironically, the guy that asked this question, are tweeting too much for me. I'm finding myself scrolling through so many of their tweets that it's feeling like clutter. And if I was not interested in a tweet the first time I'm not going to be interested in it the next time when it is re-tweeted or the third time, for that matter. I realize I've accidentally double-tweeted but as soon as I'm aware of it I delete the extra tweet. I don't think you should re-tweet your own post unless it's really good.

I'm afraid that Twitter will soon reach critical mass where there is just so much "noise" and that it will become less effective. Maybe that is already happening. I'm quite sure that this social media platform like others will began to fade and that something will take it's place: think MySpace, Facebook, some say Google--though obviously Google still retains a lot of power-- yet it's getting less buzz than Twitter (I read that headline in my Twitter stream today).

I consider Twitter "of the moment" as I do many things Internet-related. There will be a time when it is no longer of the moment and the next big thing will be what the early adopter segment of social networking platforms is abuzz about.

Comments

[Cyn]

Hi Dan!

I agree. I'm still waiting for the real deal. Doubtful it will be Twitter but for now Twitter serves its purpose within the boundaries to which it is confined.

[Dan]

I am not convinced that Twitter in its current form is sustainable. I think it is a valuable, real-time medium but there is a lot of clutter out there. This is the beta. The real deal is yet to come.