For me, is Twitter replacing blogs?

Hey guys,

@ArabicRihanna on Twitter asked a question from a while wondering if Twitter is replacing blogs? I’ll try to give an answer to that from my own perspective and leave the judgement to you.

In the last few months I had been more active on twitter than any other online tool, my first tweet had been Nov, 11th 2007 http://twitter.com/abdome/status/404692242 the point that you can get in touch with someone in 140 character and get to know others through that, which is amazing I guess.

As they say on Twitter.com themselves the current use of Twitter hadn’t been what they had in mind when they started the web service, so its developments seems to be community-driven and user-invented as people start and idea the site adopt it and make it much more easier, such as @user and the HashTags # which is amazing.

While a lot of people mention Twitter as a great tool for mainly; wasting time, others claim knowing some amazing people, building friendships and expanding their network through it.

I’m a social media professional and I’m getting paid for my advice helping clients use the tool to get business and give a good impression about the brands or individuals I work with. I’ll leave all the professional terms and just get a bit personal about my view point about Twitter and whether I’d leave blogging  to Twitter. You can find a lot of resources about that online, that’s why I’m entitled to my own experience.

Quality vs. Quantity?

When I first joined Twitter back in 2007, I knew it through Ecademy which is a business network, so my initial view of it has been an interesting new social media marketing tool.

As a Marketing tool, that in somehow have to do with business, I joined and followed a lot of business people until I got my stream flooding with impersonal posts, in most cases marketing pitch – anyway, that didn’t really encourage me to invest that much time on it, so wasn’t that active there.

I started really being motivated to use it with the #MuslimUnity campaign during last Ramadan the idea of connecting people in a practical activity seemed to made a lot sense. Real Personalities? and Genuine individuals to befriend? there is different opinions but it’s not the position to discuss that here. I personally hope to be more cautious!

I fall into the mistake of posting lots of Tweets in specific topic then getting back to the blog to collect them and create a post out of these Tweets, which seemed not awesome to my followers because of the nature of Twitter, it makes it seem like impersonating their experience and I’m stopping that with time. The point is that you have the ideas in mind and the fastest way to get it out is to Tweet it, but it’s not the most effective way.

Briefly, twitter is a great tool, it might take over sometimes and we give more attention to it, but at the end communicating real ideas needs more space than the 140 character that Twitter offers and thus still real content should be posted on Blogs and I’m taking that path here!

Thanks

– Abdo

You’ll become the books you read and people you hang out with

Hello Everyone,

Yes, right, choosing which media we expose ourselves to and which friends we hang out with is very important as that will determine who we’re going to be! Guys, pick the right friends and expose yourself to the media that will make you a better person.

I can relate to that in multiple phases in my life and I think in your own life as well. I find some who I thought to be conservative and practicing when they get withing a community that approve a specific negative behavior like flirting for example, they do indulge in that and change themselves by being a part of that community.

Regardless of how hard and may be offensive it might be to trim yourself from a community, it might be the only choice to keep going towards the goals you set for yourself at first place.

Be yourself and don’t be so easy to influence, chose your friends and media, ideas you expose yourself to. You only have the choice to be what you want and you’re deciding that NOW!

Thanks

– Abdel

TweetHope – Help the depressed on Twitter by @EleniHope

Hello Everyone,


Last night, I was getting a bit depressed out of what’s going in the world, my country and my life. So, I posted on Twitter “I’m depressed .. say something uplifting” I have got various responses from people I know on Twitter but got one from someone I don’t know and it wasn’t a POT.

She was EleniHope who after reading her Twitter stream and FormSpring link there, I knew she is a 15 YO girl from Ohio who dedicated her time to searching Twitter for keyword “Depressed” and “I hate my life” and she goes into conversations with people to uplift their spirit and make them feel good again.

Example of such a conversation is here:
http://twitter.com/EleniHope/status/16179162982

Then we got into a conversation:

@EleniHope It’s okay, I’ll join you for an hour or something in picking up on the depressed people, we can start a movement too
http://twitter.com/abdome/statuses/16179483090

@EleniHope Are you on Facebook? we can make a page and a HashTag and group people to uplift the depressed when they have time.
http://twitter.com/abdome/statuses/16179531042

@EleniHope So we can utilize your idea on a larger scale, what do you think?
http://twitter.com/abdome/statuses/16179557509

So, out of that simple gesture Eleni do on Twitter, late last night I started a site to get Tweets with words “Depressed” and “I hate my life” and will get similar words and combine them in a page, for people to get there and pick up a genuine conversation with these individuals and uplift there spirit.

The website is http://TweetHope.us and HashTag #TweetHope should be used to group people around the idea. I started a Facebook page and Twitter page for it, what do you guys think about the ideas and feasibility or expanding its use?

http://TweetHope.us

Thanks

– Abdo