Tweeting with Value and Blogging to Compliment it

The other day we talked about blogging for business, and how it was the last thing on the list of social priorities for most businesses according to data presented by eMarketer. Of course, we have also repeatedly discussed various business benefits to the use of Twitter.

In many ways, tweets are like blog posts, only smaller. In fact, that is why from the early days of Twitter’s existence it has been referred to as a "microblogging" service. When I wrote an article for WebProNews asking people to describe Twitter in one word, that was the word I used.

When you look at Twitter and tweets like this, you can put one category of Twitter use into perspective. DailyBlogTips has an interesting article up about six rules of blogging that also apply to Twitter. While the article by Glen Allsopp goes into details to elaborate on each of these points, the points are:

1. Provide value
2. Don’t flood readers with posts
3. Take part in the conversation
4. Make your blog unique
5. Make it easy for readers to connect
6. Make content easy to read

Now applying each of these to Twitter (to paraphrase Allsopp’s Twitter tips):

1. Don’t just link to your site all the time. Help out other people too.

2. If you tweet to frequently, people will probably unfollow you.

3. Get to know people and talk to them.

4. Create a unique profile design.

5. Tell people about yourself through your bio. You can also do this with a link and a specific landing page of your choice

6. While in the confines of 140 characters, try to write clearly. Multiple messages can work in some cases.

Now Back to Blogs. Another reason to use a blog that I didn’t mention in the last article was because they can help you in the search engines. Thomas McMahon at Blogger Design says, "Blogs tend to perform better because of the abundance of content. Blogs empower users to create content in a way that is easy and fun. By doing so, users are creating content on a daily, or weekly, basis."

While tweeting has plenty of benefits and opportunities, it is still unwise to ignore blogging in many cases. Actually, the two channels can compliment each other wonderfully.