I've been using Twitter since July of last year, and have felt ambivalent about its use. My original account was created in July, and then abandoned because I didn't really know what the point of having one was. I started a new account in November, to promote links to my new blog articles and songs, as well as to network with like-minded individuals. I have found that much traffic comes from promoting articles/tracks on Twitter, plus some cool connections have been made through the site: that's how I got to interview Shok and had my music blog spotted and accepted into music.ology, for instance. Many of the most interesting users already have other sites, however, like personal websites, blogs or MySpace pages, where you can check out what they're up to anyhow, and unless they provoke good conversation or at least are good at witty one-liners, what you then might have leftover is a sea of people likely to tweet either into the air, or directly at you, stuff that you might not necessarily dig. Which is why, no matter how many followers you may be wanting to garner for whatever reason, do be sure to follow those who post items relevant to your interests! The most important, immediately discernible user of Twitter is that it appears to be becoming the central meeting point; that is, it doesn't matter if they're on Facebook and you're not, or they're on (heaven forbid, *cough*) Bebo and you're not, if you both have Twitters, you can converse and follow each other through that medium.

I started a Tumblr in June, and loved it immediately...I even have two other Tumblrs already, aside from my personal page; a Who Tumblr and a music video Tumblr that I work on with several other contributors. Tumblr is a drastically simplified version of traditional blogging (Blogger/Wordpress): you have 6 posting option, which are stext, photo, quote, link, chat, audio, video, and you can supplement them with additional text and source links as well. You can add tags to your posts, schedule them for a specific later date, or add them to a queue which will separate posts automatically by increments of minutes or hours. Though there are plenty of Tumblr users that use their 'tumblelogs' like ordinary blogs, it is more typical for there to be a continuous, semi-regular stream of posts. It is normal for many users of both sites to tweet and tumble all through the day, posting whatever interesting snippets they find, and possibly also promoting their own website through links, and engaging in dialog with fellow users.

Re-Tweeting (RT) on Twitter and reblogging on Tumblr allows for particularly notable pieces to spread in a small circle, or like wildfire, depending on how relevant/likable it may be considered. Re-posting material from other users is also a way of getting their attention- they might (and often do) follow you back based on regular re-tweeting/-blogging, though it helps to have an interesting stream of content in your own right, too. In the case of Twitter, this generally means establishing who you are and what you're about, which involves some self-branding (are you a musician? a businessman? an artist?) as well as finesse- after all, you've only got 140 characters per entry!

Posting links to new articles on your blog or at least to blogs that you frequent and find interesting, sharing your taste in music, books, and movies, and engaging in dialog with other users when they raise a question, or with any friends you may already have on Twitter (I guarantee that you personally know several Twitter users!) will help establish a steady following. Using Twitter's search and having a look at trending topics will give you a lot of insight on what the world is buzzing about at a particular moment, plus you can find new people to follow, too. If you establish the rhythm of following people that are interesting and aren't spammers, you up the chances of being a respectable information-sharer and/or an entertaining figure. The criteria for gaining Tumblr followers is much the same: establish what you're about through your content, follow those whose content you enjoy, and post your best!

My initial reaction to Tumblr was that it mirrored Twitter post-frequency, but with the focus on images instead of text. Your Tumblr dashboard is like your Twitter homepage, in that all of the recent posts from everyone you have followed appear there. The advantage is that you can search within dashboard posts; since Tumblr allows post tagging (unlike Twitter), you can find a great deal of relevant items through your dashboard, as well as searching Tumblr overall. Twitter lacks the capability to display pictures (involving clicking a TinyPic link instead, or similar), though they will show in full on Tumblr. The majority of tumblelogs center around picture posting and reblogging (you can even cite the source of the picture as a link, and add a description), though there are audio-centric and text-centric Tumblrs as well.

There still isn't a Tumblr 'for everything'. It didn't take me long to realize there was no Tumblr centered around The Who, even though a picture of Pete Townshend and Keith Moon that I posted in June was instantly 'liked' and reblogged quite a bit. So, I started one up, and it was quickly found by my new team members through searching 'The Who' on Tumblr. In this way, Tumblr is like a cross between Twitter and blogs: the post-streaming element begins to intersect with blog post-esque material, like photo shares, articles, and mp3s. On the other hand, no one would dream of actually using their Twitter profile as a blog...it's impossible!

Though many Tumblrs are continuously posted on through the day (with auto-posts often queued when they are away), some are updated at the same moderate pace of 'regular' blogs; Tumblr is fluid in this way. There are such a variety of layout designs to experiment with. For instance, at the A Future in Noise Tumblr, I only post videos, which all appear in little boxes on the main page. Upon pressing 'random', you're directed to a different video each time...like a channel! I queue up a bunch of videos I've found through YouTube, and reblog from videos posted at other Tumblrs for auto-posting when I am away from the computer. Like my other two Tumblrs, the success can be gauged roughly through 'Tumblarity' (a somewhat mysterious algorithm dependent on followers, likes, reblogs, and number of posts), and your Activity page, which shows the ratio of original posts to reblogs, your number of followers, and how you fair in your nation and overall.

Why compare Twitter and Tumblr at all? Despite some similarities, many of their functions are quite different. Link posts (and, ahem, shameless self-promotion) and brief 'life-stream' remarks form the bulk of what Twitter is about. This content exists on Tumblr, but is typically overshadowed by loads and loads of pictures. Which has its purpose: I personally love having my dashboard filled with, let's say...photos of Faris Badwan and Damon Albarn. But, unless the text of a title is bold, or at least particularly eye-catching or part of an image, text-based 'article' posts tend to get washed away amongst the flashier content. You can tell what's popular and what's not by checking through your posts: it will tell you who's liked them, reblogged, and, if you posed one, answered your question. With Twitter, Bit.ly tracking clicks has helped in deciding whether or not there's any use in promoting your content there, as well as RTs and @replies. The function of Tumblr tends to be entertainment>information, while on Twitter information>entertainment (erm, sometimes), though there is plenty of content on both ends, and combinations of the two. Despite the prevalence of teenagers to college age-users on both formats, there seems to be a desire amongst bloggers and business professionals to take Twitter seriously. Twitter, obviously, does have serious uses and is the most instant information-relaying service there is. And, as I mentioned, there are a number of users who are more entertaining, too. Sometimes 140 characters is a refreshing sip of info, that I can expand upon at my discretion, as compared to the huge gulp of a Google Reader and Tumblr dashboard chock full of sizable posts to weed through.

Why, then, has Tumblr not really reached a serious stage? It is perhaps even more strongly associated with the teen/college crowd, or else graphic designers and audiophiles, who aren't 'professional' in the stuffy traditional sense, and the frequent outpouring of images (un-moderated and without filtration, by the way) might seem unnecessary and intimidating to the Twitter crowd anyhow. That being said, I don't see how anyone familiar with blogging could pass up the opportunity to give Tumblr a try, for its distinct advantages in photo finding and sharing and the ability to find those of similar interests through tag searching and the directory.

There is still a danger of Twitter becoming a fad, what's more. There are people who will scoff at this now, but there are a number of outlets that serve the exact same purpose of Twitter; as stated earlier, what's unique to Twitter is that it is often the profile that 'everyone' has. Tumblr, as a dual blogging/post-whatever-you-

• flingstuff wrote ...

• at 19:52, Sunday 9 August 2009

"Nice piece. Likewise, I started a Twitter page and quickly lost interest... however, colleagues/ friends recommend it highly, so I do feel I missing out/ the point/ lazy."