I like to think of of Twitter as the light infantry and blogging as the heavy cavalry. I’ve heard others talk of Twitter as a cocktail party and blogging as a place where a couple of friends, for example, get together to have a good, long chat (the analogies are imperfect, I know).

Twitter isn’t, or shouldn’t, generally, be a rival to blogging. Rather Twitter should partner blogging. Twitter is a good place to meet new people and to, indirectly, point people to your blog. It’s in your blog that people get to see see how you think in terms of strategy, arguments, general ideas, and so on. Twitter just can’t do that (or, at least, to the same degree). Also, the blog has moved on from just offering opinions. The blog has, in many cases, been developed into much more than just a blog: a website with videos, podcasts, resources, and so on, not just personal opinions.

So the (new) blog allows audiences not just to get to know how someone thinks (strategy, arguments, general ideas) and so on, but, also, provides a window into the brand’s brand story, as well as providing useful hints/tips/resources to audiences. Twitter can, also, provide a window into a brand’s brand story and provide useful offerings – but in a different way to the blog.

One thing Twitter can do brilliantly, though, that the blog cannot compete with, is offering people the opportunity for quick-fire, creative-thinking sessions or just to exchanges ideas in general that can then be refined and developed in the quiet of one’s own time. Twitter can, also, provide marketers with the opportunity to find out information (about market places, consumers, and so on) that might take a lot longer to find out on one’s own blog, for example.

Do you think that Twitter is a partner to, or rival of, the blog. What analogies do you like to use for Twitter and blogging?

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