An Analysis of MicroBlogging on Twitter

An Account of My Experience Microblogging on Twitter

“Microblogging is a new form of communication in which users can describe their current status in short posts distributed by instant messages, mobile phones, email or the Web.” Java, A. 2007. Why We Twitter.

Since 2006, Twitter has taken off with over 330 million monthly active users in 2019. The social media platform is used to communicate with fellow friends or friends made online, to engage, to read news and politics, to keep up with fashion trends, discover new gossip and so on. It is a very open platform with the ability to talk about whatever — from wherever (whilst following guidelines).

As said in my previous blogs, due to the soaring rise of digital technologies, traditional print is suffering. According to Pew Research Centre reports, 55% of U.S adults now get their news from social media platforms.

Findings from My Experience of MicroBlogging

When tweeting regularly, I found that normally I use Twitter to talk to friends or to look up new trends. Most users I followed were friends or celebrities. I enjoyed being up to date with the celebrity gossip. This new Twitter account I created was solely for tweeting about news and politics which was happening in 2019/2020.

Taken from my Twitter account @AbbyLegg3, showing my bio

However whilst I was using Twitter, I discovered how popular it was to use the platform to talk about politics and debates. Users use it to discuss opinions. It was also seen that news channels use Twitter to report breaking news as soon as information was released. I found this really useful.

Positives

Taken from my Twitter account @AbbyLegg3, showing the ‘Trends for you’ element.

1. Keeping up with trends — It was easy to keep up to date when clicking on the ‘Trends’ tab, which I found really useful when looking at news, or celebrity gossip.
2. Ability to engage — When wanting to have a discussion with a user, it was really easy to do so. All you have to do is reply to a tweet, or create a new tweet with a mention in. (although difficult to engage with high profile users or those with thousands of followers).
3. The use of polls — this is a great tool to use when conducting research. If you have a following which is known to actively engage with your tweets it could be really beneficial.

Taken from my Twitter account @AbbyLegg3, showing an example of a poll

Negatives

1. Posting limits — I found when live tweeting, it was difficult if I came across something I needed to tweet about in depth (e.g. discussing Donald Trump’s controversial opinions). The character count is limited to 280 characters.
2. Exposure — It was difficult to reach an audience as a new account. I followed over 100 accounts, however it was tricky to get those to follow me back. Although I did occasionally get likes on my tweets when using hashtags or mentioning people in the tweets.

Wind-up

Overall, I feel I learned a lot from creating a new Twitter account and posting from a political and news point of view. I saw Twitter from a different side, as stated above — I usually use Twitter for communicating with friends.

Although I stated it as a disadvantage, I personally saw the character count as a good way to make tweets more to the point and concise. I also liked how freely people were able to talk and to post their own opinions, and although users may not agree with these opinions, many users learn to look at things from an unbiased perspective.

In conclusion, I think Twitter is a great platform to use for keeping up to date with news and politics. I feel it is also good when educating yourself on the worlds influential figures, as you can search their name and see their profile, as well as what other people have said about them.

It is a great platform to promote your blogs and to try strive as a journalism!