Mike from Techcrunch (one of the top blogs in the World) mentioned in his post "I’m Sorry Robert, But It’s Time For A Friendfeed Intervention" in which he commented about Robert of Scoleizer (another great blog) for concentrating too much Twitter and Friendfeed instead of concentrating on his blog. Robert’s blog seems to be suffering from a less than frequent number of posts as compared to the past. So what are the points they made and what can we learn from their "battle"? It’s time to find out! Let’s check out the numbers first.
The Numbers:
RSS: Mike’s numbers way ahead of Robert’s
Friendfeed Robert’s 22,997 followers VS Mike’s 15,108 followers
Who has a greater sphere of influence? Although Robert have more followers than Mike, (which should be because Robert really put in quite alot of effort in building it up the numbers), I would say Mike’s influence is bigger because he reaches a much larger audience and readership from his World Famous Blog. Although I think that Robert would have an advantage when it comes to getting his contacts from Twitter and Friendfeed to react faster through his instant tweets and short posts.
So what’s the commotion about? Check out their two different views on the same matter here.
(1) "I’m Sorry Robert, But It’s Time For A Friendfeed Intervention" (Mike’s Techcrunch post)
(2) Scoleizer (Robert’s response)
Here’s my response that I posted on both of their sites, in which Robert replied in one.
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Hi Michael,
Just posted this on Robert’s blog, thought you might be interested to read what a supporter for both of you, thinks. *Smiles*
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Robert
Do take some time to read this, it’s not 140 words. It’s a blog commentI would think that both you and Mike have your own valid points, and I imagine that neither of you is wrong because each believes in different perspective at this point of time. But both of you are on a common topic, what is a better use of time?
Seriously speaking, I think Mike is trying to advise you to focus on the long term side of the equation minus the short term sacrifice effect (losing some blog readers due to less posts). He meant good, just it’s been made public. Good thinking topic though for the audience by the ringside *Winks*
How does the comparison goes?
It’s not totally comparable, A is A like Ayn Rand’s philosophy.
Blogging is A, FF and Twitter is B.Blog posts stay for a “very long time” on the web and is searchable, sort of running like autopilot. FF and Twitter posts have a short lifespan, it seems to me more like a Instant Messenge (MSN) on steroids, reaching those online with a single click and message.
Blog posts reaches people who are not (not yet) connected to you on Friendfeed and Twitter. You on the other hand, I would think have seen another side of things…two words, Potential and Enjoyment.
IMAGINE:
Let’s say a person has 50k RSS readers only (without any other social media sidekicks) and he writes a new blog post asking for action on a cause which needs immediate attention, let’s say donate to the Earthquake victims. Would it be useful by the time everyone on RSS (very very optimistic to say “every”, more like 30-40%) decides to read your post and by the time they react, like a week later, the sense of urgency in the post is already gone. Result, small impact.
NOW,
If the same person has 50k RSS readers, 50K Friendfeed friends, 50K Twitter friends and he writes a blog post about the urgency of the Earthquake situation, scheduled Tweets on Twitter around the clock (automated) and asks for action for his Friendfeed friends to action upon the situation. Ask them to DIGG, STUMBLEUPON, Propeller, Reddit and all that arsenal of weapons to up the rating of that post and because that person actually does chat with his friends on Friendfeed and Twitter, established a relationship and trust between a few thousand of his online friends over the years…
WHAT HAPPENS?
Like Warren Buffet’s book title…it snowballs, a small blog post followed by an avalanche of actions, some we may not even expect but because of the genius of one of your contacts, did something totally unexpected.
Using the Earthquake example, he may have a friend whose family in at the Earthquake zone and because he got the information quickly, he could assemble his own superman efforts to bring a whole gang of rescuers (who are not Techfans or use the internet regularly) to the scene. That would make an impact, perhaps save many more lives. (Trapped Earthquake victims need to be saved fast, the longer the delay, the less chance of survival.)
SUMMARY
Think of it this way, a Blog is like a Newspaper, a one way communication for everyone who is interested, Friendfeed and Twitter is like SMS to friends who exchange information, two way communication.
A post from a newspaper is like “Oic, that’s what happened.” while a SMS from a mobile phone is “OMG, let’s do something about it right now!”
To simplify things, I would think it is a wise thing to keep the “blog-newspaper” readership healthy enough to be satisfied, while growing the “Social Media-SMS” relationships close. As friends, we HELP each other, as readers, people tend to be observers and want to LEARN from you.
A solution? Perhaps turn those short Tweets and posts into a long enough Blog Articles at the end of the day as a summary.
So hurray, Robert can carry on doing what he enjoys and thinks if good, Mike can also carry on doing what he is good at and enjoys.
*Big Smile*
Be on friendly terms again my brothers
Your Friend from Singapore
Maynas Eric
http://twitter.com/maynaseric(posted this on Robert’s blog.)
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PS. Shake hands my brothers *Winks*
Please don’t start a competition of some sort to find out who’s right. (not advisable, if there’s a winner, there’s a loser) when the one who loses is going to lose in public, that’s no good for friendship *Smiles*
So what’s the verdict? Blog more often and Twitter, Friendfeed less? My thoughts, do both but it would be a good idea to build up an audience on Twitter and Friendfeed first, it’s much faster than gaining an audience for a blog. And when you get the audience, you can influence them to support your blog if it’s worthy of their attention.
What do you think?
