Do you prefer to read the blog, grab the RSS feed of the blog, or follow me on Twitter?
And what do you think I ought to be writing on my blog, versus on twitter?
As I mentioned last month, I’ve been ‘tweeting’ (and even getting a bit of recognition for it!). Thus far Twitter gets a feed of my blog posts, so it’s a decent way to keep up on the deals and advice I offer here. And I post some minor deals and thoughts that don’t seem to ‘rise to the level’ of a blog post. For example I just tweeted a US Airways magazine sweepstakes for Bose Quiet Comfort 15 headphones. If it was a free set for everyone who signs up, I’d have blogged it, but…
Since I’m just figuring out the role that various parts of social media play, any thoughts are welcome.
Clearly Twitter forces you into a short-form, with 140 characters max, so referencing longer text (such as posts here) is useful. It tends towards the glib, but sometimes communication could use real streamlining. I haven’t figured out how to manage making sure I see all the tweets I want to yet, from all the people I want to, while avoiding the clutter.
Follow me if you wish, and your feedback appreciated.
Good question.
I have tried to follow some tweets in the past, like Rick Seaney’s, but to me they quickly become filled with crap. (Do I really care if a fare to Lubbock, TX has fallen in price by 7%??)
Tweets are only good for urgent, timely info, IMO. (Mistake fares and “Must act NOW. Just 5 left!” are good examples) Otherwise, for blogs like yours, I can get you on an RSS feed on my Yahoo homepage and that seems timely enough.
Maybe I’m missing something about all this twittering….
I agree with Ed.
I read most (90%) of my information download by subscribing to RSS feeds. The rest I read directly from individual blogs or websites. Twitter has way too much garbage. I feel that authors put a little more thought on their blogs than on their tweets.
I read the RSS. Much more convenient for busy people.
I don’t Twitter. I think it’s moronic. If it’s not in your blog I won’t read it…and I don’t think I’m alone in feeling this way.
i subscribe to many RSS feeds, yours included. i won’t follow twitter. just my two cents worth.
I’ve found Twitter to be very boring. I tried it for awhile, quite faithfully. It had way to high a noise to value ratio, and consumed a lot of time. I’ve just about given up on it.
I have three or four travel blogs I faithfully check each day including yours. I can power thru them in just a minute, more deeply dipping into any that are particularly relevant to my travel needs.
Then, again, perhaps it’s an age thing? I’m not the Twitter generation.
Hi Gary,
I am a fellow DC blogger, but I focus mostly on saving money every day, with a few travel hints here and there sprinkled in. My point, I use Twitter for the timely, this will expire soon-type info. The blogs are my chance to write a more lengthy post.
I have been reading your site since 2005 even before it became a part of BoardingArea, keep it up!
I’ve got my own (much more narrowly focused) blog. It’s available to read at the blog site; via RSS; or via email (I use feedblitz to send the posts to subscribers). Anyway, a few months ago I set up an online survey to ask readers how they were reading the content, and I was shocked that about 80% of respondents used the email option.
The point is, many people are surprisingly slow to adopt new technologies. Twitter is fine as an added heads-up for quickly expiring info, but it should all go into the blog as well. If you are worried about over-posting very minor stuff, you could combine them all into a single end-of-week (or end-of-month) blog post for assorted miscellany.
I don’t twitter so I definitely prefer to have all the info provided in the blog. Thanks very much
Gary,
I personally prefer all of the deals being posted to your blog. I don’t use Twitter, and would very much like to avoid using it. However using Twitter for some deals and posting others here forces me to use both Twitter and the blog (since Twitter can only link back here unless the deal can be explained in 140 characters or less).
I know there is an appeal in using Twitter for the exposure and very transparent access to who is reading, but I hope the number of “Twitter exclusive” deals can be kept to a minimum.
Twitter will soon be forgotten… it’s cluttered with garbage and I don’t think anyone follows it for more and 3-4 months… they are just getting new subscribers now so it seems like they are growing.
This blog is excellent, please post as much here as you can.
Thank you.