Twitter - and your words - to the rescue

I love it when I read something that sums up what I'm thinking before I have acquired the language to describe the thought. Happened to me twice this week - once with a Twitter status -- deep vs echo blogging - and once with a thoughtful post on why you pick up a community when you follow an individual. Then, of course, we could talk about those posts that describe the trend I've picked up only on a subconscious level until ....

Hugh MacLeod helped out in his Twitter on "deep or echobloggers" He uses the phrase to describe the differences between bloggers. Some contribute something original, or at least thoughtful to the blogging world. Others merely repeat what's already out there.

Yeah. That's a way of describing bloggers.

Look at those bloggers who share the links of the day/week/month with no commentary. Contrast that with a blogger who explains why the links are worth pursuing.

I'm struggling with blogging - yeah, see how often I write :) Part of it is I don't want to be an echo-blogger. We seem to have enough of those judging by my RSS reader that gets stuffed with duplicated posts

It takes time to be a deep blogger though. It takes time to pull together patterns, thoughts not fully explained by others. It takes time to stay on top of what's happening, of spotting trends.

Heck, I've sent more than 300 draft thoughts over here. But I let myself be paralyzed by the thought that it might already have been said. Or is it the chain that journalists don't share opinions?

It's similar to an argument I first had with Twitter. Why would anyone care what I'm doing?

Fortunately, what I've learned they may not care what I'm doing* but I care about the conversation that leads to knowledge when you follow the right Twitters.

I've also learned that it is not enough to follow, you need to contribute.

And you need to follow enough people to contribute to the conversation. (thanks to Richard Azia, who has a whole Twitter category in his blog.)

By the way, that blogging about Twittering is a whole 'nother trend,according to another Twitter'er - (Mathew Ingram) - who noted the "Twitter seems to be one of those things that people write about almost as much as they actually use."

Yeah, I've noticed that. It's almost as common as complaining about how often Twitter goes off the grid.


* About the not caring - well, some do and even that surprises me.

People who follow me because I followed them often share comforting words when the MS Monster threatens to suffocate me.

Sometimes, it is those folks I have never met who are alert enough to my patterns to recognize when MS might be sneaking out. They alert me to Twitters that do not resemble the English language. Or stop me when the Pity Party goes on too long.

Thank you.