I still see discussions about whether blogging or microblogging is the better choice for bloggers. I see them as entirely different things!
In a recent article posted by Fast Company, Jared Newman talked about how he turned his blog into a “social media hub.” He explained how he’s answering the blogging or microblogging question with a hosting service.
First, it’s worth discussing the difference between the two concepts.
Blogging, as you probably can figure out, involves a blog. This site you’re reading right now is a blog and this article is a blog post. Different bloggers have different length goals for their posts. I try to shoot for a minimum of 300 words in a blog post, since that seems to be a sweet spot for search engine optimization. My average post length is probably closer to 400-500 words, though some have gone well above 1,000.
It depends on how much I feel the need to say.
Microblogging, on the other hand, is what most of us just call “posting on social media.” It involves the shorter posts we’re familiar with on sites like X, Instagram and even Bluesky. In most cases, those of us who post on social media don’t get much of a choice when it comes to “microblogging.” Most social media platforms impose character limits on individual posts. Most, as far as I know, don’t allow single posts to be more than about 300 characters. But it does vary platform to platform.
So which is better? It’s complicated
Here at this blog, I might give you a 850-word article explaining blogging and microblogging. But on a social media channel, I might show a photo of my dog or show you a sample of what I had for lunch.
The former is perfectly appropriate for a blog.
The latter, though, really isn’t. At least, not for this blog. I can’t make myself do a post devoted to a photo with only one or two lines. Sure, in the earlier days of this blog, I did shorter posts. I even had a photo blog that was devoted to pictures I took and an all-too-brief write-up. But that was before social media sites like Instagram.
While people who want to read about blogging might come here to read my take on microblogging, I can’t imagine people would make the effort to come here to see what I had for lunch. While that “food porn”-style photo might do well on social media, I don’t see it as a big draw for a blog. The obvious exception would be if you operated a recipe or food blog. But even then, SEO dictates that you should still have a well-rounded text post to accompany the photos.
There’s a phrase I’ve used many times before: Your mileage may vary. I know of bloggers who are focused on photography and they will center their posts on a recent photo. They’ll do a short write-up. They built their following doing so.
I don’t mean to be critical of them at all. I understand that they know their audience better than I will. At the same time, I know my audience after 20 years. I know which posts work here.
Those who do well with the shorter posts have a different audience than I do. Their mileage does vary. I get that.
Service posts everything from blog to social media
Newman says he’s using a hosting service called Micro.blog. As I understand it, it hosts your blog. Then when you post anything from a quick thought to a long post, it crossposts to social media sites.
So if you do a two-line post about what you ate for lunch on your blog, your social channels like Mastodon, Bluesky and Threads automatically receive the same post.
I suppose some might find appeal that you can mimic everything you do on your blog on your various social accounts. I don’t happen to share that point of view.
To me, your blog should be the place where your big thoughts go. The superfluous parts of your day belong on social media. That’s why social media isn’t a blog and why your blog isn’t social media.
They’re different products and they attract different audiences.
That’s not to say that if I took a photo I was very proud of that I’d posted to Bluesky, Instagram and Threads, that I wouldn’t consider doing a blog post about it here. But for that post, it’d be a long write-up. I’d tell you about the photo rather than just showing it with a quick line or two.
I use a service called Fedica to automatically post links to my new blog posts on social. (At the moment, I’ve dropped those posts on Mastodon and am considering suspending them on X soon, too. But whenever there’s a new post here, its link goes to Bluesky.
In between those new posts, there are other links and other thoughts that go to social.
Not here.
Different product. Different audience.
That’s what makes more sense to me.