Twitter Meets The Blog

How can we merge micro and major blogging?

Twitter, the now nearly de facto micro-blogging platform is great for what Olivia Mitchell has called twitterbites - a pithy and smart statement that summarizes a point, starts or continues a conversation. On the other hand, blogs are a great platform to develop a thought more fully and allow a collection of comments.

So, we have two excellent ways to converse - one more simultaneous and real time, the other more asynchronous and linear. If there were no link between the two, all would be fine. But tiny URLs create a bridge between the two worlds; spawned by a reader who found the post interesting or the author wanting to publicize the topic.

If I think a about a twitter-blog interface (and thanks to Danny Brown for provoking this line of thinking) - I see a potential for a different form than the traditional linear Post-Comment model of blogs.

A good post usually makes several points that warrant discussion and feedback. So rather than asking for comments on the whole thing what about calling out 'headlines', bullet points and comments as tweetbites - individual elements that can be sent to Twitter to move the conversation to that platform? This suggests that a post should have multiple links, each to various parts of the post, rather than one top level link.

Now this would probably change how we write - our English teachers may cringe. But if Google and Twitter are training us to scan rapidly and think in chunks then why not extend this to blog posting and put 'tweet this' throughout the post? This would also provide a way to find which elements of a post generate the most interest.

Another thought, a blog should capture the twitter stream of the comments linking to the post itself. That way we could see both worlds at the same time. Something like Cover it Live for example.

Breakfast at Denny's

Would Audrey Hepburn have gone this morning?

Today was give America a free breakfast - sponsored by Denny's. Here in Salt Lake at 7:15 this morning the wait was 40 minutes, the service great, and the experience interesting. Talking to people in the restaurant and checking out Denny's on Twitter provides a wealth of insight.

1. Something novel will spread like wildfire, even if it is announced on the Super Bowl. Proof that a 'big seed' marketing approach works.
2. It isn't about the pure economics of the offer - a $6 meal where the only choice is 'how would you like your eggs?' isn't exactly the best sale ever announced. But thousands of people went.
   
3. The staff at my location exhibited pride in executing what has to be an 'atypical' shift. I don't know what announcements, training, etc. they got - but they pulled it off.
4. It almost turned into a social event. I think they could have taken the opportunity to get people seated together to fill tables (like Europe). There were two people at a 6-top; should have been used to start conversations.