On Blogging Australia

Most human beings are social, most of the time. That is, they need some kind of social contact.

Bloggers are no different - whatever else we may do, we probably all still need to feel that we belong. Social computing tools help us stay in touch, to interact - and a popular one is Twitter.

Here’s what goatlady had to say about Twitter in a thread on the Aussie Bloggers Forum:

I use Twitter, but I think a lot of people don’t understand the real value of it. As someone who works from a home office, I find that having my immediate friends and colleagues on Twitter is like working in a building with all of those people. You might bump into them at the water cooler or in the elevator and have 30 second conversations - enough to know that they’ve seen a good movie or they’re really stressed out with a big deadline or they excited about an upcoming event or their dog is sick. Twitter gives me a general feeling of connectedness with my friends - regardless of whether they work across town or across the country or across the world. Of the 100 or so people I follow, only about half are active (posting more than once per day) and i don’t feel the need to catch up on posts I miss, mostly.

I used to use Twitter like this to stay in touch when working from home or blogging. Now, I find myself using the Aussie Bloggers Forum more and Twitter less - apart from being an admin (and needing to keep up with everything that is happening) I can get involved in longer conversations (i.e. I am not faced with the 140 character limit of Twitter). It fills the same niche for me - staying in touch - with some useful value-adds (like exchanging more detail when helping/being helped).

If you use both, which do you prefer, and why?