Mullenweg Speaks Out on Twitter, WordPress and the Question of Competition
After recent comScore data showed Twitter stats leveling off as WordPress traffic continued to grow, some bloggers framed the results as an either/or proposition; if one platforms wins, the other loses.
WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg has weighed in on the subject, stating that the interaction between microblogging and what he's calling "megablogging" is hardly a zero-sum game. "It's not really a 'versus,' it's an 'and'," he wrote.
"One of the many uses of Twitter is to link to and promote your blog posts (and other people's blog posts,)" he continued. "As we grow, so do they, and vice versa."
Here's a chart showing data similar to comScore's:
As you can see, Twitter.com's growth rate for unique site visitors is slowing, while WordPress.com's site stats continue to grow. Does this signal the supposed "death of blogging" trend is coming to an end? Mullenweg certainly doesn't think so.
He notes that because the question is more one of cooperation than competition, the folks at WordPress are actually trying to create more opportunities for overlap between various platforms. "Features like WP.me, post by email, Twitter publicize, RSS Cloud, P2, email subscriptions, and more stuff in the cooker is trying to tie these things together more because people who do one are highly likely to do another," he said.
Moreover, many readers would question the validity of data for Twitter.com, since the website is, for many users, a secondary or even tertiary method of accessing the service. Between mobile and desktop apps, stats for Twitter.com really don't reflect how many people are using the service.
Should comScore and other domain statistics analyses be thrown out of these conversations? 'I would say they probably are precise but not accurate," wrote Mullenweg. "For WordPress.com, they don't count the custom domains or RSS readers; and for Twitter they don't count API usage or desktop clients."
Ultimately, comScore data are one way to compare site traffic, but in the age of APIs, they're hardly useful for tracking the actual number of active users for a particular service.
So, we're curious to know, do you blog, tweet, or both? And are you more likely to use Twitter.com or a mobile or desktop application? Let us know, and give us your feedback in the comments.
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The voting for "how do you use twitter" isn't comprehensive enough. I use twitter from both a desktop and mobile client but there is no option to vote for combinations.
I second Paul's vote. I also use combinations. Of all three in fact.
Though I use the desktop more often than mobile; I use Brizzly, HootSuite, and Seesmic for Blackberry since they support Twitter Lists. Brizzly for its "endless stream", HootSuite for scheduled tweets and multi-columns/multi-tabs, and Seesmic for mobile (Seesmic is also available for Android).
And I hit twitter.com to do a Native Retweet--since no 3rd party app supports it yet.
I have always used more than one access point to twitter. I use HootSuite, Brizzly, TweetDeck and twitter.com to use twitter. On the road, I just use the twitter.com site because it actually works on my semi-antiquated phone.
Agree with others; I use seesmic for Blackberry, Yoono on desktop, and Twitter .com to maintain twitter account. WordPress & twitter are great combination tools. Each supports the other for me.
Duh..
I am anxious to see what 2010 has in store for Twitter. I noticed that activity on the popular microblogging site has slightly decreased in recent months, but I am still confident in where Twitter is today and where it will grow and wander tomorrow! What are your thoughts?
I use both my blackberry and my desktop depending on the type of work for twitter. I post comments on both blogs and twitter. WordPress & twitter are definitely great combination tools.
I think twitter and wordpress make a perfect combination.
With twitter, I sometimes get too lazy to blog though - and i need to watch out for that - to consolidate my thoughts and write them as a longer post and not just sum it up in 140 characters.
I used to use Hootsuite for Twitter, but when extensions were released for Google Chrome I started using something called Chromed Bird!
Will this WP integration with Twitter only be for Mac-users? I read somewhere that it was Tweetie.
Posted by: https://me.yahoo.com/divinefluff#69e7b
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December 12, 2009 12:22 PM
no matter how you measure it.. people are connecting more than ever
I started a twitter account some time ago, but only really got going with the service when I installed Yoono, a WordPress add-on that shows my twitter activity in a sidebar (like the popular Delicious add-on). Twitter and WordPress work really well together. Twitter allows me to connect with others quickly and to locate interseting sites, and WordPress makes it easy to blog about my findings. This is how I rediscovered the Read Write Web site. I'm now following Richard MacManus on twitter. Works for me.
@mark_mcguire
markmcguire.net