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Would you Prefer More Blog Readers or Twitter Followers?

Posted By Darren Rowse 14th of March 2009 Reader Questions 0 Comments

I’m running this poll over at TwiTip but thought it’d be interesting to run it here on ProBlogger too as the topic is relevant to both audiences and I was curious to see if there would be any difference in the responses on the two blogs (given their topics cover the two options.

Which do you value and prefer most – Blog Readers or Twitter followers? And why?

{democracy:43}


Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. Depends on what business you’re in. If you have a media business model, a blog post offers more engagement (which translates into revenue via ads or some other kind of media-based monetization).

    But if you’re marketing physical goods, Twitter can spark a more immediate call to action (that is, it can drive demand and generate sales through other channels).

    Most of the comments here suggest Twitter is just for fun, more of an indulgence than a business practice. For me (doing online media for a product manufacturer), it can be the opposite — the blog is a great place to provide information for the record, but Twitter is what sparks the action.

  2. Twitter is just the newest for of IM…it’s strong now but will probably fail in a few years when the next new shiny thing comes out. Nothing beats content and blogs are where the content is.

    I think Twitter as it is is a great compliment to a blog for certain people and niches and should be used to it’s fullest but with only 140 characters it’s very limited.

  3. This can’t be a serious Poll! Twitteris useless for most people that do the follow me follow you thing. Darren gets alot out of Twitter because he doesn’t follow many people. He uses it get his word out and he doesn’t really care what his followers tweet about unless they are answering his tweets.

    Take someone that follows 15,000 people and has 15,000 follows. Do you think that this user reads the stream? He will read stuff in his middle column on TweetDeck and that is it. I have 800 followers but I can’t remember the last time I read a post in the stream. So if I’m following you then sorry, I’m only doing it so you follow me and maybe you’ll see something I tweet. And that’s what most people do. Follow millions of people so they get followed back not to read their nonsense but to hope that someone reads their nonsense. Seriously. :)

    If you want a GOLDEN Twitter tip and I mean pure gold it is this. Follow people that follow less than 100 people and if they follow you back you have a much better chance that they’ll read something you tweet.

    Or you could spend 5 hours retweeting some Twitter “stars” in the hope they’ll notice you and reweet you to their 20,000 followers. But (a) they ain’t gonna see your tweet and (b) who’s reading the stream anyway.

    Oh yea, Twitter is awesome therefore follow me.

  4. blog readers of course …. because we can monitize it :)

  5. Blog readers. It’s a better forum for information sharing. Twitter is too limiting.

  6. I would choose more blog readers. They are more helpful if you want to monetize your site.

  7. Definitely more blog readers. Even if you don’t monetize, there is still the relationship that you build with your readers, and the exchange of ideas and information. I think most people read blogs with more objectivity than those who simply race through tweets.

  8. I would more prefer to have more blog readers than twitter readers. Having more people coming to your blog is important if you want to be able to make money online from it.

  9. I would choice blog readers also, twitter followers are handy tho.

  10. Twitter complements my blog, not competes with it. So while it would be nice to have lots of twitter followers, which might even lead to more blog followers, but the ultimate goal is to maximize my blog readership.

  11. There’s no contest for me, id’e choose blog readers over twitter any day of the week. But if you use twitter to its full extent then it can be a very powerful tool, as we all know from the social experts who have thousands of followers.

    I think twitter is a bit like StumbleUpon where users are just surfing for the fun of it and are not serious about traffic or any lasting relationship with your blog.

  12. Blog readers for me! I like twitter but the blog is where I would want to be at and the readers would be even better.

  13. Well, I know I’m going to sound blasphemous, but I hate Twitter. That is just not how I think, getting disconnected information from a bazillion people at once. I tried all sorts Twitter organizers and applications, but it just wasn’t working. Finally I realized that i was spending way too much time trying to make Twitter work for me, so I finally deleted my Twitter account. Maybe my blog will never take off because I’m not on Twitter, but if Twitter is a requirement for blogging, then I’m just not cut out for blogging.

  14. I’m pretty sure that a value of a blog reader (subscribed to RSS/e-mail) is way higher than a value of a Twitter follower.

  15. Depends upon how I eventually connect with them.

  16. Hopefully my blog readers find ‘a safari feeling’ on my blog and not the ‘fast-first world-run-and-filter-feeling’.

  17. Blog readers of course. That’s why I write a blog is to get readers and people who respond to what I write. I can’t write what I want in 140 characters and gain a community of readers. At least that’s my opinion.

  18. I think that blog readers are more more more important then Twitter followers. Mainly because many times your followers are not willing to interact with you. And if you are talking by yourself it’s no fun. Many Twitter users concentrate to open discussions with power users that have thousands of followers, hoping they’ll attract some attention from all this and get some more followers for themselfs.

    This is another problem with Twitter : the fact that you can’t really talk to someone that has so many followers. If I want to talk with Matt Cutts I’m not sending him a message on Twitter : I go to his blog and post a comment. It’s much more easy and the discussion can became much more interesting and also could lead to some benefits not only to me but for others that will visit the blog.

    Thanks,
    @TomaBonciu

  19. I would prefer more blog readers. A lot of my ideas come from reading other blogs and also from the posts and comments on our own. I enjoy the research involved in writing blogs and there’s always something new out there that just doesn’t show up on Twitter, which has more of a fast paced, leave a quick comment and move on style. I find that blog readers and writers tend to spend a little more time thinking things through.

  20. i choose blog readers for sure.

    twitter is fun and sometimes can be used for discussion but it’s not effective enough as the comment for the specific post itself.

  21. Where’s the “Twitter followers who have any interest what-so-ever in anything I have to say” option?

    The other day I voted in some poll for a person who I’d DMd with. Their response? “Thanks for the vote, now let’s get to know each other.”

    Coulda been some sort of auto response I guess.

  22. I would say blog readers by far, Twitter is just a fad in my opinion since before long they will have to find a way to monetize their traffic and it may hurt their system. Also just like Myspace and Facebook after awhile it kind of loses its luster. With a blog reader you can monetize as well as keep them coming back for years.

  23. Blog readers for me – Twitter is great, but is more for lots of bite-sized pieces of information. It’s on my blog where I get to go more in-depth.

    Actually, ideally, I’d like blog readers who also connect with me on Twitter :)

  24. Hi Darren,
    I would rather have more blog readers. I’m almost ashamed to tell you that I have not even begun to scratch the surface of Twitter’s potential. I also try not to spend too much time on the internet, so I sit down, write content, read the blogs I’m interested in, comment on a few, and then leave the computer, if I can. So I may write a few tweets during that time, but I am by no means an all-day tweeter, and I am working on changing that. My blackberry has always given me trouble installing a twitter client, so I use it to write a few tweets as instant messages and I have the tweets of a few close friends forwarded, but I cannot follow the twittosphere at large.
    Maybe when Santa brings me an iPhone… hint hint!!!

  25. I prefer more conversation, where ever that takes place, ultimatley twitter and the blog have to work together. wrtie a blog post, post on twitter, get the conversation and readers to the blog from twitter. Ultimatley you have to merge both efforts

  26. Twitter is fun, but I think of if more as a vehicle to point qualified visitors to my blog, and thus my website, where the whole story resides. That’s my end goal.

  27. Twitter is the water cooler, while the blog is the conversation.

  28. Twitter really doesn’t translate well for many topics, mine included. I am too cheap to pay for text messaging, so don’t see any big reason for me to sign up, for Twitter yet. Never say never, but I donn’t think I’ll be using the service, in the near future.

  29. Blog readers first, followed by twitter.

  30. My assessment is based on the number of comments I received on my blog. For the same period of time that I have used Twitter, I still get more readers from BlogCatalog and more referrals from Stumbleupon who comment and interact, and we become blogging friends.

    Twitter updates are however, very informative and more relevant for developing personal websites. It is useful for bloggers who want to take it to the next level of online internet presence.

    “Content is king”, the vote goes to “having blog readers”.

  31. Blog readers of course.

    It is easy for someone to follow you on twitter then never actually read your stuff. If they are going to your blog then they are reading, getting value and making you a resource.

  32. I would definitely like more blog readers because my blog is very important to me. Communicating on Twitter is one of the most important things in my life, and Twitter is definitely my most important Social media venue. But I am choosing my blog as most important because eventually I plan to make a career out of blogging, writing, and related activities. It is not even the fact that I want to monetize, it’s just what I do naturally. But I want to reiterate again that Twitter is a very, very important part of my life. I love my followers (most are mutal and I consider them friends, of course), and couldn’t imagine my life without them. Thanks for a great question, Darren!

  33. Definitely blog readers. I want to deepen the conversation with my community and that, I feel, requires me to be able to converse in more than 140 characters.

    I’m really focused on conversation and exchange and so part of my goal is to get those that want to work more closely with me -to migrate some of our conversations from twitter to blog.

    Suzi
    PS Thanks for the awesome work you do. Always engaging.

  34. I prefer blog readers because I would rather people see what I write. Also, my blog drives money as well, so that is definitely another big reason. Twitter is great, but if you follow people more than likely, they will follow you back. It’s harder to get blog readers because there are so many out there.

  35. The blog would be my first choose simply because I enjoy writing and if people are going to your blog hopefully they are reading it.

  36. Prefer blog readers since blog content is more time-consuming to generate. Although some Twitter traffic has generated blog subscriptions. One plus about Twitter is that it’s fast and simple.

    Great survey question!

  37. I better prefer blog visitors, simple because they are then reading my thoughts, which are often longer then my tweet,w which can’t be longer then 140 characters.
    Besides as I saw it’s easier to get a twitter follower then blog reader and if I had to choose between blog reader or twitter follower, then I definitely choose Blog reader.

  38. I’m one of the few, the proud, the votin’ for Twitter followers. The more I follow on Twitter, the more potential new people are introduced to my blog. I don’t monetize my blog directly anyway, and feel that interacting on Twitter is a better, more friendly way to meet people, be remembered, and bump my book sales. Finally, the more Twitter followers, the greater likelihood of finding exciting tips and news that wouldn’t likely be posted in comments to my blog.

  39. I would prefer more blog readers because blog posts are more thought out than the Twitter updates. There is also some Twitter accounts that are not sincere followers. Therefore, I believe the blog gives individuals a better idea of their true impact.

  40. I guess it would depend on what your goals are. If you want to just share information with others, Twitter would be a great platform to do so. It takes so little time to just send an update that you are reading a great article with the link than to make a blog post, and them promote it.

    If your goals are to strictly get people to your site, then obviously, more blog readers would be the best. But since you can get more blog readers through Twitter, and it’s easier to get Twitter followers, it still makes sense to go for the Twitter followers.

    ~ Kristi

  41. So poll is showing that twitter have to prove itself more. They are using twitter to get the traffic and when you are comparing direct traffic (blog readers) and indirect traffic (Twitter followers) than they choose blog readers.

    But seems to me that they have forget one thing … your blog readers are stayed at one place and on twitter you can move your followers anywhere and that also in just 140 WORDS …

  42. I prefer Blog reader since they are really easy to invite to see my invitations offered,and I think I have more control with my blog follower rather to twitter does

  43. l was right when l tought blog readers, l saw all others think like me. blog readers are more important for me too…

  44. Obviously I want more and more traffic on my website i.e blog. More Twitter followers are desirable but more traffic directly means more money. So more traffic to blog is more desirable.

  45. Twitter is hard to follow….sometimes it gets 2 much and its hard to shut down the twitter noise !!

  46. Blog readers, because Twitter still doesn’t make any sense to me. :(

  47. What a stupid question. That’s like saying “Would you prefer to be stabbed in the eyes or have a nice cup of tea?”

    Oh BTW, your poll doesn’t work direct from the RSS feed.

  48. I think I prefer more blog followers since my blog is about a store I have online but the Twitter thing also seems to be able to help me get the word out as well if not more than on my blog.

    I’m curious what your results will be.

  49. I’m new to both, and I’d prefer blog readers because I know they chose to be there.

    Twitter is great to be exposed to new audiences and to quickly learn about new ideas and have immediate feedback. However, there seems to be a lot of people on Twitter just looking for an automatic follow and playing it as a popularity contest. I’ve followed – and then unfollowed – people who have thousands of followers but don’t seem to have anything interesting to share or talk about.

  50. Blog readers by far!

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