Blogs and microblogs allow individuals to share information online. Blogs typically feature text, images, and links displayed in reverse chronological order and allow comments, while microblogs restrict posts to short messages like tweets of up to 140 characters. Popular blogging platforms include WordPress and Blogger, while Twitter is the dominant microblogging service, with over 500 million members posting 400 million tweets daily. Both blogs and microblogs can be used as marketing tools to engage audiences and gain insights into brand perceptions.

1. Blogging & Micro Blogging

2. Blog
• A regularly updated website or web page, typically
one run by an individual or small group, that is
written in an informal or conversational style.
• A blog is a website where entries are typically
displayed in reverse chronological order.
• Blogs usually allow readers to comment on blog
posts. A typical blog will feature text, images and
links to other related blogs and websites.

3. • According to Wikipedia, by 2012, there were
77 million Tumblr blogs and 56.6
• million WordPress blogs worldwide – that’s a
lot (Wikipedia, 2013).

4. Key Terms
• Author: the person who wrote the blog post.
• Title: the title of the blog post, which is usually used to create a unique
URL, for the blog post.
• Tag: the categories used to describe the blog post, and aid services such as Technorati
in categorizing them.
• Comment: the comments left by readers of the blog, usually shown below the blog
post.
• Track Back: a notification of other blogs linking to a post, often displayed below the
blog post.

5. Blogs as a marketing tool
• Blogs are powerful because of their reach, their archives
• For a marketer, learn how others perceive your brand and to engage with
the audience.
• Blogs provide a snapshot of audience sentiment regarding a brand.
• Marketers can also listen to blog activity around competitors to gain
market insights.
• Companies can also interact with bloggers by commenting on relevant
posts, to listen to bloggers and then respond.
• • WordPress (www.wordpress.com)
• • Tumblr (www.tumblr.com)
• • Blogger (www.blogger.com)

6. Micro blogging
• Micro blogging is a form of blogging that allows a user to
publish short text updates, usually limited to 140
characters, that can be viewed by anyone or restricted to a
specific community.
• The most popular micro blogging service is Twitter
(www.twitter.com), which was launched in July 2006.
These 140-characters posts, called tweets, are usually short
thoughts or links to interesting articles.
• As of June 2013, Twitter has more than 500 million
members, with 400 million Tweets being written each day

8. Key Terms
Tweet: A post made on Twitter.
• @username: users are denoted with @ and their chosen name (e.g.
can be directed to a specific user simply by typing their @username at the start of the tweet.
• Hashtag: users can categorise their posts by adding a word or phrased
prefaced with the # symbol (for example, #DigitalMarketing). The hashtag will become a link that
you can click to see other tweets that share this tag.
• Trending: if a hashtag or keyword is used very frequently in a short time,
it can become a trending topic and is displayed to the left of a user’s tweet stream. Events of global
interest usually feature heavily, but sometimes brands can trend, too (although not always for the
right reasons).
• Retweet (RT): retweeting means reposting somebody else’s tweet to your
own profile, along with their user name. The letters RT are usually added to the start of the tweet
to indicate that it comes from someone else.

9. Twitter as a marketing tool
• Twitter has become a popular and important
marketing tool for many organizations, brands and
individuals. Many brands use it successfully for rapid
customer service.
• Twitter also has a series of self-service advertising
options, These include Promoted Tweets, Promoted
Accounts and Promoted Trends.

10. Promoted Tweets
• They are ordinary Tweets purchased by
advertisers who want to reach a wider group
of users or to spark engagement from their
existing followers. Promoted Tweets are
clearly labeled as Promoted when an
advertiser is paying for their placement
on Twitter.

11. Promoted Accounts
• Promoted Accounts are ad units that are
included in Followers campaigns. They enable
you to quickly gain relevant followers - 70% of
whom provide free advertising through
Retweets and43% will make multiple
purchases in the future.

12. Promoted Trends
• Promoted Trends began as an extension of
our Promoted Tweets platform, and are now
a full-fledged product in their own right.