A Mini Blog, often known as a microblog or nano blog, is a shorter version of a regular blog, typically 250-300 words. When blogs are shorter, your audience is much more likely to read till the end, and they won’t miss out on your key message. They can also have regular blog components like images, GIFs, links, infographics, videos, and audio clips.
Differences Between Blogging and Mini Blogs
- Blogging and mini blog are quite different from each other. Here are a few points to understand the difference between Blogging and MicroBlogging:
- Mini blogs take less time to create while a regular blog needs more time to create content
- A mini blog is a simple approach to sharing time-sensitive (urgent) data, unlike regular blog which night need a storyline.
- A mini blog is a simple, more straightforward approach to speaking with followers.
- Although both regular blog and mini blog are read mostly on mobile, the mini blog has better mobile convenience.
Examples of Mini blogging
The most common microblogging examples include content like news updates, memes, quotes, event highlights, user-generated content, and infographics. A mini-blog is getting popular nowadays amongst social media marketers to take advantage of platforms like Google+, Facebook and some of the rising platforms like Storify, Scoop.it and RebelMouse.
Where Are Mini Blogs Being Used?
Mini blogs are being used on several platforms, though they are still considered new in the field of social media marketing. Let’s have a look where can we use mini blogs:
- Mini blogs are used as a summary of a blog post that you have written (promotional tool)
- They are also used as a story or blog on another person’s site (the mini-blog will contain an opinion on it)
- They can also be used as an introduction to new products or services
- A mini blog is basically a neat, small post with an infographic or micro infographic
- Also used as a self-contained mini post inviting long discussion or delivering a direct answer to a question.
Microblogging websites
Mini blog posts or Microblogging websites are popular because they serve content in formats that today’s users find palatable.
The popular mini blog posts websites are:
- Tumblr
1. Twitter
Twitter is the most popular microblogging sites because of its broad user base of 330 million. Twitter allows only 280 characters on tweets, which is sufficient for mini blogging. The platform enables meaningful and straightforward interaction through retweets, comments, and likes. You can also use Twitter Cards to embed your video/audio clips, photo galleries, and live links.
2. Instagram
The second popular mini blog post site is Instagram, which allows a character limit of 2200. Bloggers are more interested in the visual appeal of Instagram. They try their best to embellish their short posts with graphics (infographics, GIFs, etc.) and adding links to the full-length post or website.
3. Facebook
Facebook is another leading platform for microblogging because it is popular for the variety of content formats that it offers. Along with images, videos, and text, you can also post surveys, polls, questionnaires, check-ins, virtual cards, watch parties, and live videos. The best thing about Facebook is that you can create groups for more targeted marketing.
4. LinkedIn
Apart from being a professional networking site, LinkedIn is great for microblogging too. You can create short text posts or create SlideShare decks to share with your community of followers.
5. Pinterest
Pinterest is purely a visual microblogging website. This platform has a niche audience base but a tremendous fan following. If your content has great visuals, Pinterest can take your content marketing to a whole new level.
6. Reddit
Reddit is like a huge collection of forums where people discuss varied topics. For mini bloggers, Reddit can be a valuable platform for showcasing their content and connecting with fellow bloggers.
7. Tumblr
Tumblr is considered as a close competitor to Twitter. This platform has 466 million blogs and is a trending popular platform for mini blogs and microbloggers. Tumblr limits the limit character count for replies (475 characters) and asks messages (500 characters).
Summing Up
Micro Blogs are becoming extremely popular amongst social media professionals since they require minimal investments and can help brands grab the attention of readers. Here’s a quick tip for your first mini blog posts – keep the first few lines of your mini blog eye-catching. This will prompt readers to click the CTA button and read the rest of the content.