Whether or not to utilize Twitter for micro-publishing should be carefully considered. Twitter may go public soon. That means that individuals can buy Twitter stock on stock exchanges, it seems. Once individuals buy Twitter stock, then the public stockholders can potentially earn money from part of Twitter’s profits.
Twitter earns money from advertising. Advertising is displayed to Twitter users. Twitter users publish Tweets on Twitter. Tweets can be many different things. Tweets are short; they must be one-hundred and forty characters or less. Twitter is about micro-publishing. Stockholders may essentially earn money from what Twitter users publish, through Twitter’s advertising platforms.
Tweets can be a thought, an idea, a communication, a link to an online website and/or so forth. The majority of Twitter users who publish will not directly earn money from using Twitter, it seems. This may not be ethical or right. Twitter is providing individuals a valuable self-publishing and communication service, but not much more than that, perhaps.
Certainly, individuals can utilize Twitter to earn money in directly from self-publishing on Twitter. Twitter can be used to build a following of individuals. This relationship can be used to sell products or services, or to conduct market research. There are probably other ways that money can be earned indirectly from utilizing Twitter.
The point of this is that individuals who self-publish on Twitter should be mindful if time on Twitter is time well spent. Most individuals on Twitter may be helping others to earn money in exchange for temporary and transitory entertainment.
There are alternatives to publishing on Twitter. For example, self-hosted WordPress can be used for micro-publishing. Additionally, unlike on Twitter, on Blogger and Tumblr, users can monetize what they publish. Short posts can be made on both Blogger and Tumblr. However, for micro-publishing, Twitter may be more streamlined, by default, anyway. There are trade-offs, it seems.
There is perhaps room for a competitor to enter into the market and fill an unmet need of creating a platform for micropublishing that financially benefits both the platform supplier/creator and also the user/micro-publisher. Whether or not to utilize Twitter for micro-publishing should be carefully considered.
