Microblogging is a hybrid of blogging and instant messaging that is meant for a public audience (usually referred to as “followers”). It’s all about getting things done quickly and efficiently. Because people are so busy, microblogging works so well for them.

We may have a lot to say, but for the sake of convenience, we’re willing to compromise. Twitter began with a character limit of 140 characters, which has since been increased to 280 characters, but that is still the limit. The corporation understands that the entire premise of the site is a microblogging and that a cap is required to keep that concept intact.

Text isn’t the only component of microblogging. It comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. This can include things like:

Images

Audio

Video

GIFs

Hyperlinks

And pretty much anything else that folks can think of, as long as it’s short and sweet. In 2005, when describing Leah Neukirchen’s Anarchaia blog, the term “micro-blogging” was coined. They were called “tumblelogs” back then, and they comprised of a mess of thoughts running down a parallel thread.

Many people believe that Twitter is the only site where they can microblog, but this is simply not true. You only need to use Google to uncover a plethora of sites that support the format.