Twitter, an instant messaging and blogging combination, has remained well ahead of other players within the rapidly growing microblogging world, since its inception in 2006. This type of microblogging allows users to create 140 to 280 character short messages broadcasted to followers or friends. More than 200 million people use Twitter worldwide as they keep in touch through generating about 65 million tweets each day.
Twitter may have the furthest reach and the most users, but there are other options out there. Should you be bored with tweeting and prefer trying something new, or a fresh perspective for your plans in social media marketing, check out what Twitter’s top competitors have to offer.
One of the widely acknowledged twitter competitors is Tumblr. It is a website known for its easy applications and functionality. You have a wide variety of sharing options that include not only messaging and chatting, but also texting, links, audio, pictures, and video. There are more than 3 million Tumblr users out there with this figure rising by 15,000 every day.
Information consolidation, from social bookmarking and social networking sites, microblogs, and blogs, is made possible through a feed aggregator called FriendFeed. FriendFeed lets you track such activities in addition to social network aggregation in one location. More than a million users access FriendFeed each month.
Using your email platform, Posterous will let you post your stuff online. Posterous takes all of your files, regardless of the type, and automatically converts them into the most web-friendly available format.
Posterous users praise it for being the top live streaming free application. While current official data regarding its total number of users is unavailable, several thousand new users are thought to be joining every month.
Available in more than twenty-five languages, Identi.ca, an open source microblogging and social networking platform, is growing rapidly. Identi.ca applicants may enjoy receiving updates from other users on various other services. If you happen to dislike something they do, Identi.ca will let you fidget with their source code and data to create a microblogging service of your choice.
Plurk microblogging and social networking service came into being as a means to create a balance between email and instant messages and several social networking features already in use. Plurk users upload links and updates, known as plurks, which proceed to appear to users who are interested in a displayed timeline.
Location-based social networking, a rapidly expanding social media tool, and social networking come together in Brightkite. This platform will allow you to check into a specific location and post updates and notes about experiences there. This platform will connect you to your existing friends or lets you meet new people according to locations you all visit. Brightkite has more than two million users and works brilliantly in promoting interesting places and local businesses.
Foursquare is another social networking service based on location, allowing you to connect through checking into diverse locations while sharing updates on Twitter or Facebook. Foursquare adds more fun to this experience through awarding you points whenever you check in. It even allows you win your way up to becoming the mayor of a specific venue. Over 4.5 million users have registered with Foursquare.
Another top Twitter competitor is Present.ly, a microblogging platform that allows various organizations, businesses, and other entities to put up their own microblogging networks. Compared to Twitter, Present.ly has additional unique features that let users create groups, which can function like intranets.
Yammer is a platform similar to Present.ly, known informally as Twitter for businesses, and a social network for enterprises. With Yammer, you can create a microblogging network where only users with your company domain name may join. Over one million users, located in more than 80,000 companies worldwide, interconnect and socialize over Yammer.
Ping.fm is a platform that gives you an opportunity to bring all the other platforms mentioned above together. With a single update post on Ping.fm, this microblogging and social networking platform send updates to all the other social networks you are registered in. Ping.fm will divide your updates three ways, letting you pick which group you wish to send to.
Any of these microblogging platforms above should add some value to your plans in social media marketing, whether you are looking for practical tools that let you customize your business or organization networks, discovering what other services have to offer, or whether you are searching for expansion avenues for your current social networks.
About the author