"Microblog" is the hot new flavor at the social media bar these days. Consider it fevered limbo between your blog and your twitter stream. 
Small shots of what you are doing, reading, considering. Content too long for the 140 characters of twitter but not long enough for or otherwise not fitting your primary platform.
The Content Parlor of Velveteen Mind is my alternative to microblog platforms such as Posterous and Tumblr, bookmarking sites like Delicious, as well as twitter photo applications such as twitpic. Welcome and allow me to elaborate...
Theoretically, you won't find yourself in my Content Parlor if you aren't already highly addicted to social media and well-versed in the vocabulary, but humor me this brief definition of a few terms for more casual readers that wandered over from Velveteen Mind. According to Wikipedia (insert grain of salt here):
The content of a microblog differs from a traditional blog in that it
is typically smaller in actual size and aggregate file size. A single
entry could consist of a single sentence or fragment or an image or a
brief, ten second video. But, still, its purpose is similar to that of
a traditional blog. Users microblog about particular topics that can
range from the simple...
to the thematic. Many microblogs provide short commentary on a
person-to-person level, share news about a company's products and
services, or provide logs of the events of one's life.
No need for me to reinvent the wheel here on your microblog choices. I'll give you some of my personal Why's below, but a fabulous series on microblogging can be found at Blogging Basics 101, with valuable further reading linked to BlogHer. In researching both an alternative to twitpic and researching an easy way to design a press page for myself, I read and highly recommend that entire series.
Why not twitpic? 
Twitpic is an application that allows you to send photos into your twitter stream, accompanied by a tweet. Usually quick snapshots of whatever happens to be in front of you, begging to be shared. My problem with twitpic is that the link to the photo sent followers to a third party site, further diluting branding and traffic. While I don't focus too heavily on driving traffic, if I'm going to create it, might as well keep it. Furthermore, I was housing photographs offsite that I might like to have more reliable access to one day. You'll notice that all of the posts prior to this one are my old twitpics, transferred here.
Why not Posterous? 
While experimenting with twitpic alternatives, I found Posterous. Posterous is a microblog platform that allows you to both send twitter photos from mobile devices (I first found Posterous via the Gravity twitter app on my Nokia E71), as well as post brief content via the web like most other microblog platforms such as Tumblr. I liked Posterous for its clean design and ease of use, but it struck me as an unnecessary middle man, particularly because TypePad, my platform, had recently introduced its own microblog feature, TypePad Micro.
How will I use the Content Parlor? By utilizing the tools inherent to TypePad's Micro platform and applying them to a sub-blog of Velveteen Mind, I can now:
- Share twitpics via twitter the same way I was using twitpic, the only disadvantage being no preview available, the primary advantages being retaining branding and traffic
- Take advantage of all of the best functions of a microblog, such as sharing great content, organizing resources, tracking project ideas
- Simultaneously keep a record of what resources I prefer, similar to bookmarking sites such as Delicious. I link on twitter to posts I'm reading all the time, then can't find them again in my own stream when I need them. I'm excited at the organizational potential of a microblog.
In other words, this is where I'll share what I'm reading, laughing at, wishing I could buy, and what resources I've found to be useful, as well as twitter photos and stream-of-consciousness bits that are too long for tweets but not meaty enough for a full blog post.
The best way to navigate the site will be via the categories in the sidebar (there aren't more than "twitpics" as I write this). I don't recommend that you subscribe by email because I hope to use it as frequently as I usually share links on twitter, so emails would be annoying. Do subscribe, though, because not all post links will be fed into my twitter stream.
Do you need a microblog?
Frankly, none of us needs one more site to update, however I think you
might find a microblog useful for honing focus if you are active in
social media. Particularly if you are already sharing links on
twitter and Facebook but finding that you'd like more room to comment
than 140 characters allows, I would say absolutely give a microblog a
try.
And finally...
What's with that header? In keeping with a microblog, the posts will be brief yet potent, like a shot of whiskey. (excerpts from the source along with highlighted comments from me) And like any good microblog, it will primarily be me pimping other people's content... hence the lovely Bellocq New Orleans Storyville prostitute eying that shot of whiskey. I was thisclose to calling my microblog a "content brothel."
Now that you know what I'm eying myself, let's toss back some social media shots! Cheers!
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Visit Velveteen Mind for personal, narrative nonfiction content.
Writer. Mother.
