Post Frequency By Platform
When I logged into typepad last night, I noticed that I had written 4,423 posts here on AVC since starting this blog in September of 2003. That got me thinking about how many posts I’d written on Twitter and Tumblr since starting on those "microblogging" platforms in 2007. And then I started doing a series of twitter posts on the topic. And I got a bunch of interesting replies. So I figured I’d do a longer post on the topic.
Here are the stats:
Typepad/AVC – 64 months – 4,423 posts – 2.3 posts per day
Tumblr/fredwilson.vc – 17 months – 3,364 posts – 6.6 posts per day
Twitter/fredwilson – 22 months – 4,009 posts – 6.1 posts per day
My initial instinct was that "microblogging" is easier so it would naturally produce more posts. And of course that is true. I used to do a little "off the cuff" posting on AVC and that’s how I generated an average of more than two posts per day. Now I do very little of that on AVC (it’s moved to twitter and tumblr), and I’d bet that my average posts per day since I started twittering are a lot closer to one than two.
My tumblr post count is a bit overstated because I used to import a lot of things, like links to AVC and Flickr. I cut that out at least a year ago and I’d bet that since then my post frequency is closer to four or five than six. But the quality of the tumblog has gone way up.
And as anyone who has hit their stride on twitter knows, the post frequency rises over time as you build a larger network and start building twitter into your daily routine. But it turns out that was true for quite a while with me, but no so much recently. It seems, like the other blogging platforms I use, I’ve leveled out at a "sustainable" rate of about 200-225 posts per month (6-7 per day).
After using all three blogging platforms for enough time to figure them out, here’s where I come out.
Typepad (and wordpress, blogger, etc) are great for long form posts but it’s really hard to generate more than one or two posts a day on a true blogging platform.
Tumblr is great for reblogging and that’s mostly what I do there. I don’t tumblog a lot from my phone, although I do at times. I am sure that the majority of my tumblog posts are generated via the "share on tumblr" bookmarklet as I browse the web. What I am really doing on tumblr is a visual version of what I did on delicious four years ago plus mp3 blogging.
And twitter is the easiest of the lot and I do more posting from my phone than anywhere else. That’s how I can generate 6-7 posts per day.
Valdiskrebs replied in that series of twitter posts last night:
that is a lifetime of posts! what do you do in your "free time" Fred?
It’s a fair question. One of the answers is that I post in my free time; on the treadmill, on the train, and on the plane. Blogging has become easier over the years and my post frequency has gone up. I suspect it will get easier still and with that will come even more content. Maybe not from me, but from the rest of you. Because my vision of social media remains simple:
every single human being posting their thoughts and experiences in any number of ways to the Internet
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Comments (Archived):
I don’t buy the whole, “better for longer posts” platform stuff, that’s just marketing… Twitter is not good for longer posts because there is an arbitrary cap, which has always frustrated me and is why I find tinyurl and twitblog interesting. There couldn’t be an easier platform to make a long post to than Tumblr. It’s got one push publishing, spell check and all of the features that WordPress, Typepad and Blogger have so there is no platform better or worse for “longer posts”. Equally it’s not hard to make short or multiple posts on WordPress or Typepad, etc. It’s just choice although I do agree that it is logical that you can make longer posts on those platforms and quick, status update style of posts with Twitter, but again, that’s due to Twitter’s limitations (no photos, media, 140 limit) not the limitations of the other platforms. You could pretty much accomplish whatever you want on whatever platform you choose, I just like Tumblr because it’s easy although I wish I could batch upload photos and other media like I can with WordPress…
Largely, I agree! However, I can still see value in using different platforms for different types of posts as people seek information in different amounts at different times. For instance readers might want to check avc.com for longer posts once or twice a week, but check twitter regularly for Fred’s more casual thoughts. So I think there are reasons beyond marketing that different services get used for different content densities so to speak , despite there being no actual limitation in this regard (for instance tumbler vs. wordpress).
Interesting stuff!Any idea how long you spend doing all this? That’s not a jab– I’m just curious. I think there’s a ton of value in blogging/microblogging (for people in your line of work), and I suppose it’s a bit of an income stream for you as well. I just find Twitter/my blog to be an incredible time sink and my post volume is way lower than yours.Of course, Twitter/Tumblr can all be “on the move” (in cabs, waiting rooms, etc).
it’s an hour per day of focused time first thing in the morning and then a few minutes here and there the rest of the day, maybe an hour and a half per day in total. btw – i don’t make any money directly from blogging. i give all the ad revenue to charity
I agree about Tumblr becoming a visual version of del.icio.us . . . that’s how I’m using it, too.And as a result, I feel like it’s much easier and more enjoyable to track and absorb information on any number of topics.
I’ve never been as loyal or as satisfied with self-publishing as I have been with tumblr. I haven’t written a long-form blog post in awhile, which would normally mean the death of yet another of my blogs, but being able to just post things and quick thoughts on tumblr has kept me going through all the lulls.Did you run the tumblr stats script ( http://naivt.com/random/tum… )? It gives you a breakdown of types of posts and your outbound links.
Hmm, I do most of my Twitter posts in the morning on the treadmill too, it’s an easy thing to update while I’m reading my feeds. Tumblr tends to be where I save my design links and miscellaneous interesting bits, while my blogs get attention 2-3 times a week if I’m able.The thing is, each of my blogs has a different audience and different content, and so do the micro-blogs, but the volume goes to Twitter because of it’s ease of use and the size of my network there.
You should try out Posterous.com http://www.posterous.com/It brings back the good ol days of fun blogging. Send an email, they’ll do the rest – no need to worry about plugins, site design, upgrades etc.I’m already having fun with it… http://avcion.posterous.comGreat post btw… i thought it was interesting to see the frequency of microblogging
Holy shit. I’m a total slacker!
I just hit 25,000 posts on Brownstoner.comhttp://www.brownstoner.com/…