Pownce as an Alternative to Twitter
Marc Norris
Marketing, SEO and PR, Social Networking
With the advent of microblogging platforms, it seems that there has been a lot of attention regarding them lately. They not only provide a quick way to stay in touch, but can also generate interest and traffic to your sites.
Perhaps the most popular of the microblogging platforms would be Twitter. It is a simple way to share your sites and what is going on in your life in 140 characters or less. In terms of marketing, you can create some buzz through Twitter, provided that you have enough friends.
On the bad side of Twitter is the reliability of the platform. It is not uncommon for their service to go down many times during the week - especially when there is heavy use. Also, in terms of an SEO (search engine optimization) perspective, all the links in Twitter have the “nofollow” tag attached to them, so the links aren’t as well recognized on Google.
Thankfully there are alternatives. One of my favorite alternatives to Twitter is Pownce. What sets Pownce apart from Twitter are a few key things. Take a look at the following list:
- Text Length
There is no real limit to the number of characters you can use. Sure, shorter can be better, but sometimes you need some extra words to get your point across, and Pownce gives you that ability. - Reliability
I have been a member of Pownce for a little more than a month now, and I have not experienced any moment of downtime at all. This is in stark contrast to Twitter that seems to be down when you need it. - Share Files with your Friends
Pownce allows you to share files with your friends. Some examples of why you would want to have this ability is that you can share your latest podcast, a power point presentation that you made, or put your free report up for everyone to download. - Post your latest video on your profile
If you posted a video on your favorite video sharing site, you can embed it in your post to both get backlinks to the video as well as help spread the word about it. - Links do not have the “nofollow” attribute
For those of you out there interested in SEO, you can place links on your profile to your latest blog post, or sites, you can pass some link juice to them. This is a big difference compared to Twitter, where your links are sometimes shortened automatically, and they all carry the “nofollow” attribute.
So be sure to check out Pownce - there are a lot of good things about it. When you do signup, be sure to add me as a friend by looking at my profile here: Marc Norris. I’d love to know what is going on in your life and business.
Marc Norris @ June 10, 2008
Marc Norris