The social media buzzword of the moment is micro-blogging and you get to choose from Jaiku, Pownce, twitter, Plurk, or even BrightKite to fulfill all your micro-blogging needs. But what does it all add up to? What can micro-blogging be used to do? Is it an effective Internet Marketing tool that will stick? Or is it just a fad?

Lumping all of the platforms into one, and making a generalization would be wrong, so I’ll consider the three I’m most familiar with; Twitter, Plurk, and BrightKite.

Twitter

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I believe that if Twitter fixes it’s capacity issues, it may well have a future. Twitter has the ability to effectively build your brand, because each tweet shows your logo, image, and name. Where Plurk allows you to respond to other Plurks, Twitter’s inability to do that is actually a boon for branding.

By forcing a one way conversation, Twitter allows people to give blog updates, pitch new products, or share media, all the while increasing the brand recognition.

Twitter’s main purpose for an Internet Marketer is simply branding, and the ability to drive traffic from updates.

Plurk

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Plurk built upon Twitter and added a horizontal time line, and more importantly the ability to respond to people Plurk’s without cluttering the time line.

Much like Twitter, Plurk has the ability to build a brand. Yet it also has the ability to brand your personality. If you’re hoping to build a reputation, and actually converse with colleagues and site readers, Plurk is the best micro-blogging platform to do that.

The biggest downside to Plurk is that because it was a latecomer, many people are hesitant to move from Twitter to Plurk. A lot of the big names in social media are missing on Plurk.

BrightKite

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BrightKite is the third micro-blogging tool, and the least effective for Internet Marketing. The problem is that BrightKite is mostly a novelty site, something fun to let people know where you are.

It’s SMS and Mobile Support is great, but it’s time line is not simple and gets cluttered quickly. Also, it’s not optimal for any type of branding.

The only use I’ve found with BrightKite is to find out what’s going on around you, or to meet people in your area.

Thoughts…

If most of micro-blogging’s utility is simply reputation and brand build, is it actually worth the time investment? and more importantly how long will it last?

In my opinion, micro-blogging is here to stay, but it won’t be Twitter or Plurk in its current form. The effectiveness of connecting people with others will pull these platforms to evolve.

The question that’s left to answer is what will the final form be? That’s for your to decide, what do you think?