Additional Goodies for Making Twitter Use Easier
There is no shortage of programs and applications used to make Twitter readily accessible and easier to use. Many of these can save you time and add convenience so you can make the most out of your Twitter time.
Some of the most helpful Twitter tools include desktop clients for accessing Twitter without needing to spend your time on the actual Twitter website. The two most popular desktop clients for Twitter are TweetDeck and Twhirl.
Desktop Applications
TweetDeck is an Adobe Air application that can be used on either a Mac or PC. It helps you break down the vast amount of information on Twitter into manageable sized groups, which helps you stay abreast of your conversations. You can split your TweetDeck screen into columns, helping you to sort things out. For example, one column is for your regular tweet stream, much like your Twitter home page. However, you can also set up separate columns for your @replies, your direct messages, designated groups of people or results of a keyword search.
When you separate things into these various columns, you remove a lot of the “noise” from Twitter and can see the information most important to you. This is especially helpful so you don’t miss any replies sent to you by other users, as well as showing you direct messages instantaneously. One big frustration with the Twitter webpage is you have no way of knowing someone has sent you a direct message, without continually checking that page. The same applies to your @replies (messages sent to you, but in the public stream.)
When you use Twitter from the website, you need to keep your focus on the page so you can see what’s happening. There’s nothing wrong with that if all you are doing is tweeting, but many people prefer to multi-task and tweet throughout their day.
TweetDeck lets you continue working on the web, or any other program you may be using and alerts you when you receive messages, with a little chirp and a small pop-up window. Then, with just a glance, you can see if the tweet is a direct message, a personal @reply or a response to a keyword search or simply a general tweet from another user.
Using TweetDeck for its search feature is a great way to keep an eye on your company name, a keyword for your industry or any other topic you want to keep in your sights. For example, if you are selling golf shoes, you can set the search feature for that term and whenever someone tweets about golf shoes, it will show up in your search column.
TweetDeck also helps you respond quickly and easily to other people in a few different ways. When you hover your mouse over a person’s avatar, you are given four options: reply, DM, ReTweet or the other actions option. The others actions button offers you a range of choices from following to translating the tweet into another language, among others.
Another popular desktop client for Twitter is Twhirl. Twhirl is much smaller than TweetDeck and doesn’t have as many features, but it does give you a small compact application to tweet and follow your tweet stream. Twhirl will also let you know when you have new messages. It also has a search feature. It also allows you to keep track of some other social networking sites such as Friendfeed, laconi, ca and Seemic. Twhirl will cross post to Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn as well.
Both TweetDeck and Twhirl have built in link-shorteners, which shrink a link to help accommodate your 140-character limit on Twitter. These are only two of the various desktop clients you can use for Twitter.
Other Handy Twitter Apps You Might Find Useful
Many other applications serve to make your Twitter experience more convenient. Several of them allow you to schedule tweets to be posted at a later date and time. There is some controversy over whether these are a good idea or not. Many people feel they sorely neglect the social aspect of Twitter, which is the main point of the site. Other people, however, like the flexibility of being able to schedule tweets for times they are unavailable to do so manually.
This is a popular service for scheduling tweets. Tweet Later lets you set up a tweet or a series of tweets and schedule them for broadcast later. Tweet Later will also let you automatically follow anyone who follows you and you can even automatically send a welcome message to your new followers.
This application gives you the option of automatically following anyone who follows you. It will also send you a daily email with the names of everyone who follows you or un-follows you each day.
Some people like to know who unfollows them, as they believe it will help determine if they are tweeting unpopular posts. However, the general consensus is to not worry so much about those who un-follow you. There are plenty of fish in the Twitter Sea and if someone decides to stop following you, it doesn’t necessarily have any great impact on you or your business.
Twitter Grader – There are also some services to help you connect with appropriate people to follow. One of the most popular one of these is Twitter Grader. Twitter Grader calculates the power of your Twitter network based on who you follow, who follows you and how often you tweet. The more popular your followers the higher your Twitter Grade. Twitter Grader also gives you suggestions for people to follow based on your profile and the most commonly used words in your tweets.
Twitter Buttons – This is a site where you can pick up cute buttons to paste on your website, blog, newsletter and more that encourage people to follow you on Twitter. They’re free and updated frequently.
URL Shortening Applications
One type of service many people like to have available on their tool bar is an URL shortening service. Because Twitter limits you to only 140 characters per tweet, posting a link to your website can be troublesome. There are several services that let you type in the URL of any site and will then shorten it into a clickable URL that uses fewer characters.
Here are just a few:
You will find many more applications and services available to help you get more out of your Twitter use. There are new ones being developed everyday. If you aren’t sure how they work or which ones are the best, simply ask around right on Twitter itself. You’ll find plenty of people more than happy to offer their opinions. In fact, one of the things you will notice on Twitter is plenty of people are more than happy to share all kinds of things.
Conclusion
The atmosphere on Twitter is a bit like a party filled with generous, helpful go-getters who truly enjoy interacting with people and doing all they can to help each other out. THAT could just be the secret power of Twitter right there – real people letting down their guard just a bit and truly enjoying helping each other create successful businesses. There is a genuine cooperative spirit on Twitter that is making it one of the most popular spots to be on the Internet.
What are you waiting for? Start tweeting and join in the revolution. Watch your business soar to levels you couldn’t have even imagined.
Twitter Resources & Additional Tools to Make Marketing with Twitter a Breeze
Custom Background Designs for Your Profile Page
Twitter Desktop Clients:
More Bling for Your Twitter Account:
Twit This – Let people tweet links to your website pages or blog posts automatically with this. You can copy the Twit This code to almost any website and there’s a plugin for WordPress that will add it to each and every post you publish!
Twit Pic – Share your photos with your tweeps!
Twitter Grader – How cool is your Twitter account? Want to find more people in your target market to follow? Here you go!
Tweet My Blog – Want to post a tweet every time you update your blog with a new post? This tool does it automatically if you have a WordPress blog. You can even promote it as an affiliate!
Additional Twitter Applications – From using Twitter on your iPhone to posting badges that pull your tweets over to your blog or website, you’re sure to find what you’re looking for to make Twitter an even better resource in your business.
Jim Stott
Magical Marketing, LLC
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Using Twitter with Your Cell Phone
On the right hand side of your home page, you will see section towards the bottom labeled Device Updates with a link “Set up SMS Device.”
If you want to send and receive your Twitter messages from your mobile phone or an instant messenger, you can add that information here. Keep in mind however, if you use your cell phone to communicate on Twitter, you may be charged standard text messaging rates for your tweets.
Notification Options
Click on the “Notices” tab and you will find options for receiving email notifications when people follow you or when you receive a direct message. A direct message is a private message sent from one follower to another, without showing up in the general stream of tweets for others to see.
It’s a good idea to select the email option for direct messages (or DM’s, in Twitter-speak) as you don’t receive any other notification that you have one. All DM’s you receive do show up in a special section on your home page (labeled Direct Messages) but other than checking this area periodically, you won’t know they are accumulating without the email notifications.
It’s also nice to receive an email when you get a new follower so you have the opportunity to follow them back and/or send them a “welcome” message. (This is a great opportunity to let them know a bit more about you and your website, but don’t make it too sales pitchy. After all, you’ve just met!
Jim Stott
Magical Marketing, LLC
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