Twitip

By Brett Weaver of SpotlightVT – Follow him @spotlightvt

I wanted to point out a brand new tool called TweetLister that was built specifically for marketing real estate on Twitter. I’ll also give you a quick one-two punch for using it to build a Twitter feed that any home seeker would be glad to subscribe to.

How it Works

You sign up for the free service using your existing Twitter credentials. TweetLister provides a form to collect all the usual property listing data such as address, square footage, number of rooms, etc. Most of the fields have drop-down menus with the most common choices which minimizes typing.

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Splitweet review by Jason Drohn – Follow him @jasondrohn

Who says you can only have one Twitter account? You have (at least) two emails, don’t you? One for work and one for your personal stuff? Or phone numbers – one for the office and one for you cell? Why not have two Twitter ID’s?

As Twitter continues to grow, more and more people will find a need for multiple handles.  Usually, it’s a case where your mom doesn’t care about what’s going on in the tech world. She does want to see the photos of your kids on Flickr, though!

Desktop Applications Don’t Cut It

Multiple Twitter accounts poses a problem, doesn’t it? Most of the desktop Twitter applications allow just one profile. You could log in and out of your various profiles all day – but who wants to do that? Splitweet has the answer.

Splitweet is a Twitter multi account manager that lets you do all the normal stuff like monitor your Twitter feeds, send replies and send direct messages. The difference is you can do it for multiple accounts!

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We received an email from Paris Piche, of Carol Joyce Cosmetics who is searching for ideas on how to run her fundraising efforts on Twitter. I’d like to open this up to readers of TwiTip, so please take some time reading, and share your suggestions with Paris in the comments?

My son J-Son was involved in motorcycle accident last October. He is doing well if you call confined to a wheelchair doing well.

He is determined to walk within the year. He has put his application into the organization Project Walk in Carlsbad, CA. The expense is about $1000.00 a week with a minimum of 4/6 months.

Elaine and I own a skincare company and we will contribute 50% of our sales from Twitter followers to J-son’s ability to walk again. He is an Antioch Policemen and bound and determined to report back to work within the year.

What is the best way to use Twitter to post a fundraiser?

Personally, I think developing a #hashtag and asking your followers to use and promote a specific link that Twitter users could click on to make purchases to help their effort would be a great start. What ideas do you TwiTip readers have for Paris and her cause?

By Darya Pino of Summer Tomato. Follow her @summertomato.

Everyone’s favorite example of how NOT to use Twitter is to tweet what you ate for breakfast. But even mundane tasks like eating can inspire people to follow if you tweet creatively. Ultimately it is not the subject of your tweet that makes you worth following, it is how your message connects with readers. Eat interesting food, eat for interesting reasons, or teach people something fascinating about food and suddenly everyone has a reason to care about your breakfast.

The key is communicating something that transcends the subject of your tweet and creates value for your followers. If you can do this then what you tweet about hardly matters, because you will regularly engage your readers and promote your personal brand.

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By Brad Shorr of Word Sell, Inc. – follow him @bradshorr

Trying to explain Twitter to the uninitiated can be a challenge. Twitter is so new, so different, and used in so many ways, it’s difficult to wrap your arms around it. I’ve come up with a couple of metaphors that seem to get the point across pretty well – I’ll share them in a sec.

But I’m betting the collective wisdom of TwiTips can come up many more, so maybe this post can help lots of people get a handle on a tool they really need to understand if they’re involved in any kind of business at all. (more…)

Some people don’t even know how much time they spend every day doing things like checking email, much less how much time they spend on Twitter each day. For productivity’s sake: How much time do you think you spend every day on Twitter?

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We receive literally dozens of emails every week about new Twitter tools, applications, and different ways to use Twitter. Every Sunday (almost) we post a few of them for you all to try out and let us (and the developers who emailed us) what you think! Here’s this week’s list:

Datatoy – Turns tweets into charts. You can tweet about your visits to starbucks, calorie consumption, glasses of water you’ve finished… and Datatoy will automatically produce a graph for you. You can also use widgets to take it to your blog if you want to display your graphs to the world.

Twesents lets you send virtual gifts to your twitter friends. Everything from cutesy to risque, you can send gifts just like you can do on FaceBook.

ShortGPS – A new service that helps you save postal addresses or locations in a unique and short URL to exchange via tweets, email, or SMS. Locations can be changed via the Map and a satellite/hybrid version of the map are also saved into the URL.

by Fern Richardson of Life on the Balcony – Follow her @LOTB

As Fredrickus mentioned the other day, there are many reasons why someone will follow you on Twitter. Many revolve around the fact that you followed them first. But what if there is a sizable discrepancy between the people you follow and the people who have followed you back? Assuming that you are publishing great tweets on a regular basis (and thus there isn’t a good reason for the lack of reciprocation), one tool you should check out is Less Friends, by the awesome Ruby on Rails developers at Less Everything.

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by Bradford Shimp of All Biz Answers – follow him @bradfordshimp

image credit: Joel Olives

We all hear so much about how to get more followers on Twitter and how to use it to make money. Those things are well and good, but Twitter is a two way conversation. It is just as much about following as it is about getting followers.

Choose Who You Follow For the Right Reasons

Being a good follower starts with why you choose to follow someone on Twitter. I recently watched a video that presented a strategy of following random people to see who would follow you back. The sole purpose of this strategy was to get more followers.

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By Tim Bursch – Follow him @timbursch

Isn’t Twitter just for tweeting? Mainstream media thinks Twitter is fluttering. Can you really listen to hundreds of people? How?

SOME TIPS ON TWITTER:

• Ask a question and then listen.
• Group people on TweetDeck and help filter the noise (See bonus tip below)
• Follow your favorite blog authors on Twitter
• Check out chats and discussions on things you care about here.
• Take a day off of tweeting and just watch the stream go by. Notice people. Who catches your eye? Who and what do you seem to pay attention to?
• Acknowledge people. If someone says they are grabbing coffee, ask for one too. : )
• Watch how other tweeps engage. If someone re-tweets you they are probably paying attention.
• Set up alerts on topics or people using Twitter Search.
• Use favorites to save tweets and tweeps you want to pay attention to.
• Focus. When you are having a conversation on Twitter it probably helps to stop checking email and writing comments on a blog. (working on it)
• Use open-ended questions. How, what, why?
• Don’t pre-judge. Don’t instantly “unfollow” people if they are not like you. Great idea from Aliza Sherman (@alizasherman)- go look at the person’s profile and recent tweets. You might change your mind.
• Notice when people are absent. Pay attention to who is being quiet too.

BONUS TIP: GROUPING IN TWEETDECK
I created a conversation group made up of people that I am listening to and want to engage in discussion. I start by reading this group first and then filter through other tweets. When you find new tweeps you want to pay attention to, just add them.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy the conversation.