Twitip

Twitter is a wonderful communications tool and while it does many things really well, there are a few things it doesn’t do so well. One of those things is having discussions about specific topics with specific groups of people. This is often known as a TwitChat.

The Problem

I participate in a number of weekly TwitChats. These TwitChats are often very educational and can be a lot of fun; that is, for the participants. For everyone else, they can be a real hassle.

The problem is that while you’re having a heated debate about the merits of origami (no offense to origami fans), you’re going to have followers who couldn’t care less. Moreover, if you fire off fifty or sixty tweets during an hour long TwiChat, you can really flood some of your follower’s streams. I’ve had plenty of people unfollow me because of this and if you participate in TwitChats, I’m sure you have too. (more…)

By Krizia of Eat Smart Age Smart – you can follow her @KriziaMissK

I have been following Darren regularly since September 2007, shortly after launching my first lifestyle site myBeautyMatch.com in June 2007.  I remember him announcing his new TwiTip site, devoted to using Twitter to promote your blog and your business, and visited immediately.

I’ve been using Twitter to reach a broader audience since late 2008, but it was only in the spring of this year, when I launched my second site (EatSmartAgeSmart), that I really stepped up my Twitter game and started pro-actively interacting with other members.

When Twitter became a regular topic on The View, The Ellen Show and Larry King Live, I knew this platform wasn’t just a tool for techies any more. It had become mainstream and a great way to reach my audience.

I read a lot of Internet marketing-related sites and noticed a “retweet” button on a number of them. I didn’t pay that much attention at first — I dismissed retweeting as something hardcore business sites would use, but not a site like mine about healthy eating. (more…)

By Dr. Kal (Kalvin C. Chinyere, M.D.) – Follow him @DrKal

According to eMarketer, by the end of 2009 there will be 18 million adults in the United States who use Twitter. Most of these 18 million Americans want to lose weight. The obese Americans want to drop into the overweight class. The overweight Americans want to drop to a normal weight. And the normal weight Americans want six-packs.

But how can these avid Tweeters lose weight when they are so busy tweeting? Trying to tweet and lose weight at the same time is like trying to pat your head and rub your stomach at the same time. It’s impossible. Wrong!

I am going to give you 10 thoroughly researched and tested tips to help you lose weight using Twitter. Excited? Good!
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Welcome back from a US Bank Holiday, Labor Day! TwiTip took the 4-day weekend off, and we’re proud to present today’s post. It takes a closeup look at a really great thing happening on Twitter surrounding one man’s idea to blame his cancer for all the problems in his life. Read about how the story’s unfolded to mean so much more for many others fighting the battle.

By Neal Wiser (follow him @nealwiser) and Peter Marinari (follow him @krisis)(http://twitter.com/krisis).

First in a series of brief case studies about using Twitter for social good.

Sure, you can use Twitter to tell people about your literal and metaphorical dirty laundry (you really shouldn’t), or you can use Twitter to try to overthrow governments such as Iran and Moldavia (please be careful), but personally, I believe that one of the best uses for Twitter is to rally people around good causes.

And despite the annoyances that can sometimes result when people misuse and abuse Twitter, except for television there has probably never been a technology that can spread the news about events faster than Twitter. As a result, Twitter may just be the perfect platform for charitable causes and institutions.

Getting the Word Out

While some may argue that anything you do to raise awareness of your cause is a good thing, what you really want is to have people take a desired action and actively participate. Otherwise, your cause is just an idea, not a movement, and it’s movements that drive change. (more…)

“Why do you use Twitter? How does Twitter Benefit You?”

I’ve been asked these questions so many times since starting TwiTip that I thought I’d write a post answering it. I hope that it’s helpful for those of you just starting out with Twitter (or considering getting involved).

Twitter has changed the way that I use the web and connect with others online in many ways. Those of you who’ve traveled with me on my Twitter journey since the beginning know that I started out very skeptical of the medium.

It always seemed like a waste of time – however once I started using it I immediately began to see its potential and some tangible benefits to me. Let me try to break some of them down:

1. Research Tool

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Twitter is a great tool for research – today Hendry Lee from BlogBuildingU.com (@hendrylee) gives the ‘why’ and ‘how’ to do it.

We have all been there. After I registered with Twitter in 2007, I sat down looking at the screen, didn’t know what to do next.

“What the heck am I going to do with 140 characters?”

I didn’t understand why people want to know when or why I just took a can of Coke. (After all, the question on the Twitter page is “What are you doing?”)

I still don’t claim to know everything about Twitter until today, even though I learn hard to understand it. Well, perhaps that is the awesomeness of Twitter. Right now, if you go to TechCrunch, starting from their home page and browsing through the archives, almost in every page you will see a mention of Twitter or one of the myriad number of Twitter-related services / tools.

It seems like every day there are new ways to use Twitter. Some of those tools stay, but a few of them are no longer with us.

There really is something in the 140 characters.

Out of those fun things to do with Twitter, one thing that I personally think most useful is using Twitter as a research tool.

Even if you just heard of Twitter right now, you can start using the data if you know where and how to get them.

This article is written to help. Because there are so many things you could do with Twitter, I will only give a few examples of using various tools for research, and leave the rest for you as an exercise of imagination.
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