Tweetdeck had a whopping 36,000 beta testers prior to this launch in an effort to make sure the app worked without fail.

What is interesting about the release, is that this particular version of Tweetdeck happens to be the most recent version of the app that has not even been tested for iPad’s or iPhone’s yet. Usually, it comes to the iPad and iPhone first.

Here is a great video on YouTube showing off the new Tweetdeck 1.0 for Android:

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Tweetdeck Officially Launches for Android

TWITTER CHATS

Traffic: One of the most amazing things about twitter chats is the fact that they generate new visitors to your blog. Not only you do get traffic, you get very targeted visitors who are interested in the content on your blog. In one of the recent chats I participated in, I noticed that it actually provided a great opportunity to share relevant content with the people in the chat. To add to that, since the content was highly relevant to the discussion that was going on, the post I wrote about How to write 5 Blog Posts in 2 hours ended up getting a ton of additional retweets. 

Followers: Twitter chats actually result in you getting a ton of additional followers as well. Just like traffic, not only do you get followers, you get very targeted followers who are looking to connect with like minded people. One of the earliest mistakes I made with twitter was to use a mass follow tool and get thousands of followers. Ironically, 30 or so followers who I engage with on a fairly regular basis provide much more value than the thousands who were the byproduct of using mass follow tool.

3 Chats Worth Participating In

#Blogchat: This post was actually inspired by blogchat which is a weekly chat that his hosted by Mack Collier. Not only does Mack run #blogchat, but he provides an insane amount of value on his blog with immediately actionable tips in every post. I’ve noticed a significant jump in traffic just from following a few tips on his blog. It occurs every Sunday evening.

#JobHuntChat: While I’m not an active participant in this #jobhuntchat, many of my blogging friends are. This chat is run by a group HR/Career bloggers and can actually be a great resource for people looking for jobs. It runs every monday evening.

#U30Pro: This chat is one that I discovered just the other day and it seems to be extremely popular among the Gen Y crowd, who also conveniently make a big chunk of the blogosphere. One of my blogging friends told me this chat has been a goldmine of networking opportunities for him and from monitoring a recent #U3-Pro chat I can see why.

2 Steps to Participate in a Twitter Chat

Following the Chat: Following the twitter chat that you want to join is pretty simple. Using a tool like tweetdeck just setup a column with the hashtag for the chat you want to participate in.

Replying: Once you are in the chat, if people ask questions, you can reply to them and just include the hashtag for the chat at the end of your reply.

I would imagine that there is some sort of twitter chat for almost any industry. If there is not a chat for your industry or niche, then it’s a great opportunity for you to make yourself the hub of a chat, just as Mack Collier has done with #blogchat.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Twitter Chats: A Goldmine of Traffic, Followers and Knowledge

Here’s a simple, one sentence article: There is no secret formula to conquering Twitter beyond writing within the confines of 140 characters.

Okay, that’s too basic, but why get too complicated? Twitter isn’t complicated!

What is Twitter?
Take a step back and consider what Twitter really is. But before I do, please forgive me if none of this is new to you. I’m going back to basics to make the point of how simple Twitter is for such a powerful tool.

What you get is the opportunity to write up to 140 characters of text. Each time you send a tweet out, it’s sent to the users following you. If you’re followed by 10 people, those 10 people get it sent to their feed. This doesn’t guarantee all 10 will see the tweet, because it’s a realtime stream of updates. It’s the best you’re gonna get with Twitter.

Want to get personal? Then mention specific users and your tweets will be highlighted to those users. If a particular user is following you, you can even send them a private Direct Message.

In short, Twitter allows you to send small packets of text out to whatever users are following you. You can also find those packets of text through Twitter’s search function and an increasing number of live web searches.

Given Twitter’s simplicity, it’s amazing the service has grown so successfully. No wonder there’s so much talk on how to use it right.

Find what works for you.
For all the tips and tricks out there, no single method will propel you into Twitter stardom. Think of it as you would with any writing. You wouldn’t be impressed if you were told all novels had to be horror stories in order to be successful. You wouldn’t believe advice that said the secret to getting published is to write solely about golf and provide plenty of hilarious and informative quotes about the sport.

Writing has a number of uses and there are multiple methods of writing successfully. The same can be said for Twitter.

For every rule you see on how to Tweet, be prepared to break that rule and don’t be scared to experiment. Success won’t come from avidly following someone else’s set of rules. Success will come from regular writing and experimenting with your own methods.

In time, you’ll find what works for you. Unless you are a celebrity or big brand (or heavily endorsed by one of them), you’ll have to work from scratch and give users a reason to engage with you.

What reason will you give?

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



The Secret to Conquering Twitter: Remember It’s Just Text!

BlooSee is a Twitter-friendly ocean mapping site that allows any ocean lover to find and/or create points of interest in the ocean and shorelines in a matter of seconds. These points are given a unique URL that anyone can tweet, either directly from the “Share /Twitter” button on BlooSee or by grabbing the URL (Via the Share/URL button) and shortening and tweeting it as usual. Here are some examples:

• Watching @TheCoveMovie: see the spot where dolphins are slaughtered: http://bit.ly/dwMuzu
• Exploring the USS Yukon shipwreck off San Diego http://bit.ly/d2dhnW #SCUBA
• Shacketon’s 100 year-old whiskey found in Atarctica http://bit.ly/aGnM0M

BlooSee also allows anyone to tweet maps of the ocean centered and zoomed in a certain way. For instance:

• Sailing the Straits of Gibraltar http://bit.ly/ajZBfl
• Kayaking along the southern coast of Santa Cruz Island http://bit.ly/9SNrM6
• Planning a vacation to the Istria Coast in Croatia http://bit.ly/cPZU3Y

So, BlooSee + Twitter allows anyone to bring the oceans into the online conversation, for a better enjoyment and stewardship of the world’s oceans.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Wet & Salty Tweets: The Ocean on Twitter

There’s so many auto-generated list of tweets out there but the results are mostly spam. So why not make it ourselves?

With a service called TwitBlend you can easily create your own “collection of tweets” or “tweet list” yourself and it’s very easy to use!

This is what I got from spending two minutes on TwitBlend, The Foursquare Cling

TwitBlend helps you search for tweets and arrange, color, share and put it on your website.

How can I make one?

1. Click on “Create new blend” on top-right menu
   
2. Enter your Twitter’s account information and click “Allow” to login (TwitBlend uses Twitter’s API so you don’t need to sign up separately.)
   
3. This is “New Blend” page. You can use menu on left-side to search for your tweets, you can see your tweets from your “Home” timeline, “@ mentions”, “Sent by you” and your favourites. You can also find tweets from your own list.
   
4. There’s a search tab for you to search tweets from a keyword or username.
   
   

   Below is the search dialog:

   

5. After you search for tweets you will see something like this:
   
6. You can drag and drop tweets from the right side to the dropbox on the left side, arrange and color it with “color button” on the bottom of each tweet.
7. After you are happy with this list you can click “Save…” at the bottom.
8. In this save dialog you can enter the title and tweet it to share it with your friends.
   
9. Now that you have created your own blend, you can share it with your friends or put it on your website using TwitBlend’s widget. Below is an example of TwitBlend widget on my Wordpress blog.
   

Have you used TwitBlend before? Let us know what you think in the comments!

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Create a Custom List of Tweets with TwitBlend

Today’s post comes from Jenni Izzo, a Drexel University graduate turned PR Account Coordinator with a social media obsession. You can follow Jenni at @jenniizzo.

Whether large or small, Twitter can enhance your event in a number of ways. Take a hint from MTV, who recently used a live Twitter Tracker for their 2010 Movie Awards. They encouraged those in the audience, as well as those at home, to get in on the action by tweeting their thoughts, reactions and questions. Throughout the night, tweets containing “MTV” hit over 400 per minute. But, even if you aren’t planning a star-studded event, you can still use the following tips to create a tweet-worthy event.

Establish an event hashtag.
Long before you start promoting the event, create a hashtag. It should be easy to remember, short and relevant. This will be key in incorporating Twitter into your event. Include the hashtag on everything from the Evite to the Facebook page to signage at the event. Other creative ideas include: event t-shirts, business cards and centerpieces.

Create buzz before the event.
Now that you’ve established the event hashtag, get out and there use it. Tweet about sponsors, ticket sales, guest appearances and topics. Get people excited before the event and it will ensure that the enthusiasm carries over to the day-of.

Encourage attendees to tweet during the event.
Using the previously mentioned tips, make sure the hashtag is visible at the event. If you have a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation, make sure it is included on the title slide. If you will be taking planned breaks, display slide encouraging attendees to tweet — or better yet…

Host a live stream.
During scheduled downtime, replace your presentation with a live stream. A live stream should also be incorporated at all times on a projection screen. If you are announcing winners or honorees, use Twitter to share the big news. Also keep your audience actively engaged by tweeting trivia questions and giving an award to the first to tweet the correct answer.

Take advantage of post-event insight.
Twitter gives event coordinators a valuable opportunity to look back attendees’ candid thoughts. Review tweets marked with your hashtag to see what worked and what didn’t. Use this as an opportunity to improve your next event or connect with people who had further questions.

When it comes to using Twitter to enhance your event, the possibilities are endless. Feel free to add to this list and share some of your favorites in the comments.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



How To Incorporate Twitter Into Your Event

• Strangers were showing up in your stream
• It was taking away from the community driven aspect of the site.
• You couldn’t add commentary

Now – these concerns are valid. However, what most people missed that this is an improvement on the old system. We now have more choice. Duncan Babbage says it best in a comment on outspoken media:

I suggest that you need to see Twitter as two separate things, an underlying infrastructure and then secondly their own web interface which is just one out of many clients that can be used for the service. At an infrastructure level, they have added a new feature that didn’t exist before. It doesn’t take away at all the capacity to continue to RT as you did before.

The perceived flaws in the new system only exist if you ignore the original method of retweeting. However, it all depends on how you choose to share others’ tweets. If you go to a different comment stream on Scoblizer, Nick Halstead said identified two distinct ways people retweet:

1) Content Sharing – You want to share a link to your followers, in this case you want to be able to definitely want to add commentary.
2) Tweet Repeating – I.e. you see a tweet that is funny/interesting/whatever and you just want to repeat it to your own followers.

Most of the resentment of the idea centers around the first use – content sharing. People like to be able to share the content in the way that suits them. However, as Ev Said:

But just as Twitter didn’t have this functionality at all before, people can still work around and do whatever they want. This just gives another option.

This option gives the user the way to share content in the way that suits their audiences needs. This is especially beneficial to those with official accounts. It also gives you more choice when it comes to listening on twitter.

Content Sharing:

You can’t add anything to the conversation using the new method.

The main issue that people had with this was that it changed the microsyntax associated with content sharing. @mattimck pointed me towards a really useful post by Chris Messina about the new microsyntax for twitter. In it, he shared four methods of attribution and linked to a useful wiki.

Now – all this sounds way too technical. The link mentioned above is really useful because it gives you additional ways to attribute the author in your tweet .

With the new method, you directly retweet the content without being able to change anything. You can’t add commentary. You can’t add cute smily faces and find fun methods of transferring authority with the tweet.

You can track how people share your content without the need for third party tools.

Some of the criticism focused on how 3rd party tools already measured some of the statistics. The benefit of the new method is that its included in the metadata. I’m hoping more information is included as twitter starts expanding to allow corporate accounts.

Protects the content shared.

People often edit retweets to include fake links and even fake comments. This is spam and can be damaging to brands. People can still create this type of content but the new features offer a level of protection.

Can prevent attribution confusion

There are a number of issues with this. The main one is when people would respond to the person sharing the content. However, many people are feeling uncomfortably with ’strangers being in their stream.’ This is an understandable concern, but it is the same content that was being shared previously.

There ARE a number of problems with the new method:

• No implied trust
• No visibility if multiple people retweet that content.

You have to decide which method is best for this purpose.

Repeating

This feature excels when you simply want to repeat someone elses tweet. However, many people felt that this method is different from content sharing and should have been named something else.

The main problem seems to be around the naming.

Robert Scoble suggested that twitter should NOT have called this “retweeting.”

Instead they should have called it “sharing” or “favoriting” or “liking.” In reality this is a copy of liking features that FriendFeed has had for quite a while.

The main problem with this is that twitter already has a favorite feature.

I use this feature frequently for when I want to simply repeat someone elses content. It also has forced me to take care when adding other information to the content I share.

Listening:

The main way it has benefited me is that it cleans up my twitter stream.

It reduces the noise.

• Can choose what people to ignore retweets from
• Don’t see same tweet multiple times

I have used this extensively to clean up the noise. It means I can continue to follow the really noisy people and even add them to lists or tweetdeck groups.

However, as Lisa Barone pointed out, it also has flaws. Now that people have the choice to block retweets, it means that people lose the reach they have. It can also put people in a weird position if they don’t want to block all our your retweets.

Your thoughts?

I was initially against but the new feature but now I am really excited about it. This is a tool for making retweets easier for some. Its not going to change the entire ecosystem.

Do you agree? Has this post changed how you will be using it? Let me know in the comment section.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Retweet this post: Why The New Retweet Function Is An Improvement

CoTweet.com is a powerful Twitter-centric web application designed to help brands connect with their audience and join the conversation. Although used by some large companies such as Ford, Pepsi and Whole Foods I’ve seen little mention of the tool in the blogosphere and thought it deserved some attention.

Why use CoTweet.com?

• Integrated monitoring and response. By going to cotweet.com/search (after signing up) you can monitor any keyword you wish in a column-based interface. What’s particularly brilliant though is that you can quickly reply to tweets and are given plenty of options including an integrated URL shortener and the ability to schedule your responses.
• Fast and sleek interface. The problem I’ve found with most desktop applications like TweetDeck is they run fairly slow and consume large amounts of resources (mainly at the fault of Adobe Air I believe). CoTweet on the other hand is surprisingly fast and has a sleek Mac-like interface. It looks good but is not overpowering either; a good balance between aesthetics and usability.
• Support for multiple accounts. Many bloggers have multiple Twitter accounts to either differentiate between business and personal or for different projects. CoTweet handles multiple accounts beautifully making it easy for solopreneurs to connect with a range of markets and larger companies to widen their Twitter presence.
• Suitable for teams. For some this’ll be the killer feature. To my knowledge CoTweet is the only Twitter tool that allows multiple users to have access to the same account and assign different tweets to those users. Very useful if you’re a larger company with multiple staff managing the Twitter account, or if you’re running your business as a partnership.
• Gives you all the information you need. Simply click on the username of a Twitterer and a sidebar slides out with every detail about that user, a button to quickly follow that user and also access to past conversations you’ve had with them.

How to use CoTweet.com Effectively

1. Understand search filters. Twitter has quite powerful search filters that most people don’t make use of. Since CoTweet uses Twitter’s API, these same filters apply. A previous guest post on TwiTip covers 7 ways to use Twitter search, so that’s a good starting point. The simplest way to make use of search filters when using CoTweet is to add the line “-from:YOURUSERNAME -RT” (without the quotes) whenever you want to track a certain phrase. This hides your own tweets from and stops re-tweeted content from showing up to prevent duplication.
2. Monitor beyond your brand. Monitoring your own brand is certainly important but will unlikely give your exposure beyond your current boundaries. Consider monitoring:
   • Hash tags. Jump into the conversation beyond specific mentions of products.
   • Names (and Twitter usernames) of industry figures. One thing I do is monitor tweets that mention @tferriss because I know people interested in Tim might be interested in my site, and this gives me a chance to connect with them.
   • Other brands. See how the conversation is flowing around your competitors. If you start seeing trends (like, dislikes etc) you can work them into your overall strategy. Twitter’s search is essentially free market research.
3. Embrace every connection. No connection is worth more or less than any other connection. Reply to and connect with as many people as humanly possible. This may not be effective time-wise, but surprisingly strong bonds can be built in less than 140 characters.
4. Track results with bit.ly. By going to the Integrations tab under Settings you can connect your bit.ly accont to CoTweet. Whenever you use CoTweet to tweet a link you’ll be able to track the number of clicks it gets via the bit.ly interface. This is great for gauging interest in content you share so you can accurately tailor your tweets to your audience.
5. Read the official documentation. There’s plenty of features built in to CoTweet and for some it may be a tad overwhelming (especially those working at larger companies who have a bad case of inertia). Luckily they realised that and there’s plenty of detailed documentation.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



How To Use CoTweet To Join The Conversation

Back in the mid 1990s, I worked at Paramount Pictures and their emergent television network, the now defunct United Paramount Network. It was a great time to be at Paramount if you were a Star Trek fan. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was in the middle of its run and Star Trek: Voyager had just premiered to ratings that rivaled some super bowls. In addition, Star Trek: First Contact was in production and when I wasn’t constantly running into people like Jonathan Frakes, Avery Brooks, and Colm Meaney, I was running into Klingons, Borg and Ferengi.

I was fortunate; I had access to the back lot and often visited many of the sound stages. I’ve sat in the cockpit of the plane from Wings, strolled down the New York Street (see, “Stages/NY Streets/Locations, Page 2, scroll to mid-page) and even caught the winning pass that won the Super Bowl (a rare acting opportunity for me on an utterly forgettable TV series). And while I’ve actually walked the decks of the Enterprise, Deep Space Nine and Voyager, the one thing I really wanted, the one thing I coveted, the one thing that no one except for special guests of the studio would ever have, was to sit in the Captain’s chair of a starship.

But now, I have my chance; and you do too. Showing now until September 20, 2009, at Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute (check here for other cities), you can go where no mere civilian has ever gone before. You too can sit in the Captain’s chair!

So why are you reading about the Star Trek Exhibit? Because of how I found out about it; via Twitter. Yes, the staff of the Star Trek Exhibit is using our favorite service to promote the exhibition. The following is a short interview with @StarTrekExhibit about how and why they’re using Twitter.

Engage!

Tell me about the purpose of the exhibit and the people behind it?

Star Trek the Exhibition is the largest collection of authentic Star Trek artifacts and information ever put on public display featuring sets, costumes, priceless museum pieces and props from all five Star Trek television series and eleven Star Trek feature films, including the new blockbuster film most recently released. The purpose of the exhibit is to let the fans see, touch and experience Start Trek on a new level.

Tell me about the purpose of the exhibit and the people behind it?

Star Trek the Exhibition is the largest collection of authentic Star Trek artifacts and information ever put on public display featuring sets, costumes, priceless museum pieces and props from all five Star Trek television series and eleven Star Trek feature films, including the new blockbuster film most recently released. The purpose of the exhibit is to let the fans see, touch and experience Start Trek on a new level.

Why did you decide to use Twitter?

We know that Twitter is just one way to connect with both old and new Star Trek fans. The movie has helped to encourage people who would not consider themselves “Trekkers” or “Trekkies” to engage in discussions about Star Trek. We wanted to be a part of that discussion.

What are your goals for using Twitter?

We want to make people aware of this amazing collection of Star Trek items (http://www.startrekexhibition.com/) and give them the opportunity to help bring the exhibit to their city.

Do you have any Twitter related events/tie-ins planned to promote the exhibit?

We are working on putting together a VIP tour of the exhibit where we invite influential bloggers, Twitter users and the media. From there we would work with these influencers to organize tweet-up with discounted tickets for the group.

Are you tracking how many people visit the exhibit based on your tweets?

Not yet, but that is our goal.

What tools do you use to manage Twitter?

Currently we use tools like NearbyTweets, Twellow, TwitterGrader, and the Twitter search tool to follow people who are local to the current exhibits or interested in Star Trek.

What other Social Media resources are you using?

We recently redesigned our website and included a blog that has interesting commentary on how Start Trek has inspired people and its influence in our culture. In addition, the exhibit has drawn a lot of interest from teachers as a tool to use in discussing science, culture, even history (there are teacher’s guides on the website). We know that educators, including the home schooling community are an active online community, and we are looking at this area as a way to expand our social media reach.

Where else is the Star Trek Exhibition going to be?

Right now the exhibit is in Philadelphia at the Franklin Institute and in Detroit at the Detroit Science Center. On the website we have a feature where you can notify your local museum that you want Star Trek the Exhibition to come to your city. We’ll be using that information as we discuss the next venue – so definitely use that form, and encourage your friends too as well if they want to see the exhibit in a local museum or science center!

Do you think Twitter will be around in the 23rd century?

If Twitter isn’t around in the 23^rd century, then there will be something similar. People are getting used to receiving information in quick snippets. The key will be to develop filters that help people set limits and organize when and from whom they receive the information…and technology that ties all their sources into one feed. The issue will be time management and helping people ’shut down’ for a few hours a day.

Would Captain Kirk use Twitter?

Definitely, he would use Twitter to stay on top of breaking news in the galaxy.

Which do you prefer; Kirk or Spock? TOS, TNG or Reboot? Trekkie or Trekker?

We like them all!  Star Trek and Gene Roddenberry’s vision of the future opened minds and inspired young people everywhere to imagine new possibilities and to believe that even the sky is not the limit. The continuation of that vision through TNG and through fans (however they identify themselves) just proves that humans see the importance of imagining the future.

Tweet Long and Prosper

To Boldly Sit Where I Have Never Sat Before

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Star Trek Exhibition Tweets New Worlds

By Ethan Stanislawski of Prefix. Follow him @tynansanger.

As a music blogger, it would seem preposterous if I didn’t address Michael Jackson’s death in some way on June 25. As soon as I heard he was in the hospital, I knew it would dominate TwiTrends all day, not to mention the blogosphere, all major news sites, and CNN. Once Michael Jackson’s death was confirmed, I knew that it would go on for weeks. And yet, I stayed off Twitter that day because, well, I really had nothing to say about the matter that could ever be considered original.

Though I like just about everyone else had heard Michael Jackson’s music constantly throughout my lifetime, I was never that much of a fan of his music. I don’t even own any of his albums in any format. Ultimately, there was nothing I could say on Twitter about the news that would appeal to me, or, ultimately, my followers.

Of course, if I ran a music website that depended on traffic to make a profit; I would have had to address Michael Jackson, probably in as many ways as I could. In fact, every music site I have ever written for addressed Michael Jackson in more than just one post.

Personally, however, I make no money off twitter, and generally use it when an interesting discussion on music emerges to which I can make a significant contribution. Those who follow me for my tweets about music generally are interested in music that leans towards indie rock, though I certainly don’t limit myself to that. Nonetheless, if anyone was looking for me to tweet about music on that day, they would inevitably expect me to tweet about Michael Jackson, and I don’t blame them. If I let them down, however, I would lose more followers than I would gain.

To me, Twitter provides the flexibility in developing a conversation among likeminded people more than any other social media platform. I have followers who follow me for several different reasons, as I can post about things on Twitter I never could on any other platform. The problem many active Tweeters face is to get carried away with chasing trendy topics that produce little reward for the time and energy put into them. The important thing is not only to know what people follow you for, but do so while looking deeper than general categories (music, sports, restaurants in Brooklyn). The important thing is to develop a voice, and not belittle your followers by pretending to know about something you don’t in 140 characters or less. There isn’t enough time in the day.

Update: I’d like to request that folks keep the comments a part of the real topic here, which is NOT Michael Jackson’s life, his presumed guilt or innocence, or anything else… it’s about your niche on Twitter as a user, and how you use it. My choosing to publish this guest post when it was submitted was NOT to give people a forum for bashing each other about what their feelings are about Michael Jackson. Please let’s stick to the topic? Thank you. – Lara

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Why I Didn’t Tweet About Michael Jackson: How Your Twitter Niche Is More Than Skin Deep