Twitter only allows 140 characters. There is an infinite amount of things you can say, but only so many ideas to pull from. It’s hard to keep people entertained with your tweets.

The best way to keep from burning out and giving up is to have a brilliant plan that will allow you to reach your goals and meet amazing people.

1. Stay Creative

Tweeting looks so easy, but we all know it’s not. There is a lot of thought that goes into each tweet. Penelope Trunk of Brazen Careerist (@penelopetrunk) has each tweet reviewed by an editor before she sends it out. Well that’s what she told us.

You need to find new ways to get onto other tweeters’ radars. Don’t be afraid to switch around words. Tweeting is an art and sometimes you need to stand out by being different. Don’t be afraid to disagree. Don’t do this too often, but every now and again you can spur on an exciting conversation.

It’s the routine that kills the most tweeters. All they do is link back to their blog and they wonder why they aren’t meeting cool people and having fun connecting with other tweeters.

2. Find a Brilliant Quote to Share

I love finding really cool quotes and posting them on Twitter. It’s amazing how many people will retweet a good quote.

I posted a quote from Gandhi that said, “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”

The CEO of Zappos (@zappos) liked it and retweeted it to his billion + subscribers. I gained over 200 subscribers in one weekend. I was lucky, but any of you can get lucky too; you just have to keep tweeting stuff you believe in and people will want to follow.

3. Just Listen

When I first got on Twitter I wasn’t very active. I just read and listened to others. I began to see what I liked and what I thought would work well for me. After a little while, I jumped in and began tweeting.

I learned the value of just listening to other tweeters. Instead of just getting on there and posting my tweet and leaving, I hang around. I notice when some people are jerks or humble or fun. It’s during these ten or fifteen minutes that I become more attached to the people I’m interacting with.

You’ll burn out quickly if all you do is broadcast your stuff and you don’t listen to the other brilliant people out there. Believe me, there are some smart people using Twitter.

4. Ask a Question

You may want to know what it feels like to stand at the top of the Eiffel Tower, or if anyone has a long commute to work and how they pass the time. The questions you can ask can be crazy, fun, or serious.

I would suggest that your question stay in the theme of the tweets. People like routines and expect to receive a certain type of tweet from you. If you shake it up too much, they may not stick around.

I’ve put out plenty of questions that were never answered. Don’t sweat it. Just post it again in a few hours. If you still don’t get a response, move on and try a different question in a few days.

5. Top 5 Tweeters to Follow

Darren wrote an excellent post about creating niche lists of tweeters that you should follow. For example, “top 5 marketers on Twitter” or “top 5 most interesting people on Twitter.”

When you send out some tweet love you might get a follow from a really cool person. I know that I would love to be included in the top 5 tweeters in the business category.

Don’t be afraid to give other people attention because it’s all about Twitter Karma. The more you give the more you will eventually be given back. The more people who love your style of tweeting, the more motivated you will be to connect with other tweeters.

6. Take a Break and Recharge

There will be some days when you just don’t feel like typing even a tweet. Then take a break and just let everyone else tweet their hearts out.

Stress occurs when we push too hard to accomplish something we aren’t ready for. If you don’t feel like tweeting then don’t. It’s better than sending some big sour puss of a tweet out there and everyone reading it and thinking “Man he is having a bad day.”

That’s when people decide to unfollow you.

7. People Will Unfollow You

Some people aren’t going to like your tweets. Just like every guy or girl doesn’t think you are hot stuff, there will be tweeters that just don’t like your personality.

Don’t take it personally. Your thoughts are not everybody’s cup of wisdom. Even Kevin Rose (@kevinrose) has people who stop following his tweets. He is in a position to add way more people than he loses, so his numbers keep growing anyway.

8. Be Yourself

Don’t try to be like @problogger because you’ll fall flat. I fell into this trap when I first started blogging. I tried to be like @stevepavlina. I only started succeeding when I let go of trying to be someone else and let my true personality come out.

I’ve taken a lot of great ideas from fellow tweeters, but always incorporated them into my own style.

You have to trust that your interests will excite other people. As long as you are authentic, people will catch on. I promise.

9. Copy a Leader

To step on my own advice, I’m going to tell you to copy a leader and his/her style for a day. See what happens. Are you getting more attention?

There is nothing wrong with learning form the masters of Twitter, such as @guykawasaki, and trying to incorporate their style into yours. Be very careful of taking this too far though, because in order to get people who want to follow you and stick with you, you have to be you.

10. Retweet Great Tweets

Retweeting other people’s thoughts is a great way to connect and share with your readers. I retweeted a @lizstrauss tweet and she sent me a thank you note. The more that you connect with talented people, the more likely they will be able to help you in the future.

If you’re not sure exactly what you are trying to accomplish then you must ask yourself, “Why am I doing this?” When you figure out the answer, avoiding burn out will be much easier.

11. Know Your Goals

When you know what you want to accomplish with Twitter it’s much easier to justify using your time and energy on it. If you have a blog, static website, or an offline business you can define your goals and start to make your dreams a reality.

I want to be the one person everyone thinks about when they think about work happiness. Twitter is just another tool that I can use to leverage my expertise.

The best part is that it’s easy to see what is working and what isn’t. If you are sending out the tweets and no one is following then you have to change strategy.

If you are only on Twitter to pass the time and only want to make friends then that’s your goal. Understanding your needs is the most important way to avoid burning out and giving up.

12. Start a 30 Day Challenge

The more compelling the story you tell, the more likely people will want to follow you. One of the best ways to get people involved in who you are and what you have to say is to challenge yourself to become a better person.

I created a “No Complaining” challenge that lasted for the whole month. I blogged and tweeted about it. Fellow tweeters gave me advice and empathy. This is when my tweeting became more personal and more compelling.

People want to know how the situation makes you feel. The Twitter society on the whole is very caring and supportive. So let them know what you are trying to accomplish and let them help you succeed.

13. Remember Twitter is Supposed to be Fun

Twitter should never feel like work and when it does then you know you need to change your habits. I’ve seen some tweeters adding new friends by the hundreds, just trying to get as many friends as possible. They burn out quickly because it stops being fun. They are more worried about how many people are following them instead of the value they are giving and receiving through Twitter.

Let your personality come out because that’s the person people want to see.

At first Twitter can be daunting and confusing, so find the right tools that fit your needs. Darren has plenty of them on this blog. I would suggest Tweetdeck to anyone who hasn’t tried it. It organizes all the tweets making the experience much more enjoyable and less overwhelming.

14. (What would be your number 14? How have you avoided burn-out or overcome it and came back better than ever?)

I’ve posted over 1,500 tweets and I feel like I’m just grasping the art of tweeting. The more that I tweet the better I get and the more fun it becomes. I felt close to burn out a few months ago, but I realigned my goals and I’m back to tweeting up a storm.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



14 Ways To Fight Twitter Burnout

As I’ve been following people on Twitter, I’ve noticed an interesting trend. More and more people are starting to use a validation service to create a gateway between themselves and new followers. On the surface, this looks like a great idea, but I’ve come to realize that it might not be – here’s why:

• It takes a lot of time to validate every single message you receive – Although I don’t mind filling out a captcha every now and then, filling them out by the dozens negates what could be a positive experience. I’ve grown accustomed to ignoring these messages and as a result, I never get to communicate with the people on the other side.
• It can be confusing – Some people, particularly those new to Twitter, might not understand what Twit validation is or why it exists. Placing barriers in the way of communication is essentially the same thing as locking your Tweets, which is another behavior that I find troubling. What is the point of joining a network if you don’t want to communicate?
• Rather than taking your time to filter your feed, you are placing the onus on those interested in following you. Sure, I can ignore the request for validation, but in the end I’ll end up talking to myself. Although there are a select few I follow without a follow back, I don’t like to make a habit of it. Not because I’m a jerk, but because it shows good faith. If you aren’t interested in what I have to say, then we are going to have a hard time communicating.

We can blame the spammers for this, but they don’t care if they ruin the experience. Still, why should we let them change the way that we communicate online? Eventually, Twitter will find a way to weed out messages in the same way that Gmail does, but in the meantime, consider removing the validation from your account and taking the time to filter on your own. If you don’t want to communicate with the masses, then maybe a valdiation service will work for you. However, if your business or brand relies on open communication, then you should think twice about placing roadblocks in between you and your customer.

If you are truly concerned about a cluttered or spam filled Twitterfeed, then consider using groups via TweetDeck or Seesmic. If there are only certain Tweeters that you pay attention to, you can also import their stream via RSS to be sure you don’t miss a thing. Lastly, it only takes 5 seconds to block or unfollow someone, but it takes nearly 20-30 for me to validate my profile for you. Multiply that by a dozen or two and you’ll see why most people don’t have the time to make it worthwhile.

The concept is noteworthy, but the execution leaves something to be desired for. One of the reasons that I love Twitter is that it opens the doors to communication. The problem with validation is that it closes them. What do you think?

[image: Unhindered by Talent]

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Twitter Validation – My Take

• Don’t tweet & drink- it is worse than drunk dialing. @recruitnik
• Engage people around you. @ reply them, FollowFriday them, talk with them. You get a lot more out of Twitter when you engage. @jbwagner
• Don’t be one of those obnoxious “auto thank you” people. @jessicawaters
• Don’t answer Twitter’s question of what are you doing? Unless you’re mega-famous, nobody care’s what you’re doing. @robneville73
• Forget “monetizing” (other things are more important – and that’s not a real word, anyway). @SpikeTheLobster
  [Though I disagree that it's not a "real word" - I do agree that it's best kept off Twitter. - Lara]
• Don’t make it all about you and your company and don’t post the same type of update over and over. @timeontaskva
• Use TweetDeck to filter your followers. @pereca

If you have more Top 3 Twitter Tips to add, please feel free to do so here or on the original post.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Top Twitter Tips From TwiTip Readers

Finding your community in Twitter can sometimes be a challenge, especially for Twitter beginners. Social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and NING have flourishing and established communities that are easy to find. Twitter has some growing and thriving communities too but it’s often a best-kept Twitter secret.

Enter #hashtags and Twitter chats.

Twitter chats offer an effective way to meet people with similar interests and share insights into specific topic. Currently there are more than 35 weekly scheduled Twitter chats on certain days and times with like-minded professionals discussing a variety of questions. Here’s how you can find your Twitter community and participate in a Twitter Chat.

Step 1: Find And Use The Hashtag

Using a hashtag, a symbol – # – followed by a name or abbreviation, people broadcast their tweets to a specific group and follow others tweeting with the same hashtag. The hashtag is one of the keys needed to engage successfully in a Twitter chat. Use the list below to find the Twitter chat and subsequent hashtag that interests you.

Step 2: Use A Twitter Chat Tool To Monitor The Conversation

Twitter veterans know that the second key to successful twitter chat participation is to fine-tune their Twitterstation to remove all the Twitter noise. Like dialing into your favorite radio station and removing all the unnecessary static and chatter, these tools help you follow the conversation without being bombarded by other unrelated tweets. A list of ten Twitter chat tools is listed below. Following a conversation with Twitter’s main Web page is difficult and by the time you hit refresh and find tweets with the hashtag, you’ve missed most of the conversation.

Step 3: Tweet Using These Twitter Chat Basics

Once you’ve identified the hashtag for your community and the Twitter chat tool that works best for you, it’s time to get involved. Login to Twitter and your Twitter chat tool at the appropriate date and time, and watch for the moderator to announce the start of the chat. Now that you know the hashtag, remember to include it in your tweets so others can see your comments and questions.

Most Twitter chats, like #journchat, have some type of established ground rules and culture as people discuss specific topics or questions. Many chats have a moderator to help guide and facilitate the discussion. For example, #eventprofs has a moderator for each chat and established moderator instructions and guidelines. Some Twitter chats allow participants to post random questions and some suggest that the group stay on topic. I’ve seen some Twitter chats with guest experts leading a discussion and answering questions. Some groups archive their weekly chats on a wiki, in their Linkedin group, on a website or on wtHashtag.

Step 4: Now Go, Tweet And Participate

With some practice, hashtags and one of these third party Twitter applications listed below, even beginners can tune-in and participate in a robust Twitter discussion. Here’s to finding your Twitter community and I hope to tweet with you in a Twitter chat in the future!

Twitter Chat Tools

Tweetchat

Tweetchat, a web-based interface, recently made some upgrades and you can use the upgraded version or old one. Login to tweetchat with your Twitter username and password. Once your login has been authenticated with Twitter, enter the hashtag. This will take you to the tweetchat room with your custom Twitter background where you’ll be able to follow the conversation. Tweetchat settings allow you to pause the chat, set the refresh rate, and feature or block specific users. Each tweet you enter into the box will automatically be tagged with the official hashtag. Note: If your username is not showing up in Tweetchat, contact the developers and let them know. (Tweetchat is my personal favorite.)

Tweetgrid

Tweetgrid, a web-based dashboard that allows you to search and view up to nine different hashtags at once. Unlike other Twitter chat tools, you do not need a Twitter account to follow a conversation but you will not be able to tweet without a Twitter account. Open Tweetgrid, choose a grid layout, enter your username, password, hashtag, and enter your tweet in tweet box. Tweetgrid offers settings, photos and DM. If you’re following more than one conversation, you’ll have to enter the hashtag in the appropriate box each time each time you tweet.

Tweetdeck

You’ll have to download this free application to your desktop in order to use. Once downloaded, you’ll need to set one column to search the hashtag by clicking on the magnifying glass and entering the hashtag. You can move that column to the right or left in your Tweetdeck dashboard. You can also change the settings such as background color, font color, refresh rates, etc. Each time you tweet for the specific conversation, you’ll need to add the hashtag. (I use Tweetdeck as my normal Twitter interface and keep columns for following specific hashtags open always. That way I can connect with people in those communities outside of the scheduled Tweet chats.)

Twubs

A newer web-based interface that integrates a variety of media including photos and videos. Unlike tweetchat, tweetgrid and monitter, it also incorporates a URL shortening tool. Sign in to Twubs with your username and password, and enter the hashtag. Twubs automatically adds the hashtags to your tweets, allows you to filter users and has real time refreshing. Twubs also has a widget that you can embed on your website or blog.

Monitter

A web-based interface that allows you to follow up to three hashtags at once. You can only tweet to @replies or send retweets, and you’ll have to enter your username, password and hashtag each time you send a tweet. (This is my least favorite of all the Twitter chat tools.)

WhatTheHashtag (wtHashtag)

A web-based user-editable encyclopedia for hashtags; wiki of registered hashtags. This interface includes a variety of information about specific Twitter chats including a description, schedule and moderator, planned topic queue, stats and top contributors, the ability to view and save a transcript of tweets within a certain date and view the Twitter chat via Monitter. You cannot tweet from wtHashtag. Tip: If you want to know what a specific hashtag stands for, follow wtHashtag. Once they are following you, DM them the hashtag and they’ll reply with the definition on file.

RSS Feeds

If you like reading feeds, you can grab a feed for your hashtag group in Twitter search. Enter the hashtag and then copy the link in “Feed for this query” into your feed reader. Using RSS feeds, you can’t participate in the discussion and send tweets, but you can follow the chat.

TweeTree

Web-based interface that monitors hashtags. Login with username, password and enter hashtag in search function. TweeTree pulls in some additional content like photos, videos, blog posts of some approved vendors so that you can see the link’s content in your stream without clicking the link. You’ll have to remember to add the hashtag to your tweets when participating in the discussion in TweeTree.

Roomatic

Web-based dashboard. Login with user name, password and enter hashtag. You’ll see the tweets in a horizontal grid format with a very small font. Roomatic does not have any settings that you can change to make the font size bigger or change the refresh rate. It does automatically include the hashtag of tweets. You cannot send a reply or DM through Roomatic.

Twemes

Web-based interface that lets you follow hashtag and conversation. You cannot tweet from Twemes.

List of Twitter Chats

Editable Google Doc list of Twitter chats created by Robert Swanwick @spkrinteractive.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Tweeting With Your Twitter Community: How To Participate In A Twitter Chat

I like to compare Twitter to a new relationship. At first, you are interested, but your guard is up. However, as time goes by, you find yourself spending more and more time together until the relationship blossoms and takes on a life of its own. Twitter has a great way of pulling you in like this in a way that no other social network can. Everyone seems warm and friendly and you quickly find that you can take your guard down and start talking with people from all over the world as if they were a guest in your home.

I love Twitter for this reason because it seems that it has never been easier to build so many relationships so quickly. This is really something most of us, unless we are celebrities, have never had to face before. That is, having to deal with thousands of friends at once. At first, a few hundred friends are easy to manage, but soon you have a list of thousands that you have to sort through. It can become a daunting task trying to keep up with everyone, much less interact with them. This is why I don’t think I’d be able to use Twitter without TweetDeck and why I think that the following advice just might save the Twitter interaction that you’ve come to love.

What we are going to do is turn a normal Twitter feed into something that is easy to use and makes interacting with people much easier. If you don’t have TweetDeck, then I highly recommend that you go and grab it now before you finish reading this post. Although Twhirl does come in handy for certain tasks, in my opinion, nothing works as seamlessly with Twitter as TweetDeck does.

Separate Your Follows

The first thing we are going to do is take a single Twitter feed and make it manageable by using groups to filter the people you follow. Since Tweet Deck only lets you have 10 panes open, I’d like to save a few for brand and personal searches. So in this instance, we are only going to add 3 groups. When you first install Tweet Deck, you’ll have a pane for friends, replies, DM’s, and a TwitScoop Window. This will leave you with 3 open panes for anything you wish down the road.

For now, I’d like to use the following strategy:

1. Create a group for friends that you either interact with often or who’s Tweets you don’t want to miss. You can call this group friends, associates, network, or any other name that you choose. We’ll use this group to highlight peers and associates so that you can reply and RT easily.

2. Create a group for new followers or people you would like to follow you. I like to use this group as a reminder to interact with people I haven’t really had a chance to meet yet. Sure, most people send auto-DM’s, but that isn’t really interacting. Although you will make an effort to monitor and interact with this group more than normal, the goal is to eventually move them to your friends group or the main “All Friends” pane.

3. Although it might sound corny, I also like to create a group for what I call “gurus” or “experts.” This group is usually relatively small, but this is the group where I place content experts. For instance, guys like @ChrisBrogan, @DarrenRowse, or @TonyRobbins will go here. Since I find it to be a good practice to keep up on what the experts are saying, this allows me to easily keep up with industry trends.

How to Use these Groups

Now that we’ve created these three groups, I’d like to share my strategy for using them. The first group is fairly obvious…you will reply and RT with your friends, trying to keep up while also bringing others into the conversation. I like to build my network by meeting the people that my friends hang out with and this is a great way to do so. Just watch for common names and you’ll start to recognize the names rather easily. Tweet Deck makes it really simple to follow them too, just click the name and then hit the follow button.

Another reason that this group works well is that Twitter seems to lose replies and DM’s rather often. Having the people most likely to send a reply to you in their own pane makes it easy to check for missed Tweets on other feeds.

To be honest, the second group strategy is a new tactic that I started using only recently. However, I’ve been using it for a few weeks now and it has really made it easier to expand my interaction on Twitter. Most of the time when you add a new follower they get lost in the Twitter stream pretty quickly. Eventually, you forget who you just met and who you’ve had on your list for longer periods. Having a separate pane of new friends makes it much easier to build relationships with them. Some of my favorite people on Twitter started out as new fans. People will instantly appreciate the fact that you’ve reached out to them and once you’ve done that it becomes much easier to build trust.

The last group of “gurus” or “experts” comes in handy for finding posts to RT or read. I also learn who they interact with on a regular basis, at which point I make an attempt to reply to or follow them. Although many of these people have tens of thousands of followers and don’t really have time to reply to everyone, if you make an attempt to reply every now and then they might recognize your name. This is the first step to getting noticed, which can lead to networking, guest posting, or joint venture opportunities. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting you spam this list, just keep it handy for staying up to date on industry trends and other people that you might want to follow.

Additional Twitter Tips

No Twitter post would be complete without some additional networking tactics and some Twitter etiquette to follow, so I’d like to offer just a few more tips that might help you improve your Twitter experience.

The first rule of thumb is that if you want to get noticed, then you need to help others get noticed. I can’t tell you how annoying it is to constantly be bombarded with self-made experts telling you how great they are hoping that you’ll believe it. I also grow tired of watching people spam their own links. If you really want to get noticed on Twitter, then you should help others get noticed first. Spend some time recommending people to your followers, whether it be a blog post, website, or a general follow recommendation. Many of the people that do well on Twitter spend more time giving than getting, so do your part to lift others up if you expect them to do the same for you.

Next, if you send an auto-DM or a Tweet that says you’ll do something, then back it up. If you say you’ll read a blog post, then do it and comment back about it. Don’t try and pull a fast one hoping that people will read your links anyway. This just isn’t a good way to do business and eventually someone will ask for your opinion. It also really bugs me when people send an auto-DM that asks about you, but when you reply they ignore your response. Sure, sometimes replies get lost, but don’t let that be your excuse. If you want to build a network on Twitter, then you need to stand by your word and do what you say. No one likes a liar.

Overall, I think most people have good intentions with Twitter, but there are always a few bad apples that spoil the bunch. Reaching out to others is a great way to build a group of fans and filtering your Twitter feed is a great way to do this. The key to using any social tool effectively is being able to access as much information as you can in as little time as possible. Tweet Deck groups make this incredibly easy and I think once you try these three techniques, you’ll find all sorts of new ways to use Twitter. Just make sure you share them with me when you get the chance!

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Streamlining Your Twitter Feed – Groups to the Rescue

What kind of name is that for a helper app? Hmm, let’s take a look at this new Adobe Air app for Twitter. Because it’s an Air app, it runs on multiple platforms and outside the browser, freeing up your browser for other work. The UI looks a lot like TweetDeck in layout. You can choose from three different “canvases” displayed in columns:

• Home, Replies and (Direct) Messages
• Search, Saved (Favorites), and Sent
• Preferences, Account, People

Each pane is pretty much self explanatory for most Twitter users, even though they’ve given them slightly different names.. The account pane shows your profile information and the people pane shows user information when you click on an avatar, similarly to Tweetdeck. Unlike Tweetdeck you can’t create custom columns for groups, probably the most important feature in TweetDeck in my book.

The preferences pane is where the best features are. You can fine-tune your preferences to open the app at start-up, manage the size of the workspace and how many tweets you want to show at once, or make the font size larger (essential for me, the font when it first launches is unbelievably small). In these days of limkited API calls to Twitter, you can set how often you want DestroyTwitter to ping Twitter for new Tweets and you can set different rates for search and messages, so you can ration your 100 calls to the API per hour based on how you use Twitter. Like the new release of TweetDeck, you can also see how many calls to the API you’ve made, and if you’ve gone over limit, when you’ll be able to call again.

All in all it’s a slick app with some thoughtful features and a very web two oh design. Will DestroyTwitter replace Tweetdeck on my desktop? Not yet. It won’t replace Twhirl either. At least not until it adds a multi-account feature anyway. That said, not bad for an app that was realeased with only “ten days of design and development”. Wow. Look for interesting things from this team.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Destroy Twitter [TOOL REVIEW]

Here’s a quick list of 5 that have enhanced my own use of Twitter this year and why:

1. TweetDeck

TweetDeck has become my primary Desktop Twitter client over the last 6 months of the year and has quite literally changed the way that I Tweet on a number of levels.

One of the biggest impacts that it has had is in the way that it builds ‘groups’ into my twitter workflow. This has helped me immensely to manage the noise that is associated with following and being followed by thousands of people.

Groups enable you to select any number of Twitter users to follow in a special window. This means that if you miss their twees in the ‘all tweets’ timeline you are likely to see their tweets in the group you’ve set up.

Also powerful in TweetDeck is the ‘Search’ feature which enables you to track keywords and who is using them right from within your Twitter Client.

I’m also a big user of TwitScoop so having the ability to have it included in a window within the client is handy too.

I guess as I think about it – the reason I like TweetDeck is that it enables me to use a variety of tools that could be accessed by a variety of services – all within the one client. I’m not constantly having to run to a search tool, logging into TwitScoop, checking individuals twitter pages – it’s all happening on my desktop in the one application.

I also love that it can be run quite effectively in a single column view or opened up to a more comprehensive one across the full screen.

The fact that TweetDeck is still only at version 0.20b excites me – there’s obviously a lot more to come!

TweetDeck is my Twitter application of the year!

2. Twitterlator Pro

Another massive change in my use of Twitter mid year was when I started using the iPhone as my primary mobile phone. I’d been looking forward to this for a long time (Australia only got the iPhone with the new 3G version.

Being able to Tweet from the road, local cafe, while waiting for the Train, at the football…. etc was quite a new experience and so I needed an iPhone Twitter client that was up for the job.

I tested them all – starting with the free applications and then progressing to the paid ones. I settled on Twitterlator Pro (itunes url) for a number of reasons.

Perhaps the biggest reason was the ‘replies’ page. Again – my biggest challenge with Twitter is that I am following a lot of people – so to follow the timeline for everyone that I follow is just not practical. When on my iPhone I tend to live more in the ‘replies’ section and Twitterlator Pro has one of the best of these.

I also love that you can manage multiple Twitter accounts from the one application, that you can see Twitpic pictures within messages, that it has a ‘nearby’ feature to find out who is twittering close by – etc. Many of these features can be found within other iPhone Twitter clients but for me Twitterlator Pro simply ‘fits’ with my Twitter workflow.

Note – there is a notable up and coming iPhone Twitter client that could just take the place of Twitterlator Pro.

In the last month or so Tweetsville (itunes url) was launched and while I’m hooked on Twitterlator Pro Tweetsville (website) has been getting more and more of my iPhone Twittering attention because – well, its got most of the features that I use on Twitterlator Pro but just seems more intuitive.

It’s in its early versions so still has room to improve but I suspect will become my #1 iPhone application in 2009 – the only reason I didn’t name it in my main list is because I’ve been using Twitterlator Pro for six months and so it’s really been more useful to me this year than the one month I’ve had with Tweetsville.

3. TwitterBar

I almost overlooked this application when planning this list – simply because it’s become such a part of my Twitter workflow that it has almost become invisible.

TwitterBar is a Firefox Add-on that allows me to share links on twitter from the address bar of Firefox.

As I’m surfing – if I find a site that I like and want to share all I do is simply add a few words that I want to include with the link to the address bar (before or after the URL) and then click a tiny little grey button to the right of the address bar. Doing this posts the URL and my message to Twitter.

If I’m not sure if I have enough characters left I hover the cursor over this little grey button and it tells me how many I have left.

There are other tools for sharing URLS on Twitter and I’ve tested many of them – but this little add-on is quick, easy, quick and unobtrusive…. and I use it 10-20 times a day!

4. TwitterFeed

I know some on Twitter don’t like tools that automatically post links from blogs – but…. well I’m a blogger and my Twittering centers around blogging. Add to that that most of my followers are online when I’m asleep because I live in Australian and I needed a tool that would do what TwitterFeed does.

In short – TwitterFeed checks the RSS feeds to my blogs every hour (you can change this frequency) and if something new has appeared in the feed it takes the link and tweets it for me. It allows me to customize the tweets so I can add a little message (“New from TwiTip:” for example) so followers know what the link is.

There are options for what is shown (you can show the title, title and description and description only) and you can even filter your tweets by keywords (so that only some links get posted).

TwitterFeed offers you a range of URL shortening services – I use Tweetburner (twurl) which allows me to go to Tweetburner and check what links are being clicked on most (handy to know as a blogger interested in tracking what posts are connecting with readers most).

Again – there are other tools out there including some good WordPress plugins that do it from your blog – but I use TwitterFeed because…. well it works (99% of the time).

5. TwitScoop

This is another tool that I’m constantly looking at (more than I realize). As mentioned above – I use it largely because it is built into TweetDeck but do use the actual site too.

There are a number of things that I use it for including:

1. It’s my newspaper in the morning – one of the first things I do in the morning is to check TwitScoop to see what is ‘hot’. I’m amazed how much news I find through it over my morning coffee.

2. As a blogger is is a fantastic tool for watching for hot trends and topics that are being discussion right now. A number of times I’ve been able to break stories simply by watching what is ‘buzzing now’.

3. Conferences – it’s also quite useful when you’re at a conference, listening to a speaker or tracking a live event to see what people are saying about it.

Other tools that I’ve been using:

There must be hundreds of Twitter Applications and Tools available now so the above 5 just scratch the surface. I’d love to hear your own Top 5 list in comments below.

Before you do – here’s a few others that I use from time to time.

• TweetBurner – as mentioned above, I use this to shorten urls and track what gets clicked on (TwitClicks is another of these).
• Twhirl – I used this a lot at the start of the year and still do on occassion – but TweetDeck has taken it over.
• Tweetlater – I only use it occassionally but it is useful if you need to set a Tweet to go off later.
• MrTweet – everyone’s been raving about this new service lately – it recommends people for you to follow based upon your network.
• TweetBeep – free twitter alerts for keywords
• TweetScan – another alerts tool
• TweetStats – interesting stats on your twitter useage

OK – so it’s over to you – what are your Top 5 Twitter Applications and Tools for 2008?

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



5 Twitter Applications and Tools that Made Me a Better Twitter User in 2008

Twitter, having been quickly adopted initially by key influencers, has grown into a mass-market communication tool, with millions of users.

If you’re publishing content, undertaking online marketing, and looking to keep up with the latest trends in anything web related then Twitter should be featuring highly as a ‘weapon of choice’.

In this article I’ll be assuming you are new to Twitter, and that rather than wanting to use Twitter as a way of simply keeping up with friends, you want to use it as a tool for valuable engagement and maximum effect, avoiding the white noise that Twitter can also create if used incorrectly.

I call this ‘Using Twitter, the Smart Way’.

So, in a nutshell . . . Twitter allows users to post updates (known in the Twitterverse as ‘Tweets’), which consist of text-based posts of no more than 140 characters. A Tweet can include a website link if you wish.

Updates are displayed on the Twitter profile page of the user who submitted the Tweet, or alternatively through a desktop Twitter application, such as Twhirl or Tweetdeck (more on these later), to other users who have signed up to receive them (‘Followers’).

To get you up to speed, before I go into any further detail, it’s worth checking out the Twitter in Plain English video, from the talented folks over at Common Craft.

This will give you a simple and entertaining outline of how Twitter works and how it is most commonly used.

So, Why Should I Use Twitter?

As I’ve mentioned, if you use Twitter smartly, it’s an outstanding tool for engaging with key influencers in your niche and also with your own target audience.

Twitter is immediate, it is fast and it is extremely effective.

Twitter is also invaluable as a means of posting, sharing and recording your own ideas and links, as you have them or come across them (the ones you think others would benefit from hearing about that is!). Think of it as sharing your own virtual notepad.

Some Other Advantages

• Twitter helps you cut down on the clutter created by wading through blogs, newsletters and RSS feeds for the odd gem of useful information, and gets information in front of your eyes with more immediacy, allowing you to filter and favourite ‘on the spot’ (especially if you’re using a desktop application, which you should be)
• It shows you as a keen follower/adopter of the latest tools and apps to your peers and general website audience – always a good thing
• Helps you get your name known with those that matter (to you)

So, how do you get started then?

Here’s the Steps I Recommend:

Step 1

First you need to sign up with Twitter at http://twitter.com

I suggest that you use your name (no spaces) as your twitter account name, but that’s just a suggestion.

Next, you need to track down the people that are worth following. This you can do by using the Twitter search, or alternatively a Twitter directory service, such as TwitDir (listed below). Click ‘Follow’, once you’re on a person’s profile, to follow their Tweets.

Here’s some suggestions (by no means definative) to get you off to a good start. These fit well with TwiTip’s readership, but should also have pretty mass appeal:

• Mashable: http://twitter.com/mashable (blog reviewing all that is web 2.0)
• Scobleizer: http://twitter.com/Scobleizer (web 2.0 commentary)
• Jowjang: http://twitter.com/jowyang (senior social analyst at Forrester)
• Problogger: http://twitter.com/problogger (hugely popular blogging blog)
• Kevin Rose: http://twitter.com/kevinrose (Digg founder)
• Andy Beard: http://twitter.com/AndyBeard (web marketing blogger)
• Maki, DoshDosh: http://twitter.com/doshdosh (blogs about making money online)
• Rohit Bhargava: http://twitter.com/rohitbhargava (social marketing guru0
• John Chow: http://twitter.com/JohnChowDotCom (also blogs about making money online)
• TechMeMe: http://twitter.com/techmeme
• . . . and of course myself, the author of this article, Mark Ramskill: http://twitter.com/ramskill

It’s also well worth checking out the followers of those i’ve listed above as well. Read their profiles, visit their sites, and only add them if you feel they’ll bring value to your Twitter experience.

Step 2

Download a Desktop Client

I suggest Twhirl for light users, or for those who want to make frequent use of Twitter and build up a following that needs more careful management, try TweetDeck.

Twhirl makes it really easy to follow others and post Tweets. This desktop application functions in many ways like an instant messenger, whereby as soon as anyone you are following sends a Tweet to you, it is received in Twhirl and also flashes up in a small bubble in the corner of your desktop, for quick and easy reading.

When I began using Twitter as a light user, I wouldn’t have been able to use it in any kind of useful way without relying on Twhirl.

Once you’ve downloaded Twhirl and opened it for the first time (you may be asked to install Adobe Air), add your Twitter account information in your Twhirl settings (you can add more than one Twitter account if you wish) and away you go! I’ll let you know the four key methods of Twitter communication / engagement in a moment.

TweetDeck

As mentioned, I suggest you start using TweetDeck once you’ve built up a following. I moved across to TweetDeck when I reached 100 or so followers, although you may wish to use it straight away.

At a certain point users find that Twhirl becomes harder to manage, requiring a need to think about grouping people, according to what they do or their relationship to you, with replies and direct messages filed separately.

TweetDeck provides all the functionality you need to adequately manage posts, groups of followers, replies and direct messages, however many followers you may have.

TweetDeck, like Twhirl, is an Adobe Air based application, so as part of the installation process you make be asked to install this as well.

Step 3

The four key methods of Twitter communication / engagement

Ok, so you’re set and ready to go. However, before people will be prepared to follow you (barring those that add anybody) you need to start posting Tweets that others will find useful and that relate to your niche or your interests.

1. For general posts, simply either log in and type your Tweet in the message box on the Twitter website, or use the message box in your desktop app (140 characters is the maximum length of message).

2. To reply to someone, use the ‘@’ symbol, then their Twitter username, e.g.

eg: @ramskill your message, whatever it may be

Bear in mind that this reply can be seen publically, by your followers and the followers of who you are replying to.

3. To ‘Retweet’ / repost a Tweet from someone else, use ‘RT’, a space, the ‘@’ symbol, then their Twitter username, e.g.

eg: RT @ramskill your message, whatever it may be

4. To send a private direct message to someone, use ‘D’, a space, then their Twitter username, e.g.

eg: D ramskill your message, whatever it may be

That’s all there is to communicating and engaging through Twitter . . .

Step 4

Don’t forget to tell others that you have a Twitter account!

Now you’ve started following people yourself and you’ve begun Twittering, it’s now time to post about your Twitter accounts’ existence (www.twitter.com/yourusername) on your website or blog, email friends/collegues/relatives that share your interests and generally get people to follow you (remember: you don’t necessarily have to follow them back).

Don’t forget to link to your Twitter account on any other social sites you use, such as Facebook (most of them have functionality to add a link to your Twitter account or even take live feeds from it).

Step 5

Remember the importance of Twitter Etiquette!

A rapid way for Twitter users to unfollow you is if you spam them constantly, don’t respond to replies or direct messages, act obnoxiously or generally fail to bring value by Twittering about ’stuff’ that is of no use to them.

Think of your audience at all times. Act as you would if you were dealing with them face to face in a business situation, or sitting down for coffee with them. Respect is key.

Most importantly, remember that new people are viewing your Twitter profile constantly, and making a decision about whether to follow you, based on the Tweets and replies they see.

By all means Tweet about your website, blog, service or product, but also try and add value by making this just a part of your communcation. If you come across a website or service that could benefit others Tweet about it. You’ll soon build up a positive reputation as someone worth following and recommending.

What you give is what you get back. Apply that mantra and you can’t go far wrong!

That’s it. You’re set!

You now know how to use Twitter, begin following others and build up your own posse of followers. Most importantly you now know how to use Twitter effectively to communicate and engage with others.

Twitter Tools

So . . . now for the hot stuff! The Twitter tools . . .

The following is a list of the key sites or apps I have used, and continue to use, to enhance my Twitter experience:

• Mr Tweet (makes recommendations on who to follow)
• Tr.Im (url shortening service for Twitter, with stats)
• Tweetburner (alternative to Tr.Im)
• Tweet Later (schedule Tweets over a period of time)
• TweetBeep (track who is mentioning you)
• TweetGrid (live updates for any keyword on Twitter)
• TwitDir (a Twitter directory service)
• Quitter (emails you when someone stops following you)
• Twitter Grader (see how you rank on Twitter)
• TwitStamp (create a personalized Twitter badge)
• Twitterfox (Firefox Twitter status Add-On)

And if you want more – 27 Cool Tool and Resources for the Twitter Addict

In Summary

Hopefully, i’ve given you enough information to fuel your imagination and make you want to get started with Twitter and its associated apps and services.

In this new web 2.0 world, immediate access to information, and easy engagement with those that post it, is a necessity.

Twitter, if used smartly, helps you do just that!

Remember, i’m here to help.

Add me: http://twitter.com/ramskill

And feel free to ask me questions, or just say hello!

Mark Ramskill is the Marketing Specialist for SubHub, a revenue-ready content publishing platform.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Using Twitter… ‘The Smart Way’

Whether you’re a startup or an established company, your customers are probably on Twitter. And whether you like it or not, they’re going to complain and praise your company and products on Twitter. Let that sink in a for a second: they’re going to complain and praise your company and products in a very public forum. There is no escaping that your reputation can be, rightly or wrongly, negatively or positively affected because of a handful of tweets.

But I’m not here to scare you into creating a Twitter profile. What I’d like to do is tell you how wonderful an opportunity this is to engage with the Twitter community, in public, and win the hearts of this community.

The Key to Community Engagement is Monitoring

To know which members of a community you need to be talking to, you need to know who’s talking about you. On Twitter, that’s quite a feat. Think about the challenge you have: Twitter has millions of users. Some are very popular with thousands of followers (i.e. very influential) but most are not that popular. Some tweet very regularly and some tweet very rarely. Some simply whine about your product, some post wishes for features, some express frustration, some give constructive feedback, and if you’re really lucky, some sing your praises. How would monitor all this activity?

The answer begins with Twitter search. This is a relatively new service from Twitter. It used to be a startup called Summize that Twitter bought and integrated. By far, this is the best way to monitor Twitter. Type in a search and you get 15 hits per page (remember this number). I tend to keep the search’s tab open because the results update once a minute using AJAX: if there are new results, you get a message saying “X more results since you started searching.” Refresh the page and you get the new tweets. Also, when there are new results, the page’s title is updated to tell you how many new results there are so you don’t have to keep checking the page. How is that for real time monitoring?

The other neat thing about Twitter search is the RSS feed. Every search can be turned into an RSS feed; you can find the icon at the top of the sidebar on the right. You can subscribe to this with your favorite RSS reader, but think about what you can do if you write monitoring programs that pull the RSS data and then analyzes it. So set up searches of your brands, products, etc, and watch them!

However, once in a while Twitter search will break, especially during peak hours when you see a delay in results coming in. More seriously, sometimes it misses tweets that clearly match the query. So make sure you don’t depend on it 100% but open up other communication channels like direct messages (more on that in a bit).

For completeness, there are other ways to monitor Twitter:

• Use advanced desktop clients like Tweetdeck and Twhirl.
• Use tweetbeep, which bills itself as “like Google Alerts but for Twitter”, and be sure to read TwiTip’s own Tweetbeep for Beginners guide.
• Use the search engines: Use the [site:] operator in Google or Yahoo!; example: [google site:twitter.com] to search for all mentions of “google” on Twitter. Also, if you have a Google Alert set up for your brand, it will pick up some tweets.

Talk to Them!

OK, so you know who you need to talk to, now what?

The first thing to realize is that most of your talking on Twitter is in public: everyone can see what you’re saying. Yes, this does mean that you must never make your updates private if you’re engaging with others on Twitter. Direct messages (DMs) are to be reserved for specific uses as I’ll explain below.

Here are the different ways you talk to people:

• Thank those that praise you and extend a welcoming hand saying you’re here if they need any help, got any questions, feature requests, feedback, etc. Basically, tell them how they can talk to you if they so wish. A good way to thank people on Twitter is to also follow them, and this opens up the possibility of them sending you a DM if they so wish.
• Publicly @reply to the people that speak negatively about you offering them help. The simplest offer of help is to give them an email address for them to contact you. If it’s a problem you’re working on, tell them a fix is coming soon. If it’s a new problem they’re reporting, thank them wholeheartedly and promise a fix soon (it’s a free bug report your quality assurance people missed). Don’t be afraid to ask them to contact you privately so that they can give you a better description of the problem and have them help test the fix. And of course, follow them. They might want to DM you something private, like their username.
• Give your community a way to contact you outside Twitter. We just talked about email, but your profile page should at least give a link to a website. I can’t decide what’s the best page to link to as your website on Twitter, so I’ll give you suggestions:
• • Your website’s home page
  • Your contact page
  • Your blog’s home page
  • A custom landing page
• And don’t forget to say something sensible in the Bio field.

One last tip: don’t use services to automatically follow all your new followers. It’s impersonal, and it’s obvious. Instead, get Twitter to email you every time someone follows you (or you can check your followers periodically), and follow everyone who’s not a obviously a spammer and send them a personalized DM thanking them for the follow. You can easily personalize it by finding out their name. It take 15 seconds to do this and it’s a good thing. Don’t expect any replies though.

Brand Your Profile Page

Yes, it’s a way of talking to your community as it shows effort and that you care. It’s also a quick confirmation to a new visitor that they’re viewing the right profile. Some tips to get you thinking, and you really should read Sara Rosso’s post here on TwiTip for more details:

• Change your icon/avatar photo. Upload a small version of your logo. Twitter will automatically resize that; it will not look perfect unless what you upload is a square because the photo is a square. I usually use a large version of the website’s favicon as that’s the correct brand and is also a square.
• Change your background. I’ve seen many approaches to how this gets done: some theme it exactly like the website; some create a custom theme but using the same color palette as the website, and some just choose a color. I suggest the following: the current Twitter design is centered on the page. So use the left hand side space to put some useful info: your logo at the very top, contact details, interesting web links, etc. I did mine (for @cligs) manually, but The Closet Entrepreneur has Powerpoint and Keynote Twitter background templates to help you. A rough rule of thumb for the space on the left is 150-200px.

Get Your Blog to Work With Your Twitter Profile

The root of this tip is that how you engage with your community is not a one-off or one-channel task, but an integration of multiple channels. To this end, blogs are a natural fit to complement your Twitter efforts. So how do you integrate blogging with Twitter? Some ideas:

• Promote your Twitter profile on your blog, and link back from Twitter to your blog.
• Automatically post your blog posts to Twitter. There are many plugins that do that automatically. For Wordpress, I recommend Alex King’s Twitter Tools or WP-To-Twitter.
• Integrate Twitter profiles into your blog comments. This is easy to do using Sean Walberg’s easy instructions on Problogger.

So Does it Work?

Short answer: oh yes it does! I’d like to illustrate this with three examples.

• Comcast: The prototypical example of using Twitter to engage with your community is Comcast. The “Comcast Guy” is Frank
  Eliason @comcastcares and he can work some magic apparently. Michael Arrington (of TechCrunch) wrote up his experience of publicly complaining about Comcast on Twitter back in April, and how Comcast responded (by very quickly fixing his connection). And that’s not unique: googling brings up a lot of stories, some even proclaiming new love for Comcast. Now that’s magic.
• Google: There is a great write-up about a Google Webmasters Tools user, Gary Cope, having a problem. Gary blogged about it and that got automatically fed into his Twitter account and that got picked up by Sagar Kamdar (@skamdar), the new Webmaster Tools PM. Sagar publicly notified Gary on Twitter that the problem is being looked into, and then personally replied to Gary’s blog post the next day saying the problem is fixed.
• Tweetdeck and Twhirl: These are my favorite examples of one person making a big difference using Twitter. Tweetdeck is a popular Twitter client written by Iain Dodsworth. Iain uses Twitter as a very powerful support channel. To see it in action,
  just look at the @tweetdeck feed. Likewise for Twhirl, another popular Twitter client, the @twhirl feed is just awesome.

And these are not the only examples. ReadWriteWeb has more, and just search using your favorite search engine.
It really is amazing what a good Twitter engagement can do to your business. It builds good will, gets you rave reviews, makes people like you more (or hate you less ), not to mention creating buzz and generating links. Comcast hit it spot on when they named their account ComcastCares, because that’s what you should be doing: caring. If you care enough, a community will build itself around you. And Twitter is a very easy channel to demonstrate that you care.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



How Your Company Can Build A Community on Twitter

Image by me and the sysop

If you’ve been using Twitter for a while, you might notice that some of the most successful folks on Twitter make a concerted effort to help out their friends / followers. And they seem to ask for nothing in return!

Many folks believe, including me, that this practice of selfless giving is central to all success, personal and professional.

The problem is that no matter how helpful you want to be, no one’s invented a way to get 25 hours out of a day.

Until Now

Using a combination of Twitter tools, you can practice enlightened self-interest without the need for prescription drugs.

Following are examples of how to save time with Twitter tools to find out 1) what your friends need, 2) collecting that information, and 3) giving them that information.

Note: Don’t try this with ALL of your friends, just a few – or you really will go mental!

What Does My Friend Need?

Most of us have a general idea of what our friends need, but may have missed the few tweets about problems with a client project or thesis.

TweetStats can be used to find out details about your friend (in a non-spying way, of course . After you’ve entered your friend’s twitter ID, Study the TweetCloud:

Mousing over the tweetcloud shows 49 mentions of “coffee” in Darren Rowse’s twitterings. Is this useful information? You decide.

How Can I Find It?

Once you know what your friend needs, use a combination of the following automated search methods:

• Test Keywords With Monitter.com – This snazzy tool let’s you compare the frequency of three different keywords. In Melbourne, Australia, “coffee” occurs more often than “cappuccino” or “tea”:

You can then subscribe to updates on your search using the RSS feed.

• TweetBeep works much like Google alerts, but you can combine keyword searches with location criteria. It also allows you to be alerted whenever a particular web-site it tweeted, even if the URL is shortened!

• Don’t Forget Google! Google alerts will pick up anything outside of Twitter. Set the alert to “as it happens” so that you can quickly send any valuable content to your friend.

How Can I Get It To Them?

Beyond TweetDeck, iTweet, Twhirl and Twitter.com, here are two pain-free ways to get information to your friends:

TwitThat: This is a firefox add-on that lets you quickly post the URL of a website you’re reading. The cool thing is that you can create a “reply list” of your friends in a drop down menu:

Clicking “twit” automatically posts the webpage in twitter as “@Problogger – found this:” Saves much more time than copying and pasting URLs and headlines. Also, having your friends listed in this drop-down keeps them foremost in your mind.

TwitterFeed is a utility that automatically posts updates of any RSS feed. Like TwitThat, you can also create a “reply to” prefix of tweets. In our example, we could post updates from the Starbucks blog and post them with “@Problogger – Coffee News:” at the beginning of the tweet.

This is perfect for those situations where someone is working on an urgent project and would love to receive helpful information from you, even while you’re sleeping!

If used thoughtfully (in a non-stalking way ), these techniques can help you be useful on Twitter without going mentally insane.

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



How To Be Useful On Twitter Without Going Crazy