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

Which Twitter Applications have you valued the most in 2008?

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

1. TweetDeck

tweetdeck.pngTweetDeck 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.

tweet-deck.jpg

(more…)

5 Ways I Benefit from Twitter

“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

personal search engline.png (more…)

Twitterific Review

There are many Twitter clients available for Twitter users to download and use. Today Mike Nichols (follow him at @mikenichols0) from the Anxiety, Panic & Health blog reviews the popular Mac Twitter Client - Twitterrific.

Twitterific is the most popular Twitter client application for the Mac. It is simple, has a clean interface, and is easy and intuitive to use. It has some tradeoffs for this simplicity, as we will see. Twitterific can be used free of charge without limitation, but advertisements are displayed once per hour. If you pay the IconFactory $14.95 US, ads are removed. Twitterific is available for the iPhone and iPod Touch, as well.

twitterific-screen.jpg

(more…)

TweetDeck [Review]

tweet-deck-3.jpg In this post Kim Woodbridge from (Anti) Social Development reviews popular Twitter Client – TweetDeck. Follow Kim on Twitter @kwbridge

Tweetdeck is an Adobe Air desktop application used to access Twitter. Tweetdeck is available for the Windows and MAC operating systems. It is made of panes that allow you to take the enormous amount of information contained within Twitter and break it down into parts that are more easily managed.

Default Panes:

  • All Tweets – All the people that you are following.
  • Replies – All @ messages sent to your username
  • Direct Messages – All personal d messages sent to your username

More panes can be added by using Tweetdeck’s features, such as Groups, and can be rearranged by moving them to the left or the right.

(more…)

What Twitter Tools and Services Do You Use?

Twitter-Tools
Over the last year there seems to have been a tool or service released for Twitter users every few days. There are:

  • Twitter desktop clients (I’m a fan of Twhirl and TweetDeck)
  • Twitter Applications for iPhone (I’m a user of Twittelator Pro)
  • Twitter user ranking services (like Twitterholic)
  • Visualization tools (like TweetWheel)
  • Tools to import RSS feeds to your Twitter account (I use Twitterfeed)
  • Tools for setting tweets to go off later (Tweetlater)
  • Metrics tool (TweetStatsTwinfluence)
  • Tools for sharing pictures on Twitter (Twitpic)
  • Services to tweet to groups (GroupTweet)
  • Twitter Directories (Twellow)
  • Tools for finding new people to follow (Twubble)
  • Tools for helping you to track Twitter Conversations (Tweet2Tweet)
  • Trend Tracking tools for what’s hot on Twitter (Twitscoop)
  • Tools to help Twitter integrate with other applications (TwitterCal – which lets you add items to your Google calandar by Twitter)
  • Services for groups to tag and organize tweets (HashTags)
  • Twitter updaters (Ping.fm – which allows you to update status on multiple sites like Twitter)
  • Twitter backup services (TweetTake)
  • Services to let you track which links people are clicking on in your Tweets (TweetBurner)

These are just some of the tools services I’ve used in the last few weeks and they only scratch the surface at the hundreds of Twitter tools that are released.

What Twitter Tools and Services do you use? Leave the ones you love in comments below.

I’m looking forward to finding out which ones get mentioned most and finding some new ones that I’d not previously discovered.