8 Ways to Use Twitter Lists

When Twitter lists first came about, I had a hard time thinking of a good reason to use them. Then I realized they were a great and efficient way to track "experts" in a particular topic. For example, I created a list that includes people or companies who offer lots of interesting and helpful information about social media-related topics. I created another list that includes those who mainly discuss tools/applications/gadgets.

Then, instead of sorting through the wide variety of messages in my Twitter timeline, I can just look at one of my lists and the tweets are focused around similar topics. Lists allow me to filter out all the stuff I have no interest in seeing right now.

The blog posting linked below includes some great ideas on how you can use Twitter lists, such as creating customer lists or promoting events. Remember, when you create a list you can make it private so others can't see it. That would come in handy if you wanted to create a customer list or something you don't want to share with all of Twitterville.
http://thebabyboomerentrepreneur.com/1149/the-top-8-ways-to-use-twitter-lists/

Using Tweetchat.com

I occasionally participate in a weekly Learning chat event via Twitter called LRNCHAT. Each time I send a message that I want to include in its chat stream, I add the #lrnchat hashtag to my message. Occasionally, I forget to add the hashtag and my message is not included in the chat stream.

I recently learned to be more efficient by using http://www.tweetchat.com/.

All you have to do is sign in using your Twitter credentials, type the hashtag in the window at top of the screen, and click Go. The stream from the chat event displays. When you type a message within this window, the hashtag is automatically attached for you; you don’t have to remember to add it each time. Among other things, you can also control how often the window refreshes, allowing you time to read current messages before viewing the next batch.

A novel idea, one tweet at a time

The Setting: Author Matt Stewart is posting his entire novel via posts on Twitter, one tweet at a time.

A friend of his created a tool that automates the tweets and sends them out in 140-character chunks. Stewart estimates that it will take 3700 tweets to transmit the entire novel. The book is also available via Stewart's web site, and on the Kindle.

You can read the article here.

Five jobs for Facebook addicts

The Setting: Are you a Facebook guru and/or an expert in Twitter and LinkedIn?

New job roles are being developed as a result of the growth of all these social media tools. However, there's really not a lot of these jobs available yet, so get ready for some competition.

Here is an article that describes five jobs to consider in your next job search if you feel you are a social media / networking expert.

Evolution of Blogging

Here is an interesting article, written by Dan Fletcher, on the evolution of blogging:

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1912249,00.html

Celebrity Death Watch

The Setting: It seems a lot of celebrities have died over the past couple of weeks. Weird...

Once several celebrities had died, rumors quickly started spreading online about a whole bunch of others dying. I heard the rumors about Jeff Goldblum and I seem to recall something about Natalie Portman, but I had not heard the rumors about Harrison Ford, George Clooney, and Britney Spears.
There's some dude named Rich Hoover who has a site called fakeawish.com, that "allows users to input celebrity names into five false news templates with outlandish stories about their deaths." Apparently, after Michael Jackson died, people used this site to generate false stories about other celebrities. Some people then read the stories and reposted links to them on their Twitter and Facebook pages without reading the "small disclaimer" that said the stories were not true. Others then jumped on the bandwagon and reposted / retweeted the fake stories themselves.

Hoover said, "I'm absolutely flabbergasted by the success of this and the impact these social networks have on communication -- and the communication of misinformation."

Well, that's the thing. All this social media is great for quickly spreading information. Only problem is, it may not be true. Hell, you don't even know if what I just said is true. Here's a link to the article about celebrity death rumors.

Who you callin' a Tweeter?

The Setting: I figured it was about time I learned more about Twitter, since I use it and everything.

Yesterday, I was Googling and found this great Twitter Resource. It provides a plethora of information including Twitter basics, a glossary, apps and services... the list goes on and on. Check it out.

Social Media Last Will and Testament

The Setting: So what happens when an online gamer dies? How will his online gaming buddies know about it? Will they think he just abandoned them? Do we care?

I read an interesting article about family members searching down their dead gamer relative's passwords to online sites and then logging on to contact the gamer's friends to let them know what happened. Some gamers are actually leaving their log in / password details where family members can find them so that if they should die, their family members can log on to the various sites and communicate their demise.

There is a site called Deathswitch where members pay $20 a year and set up to 30 e-mails. If they don't check in at regular intervals, the e-mails are automatically sent to whomever the member specified. Another site called Slightlymorbid, whose byline says "Notify your online friends if something happens to you," is similar to Deathswitch. The difference is that the member does not need to check in at regular times; instead, their family member contacts the company if something happens to the member to start the "notification process." The Legacy Locker site plans to launch in April. It will require a death certificate before releasing any information.

With the popularity of online games and social media, I imagine we'll see more and more companies like these popping up. Click here to view the Death of gamers article.