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.

Easily see your new Twitter followers

The Setting: Tweetdeck is a Twitter application that allows you to more easily manage your tweets by separating them into various columns. So you could have columns for your new tweet messages, your mentions, your direct messages. You could also have columns for Facebook and MySpace updates, but that's a different story.

Tweetdeck now allows you to easily see your 100 most recent Twitter followers in a separate column called New Followers. From there, you can click someone's name to view their profile and/or click to follow them, if desired. It's very cool and easy.

All you have to do is click the New Twitter Column icon in the upper left of your Tweetdeck screen and select New Followers. Oh, you must have v0.31 of Tweetdeck or higher to use this feature.

You can download Tweetdeck here.

Calling all Twitter users

The Setting: Phone calling is coming to Twitter.

Using a third-party tool from Jajah, Twitter users will be able to make phone calls to each other through their twitter accounts. The person receiving the call must be a followerr of the person making the call and both must have Jajah accounts.

The service is expected to work on any Twitter-enabled device, from PCs to smart phones. During the beta period, the calls will be limited to two minutes which, according to Jajah, will be the "verbal equivalent of a tweet."

Why not just make a phone call? One of the features of this tool will allegedly be the ability to make the voice calls while keeping your cell phone number private from the people you chat with on Twitter. Hmm... we'll see.

Read the article about phone calling coming to Twitter here.

Tweetdeck adds Facebook and MySpace

The Setting: Tweetdeck is a free client that helps you more easily filter your Twitter messages. It's one of the many tools out there that makes Twitter a lot more manageable.

Tweetdeck has been updated to allow it to work more smoothly with Facebook and MySpace. I don't use MySpace but the Facebook feature is really cool. You can now see more than just your friends' status updates. You can see their Likes and Comments, you can click Like, make comments, and write on someone's wall, all from within Facebook.

The updated Tweetdeck makes it easy to drag photos and links to the composing window. It then automatically shortens the URLs for you. I'm still discovering all the features, but I really like it so far. I'll let you know about any other cool things I learn.

Here's where you can download Tweetdeck for free. Here's some more information about updated Tweetdeck.

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.

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.

The Ego Massage Generation

The Setting: Do you feel obligated to accept someone’s friendship request on Facebook just because they offered it?

Or connect with someone on LinkedIn because they sent a request? Or follow someone on Twitter because they’re following you? Or connect with anyone on any other social networking tool out there, just because they asked?

I have had this conversation with a few of my friends and many are having these same thoughts. For some people, it really is about quantity and not necessarily about quality. It's a competition – who can get the most connections. Is it just massaging your ego if you have more friends, connections, links, followers, minions than anyone else? Is it about connecting with as many people as possible, is it about the networking?

Speaking specifically about Facebook, I admit I have accepted friend requests from people who are friends of my brother (I at least knew who they were), people I don't really know but we belong to the same organization or professional group, and people who are friends of friends.

I have three friends requests on my Facebook account right now. One is a friend suggestion from someone who thought I might know the person. I don’t. One is from someone I went to high school with whose name sounds vaguely familiar but I know she was not someone I hung out with. The last is from someone I did know in high school and although we were not enemies, I don’t have the best memories of our relationship. Why is it so important for them to be friends with me? Because I am so amazing? Perhaps. Who can blame them, really? I'll keep ya posted.