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Twitter Tools Part 1
October 30, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
Twitter Tools Part 1
by Al Ferretti and Skeeter Hansen
Twitter Tools (part 1 of 6): “For Fun and More”
Twitter Watchdog presents Twitter Tools Part 1 of 6 For Fun and MoreEarlier this year, Evan Williams CEO and Co Founder of Twitter reported that there are about 2,000 3rd party tools and apps for twitter. Wow~ Did he say 2,000? That’s a lot of options.
To keep things simple we’re sharing a tidbit with a link to some of the more popular twitter tools in use today. This is part 1 of 6 and we are beginning with twitter tools and apps “For Fun and More”
Crowd Status- View the status of your friends on Twitter in a start-up page style.
Bkkeepr– With this service, you can track the books you are reading on Twitter.
CommuterFeed – You can share your traffic report on Commuterfeed using Twitter.
Foamee – This is a fun site that allows you to track people who owes you beer or coffee using your Twitter account.
FoodFeed – is a micro blogging site that you can use to post about your food habits through Twitter.
InnerTwitter– Meditate by receiving chimes at regular intervals from InnerTwitter.
Notches– Allows you to write reviews of certain items on Twitter.
Hahlo– if you are not satisfied with your Twitter interface, you can check out Hahlo to manage your Twitter account. It gives you a separate profile page and the rest of the Twitter features in a new look.
My Tweeple– Manage your friends and followers in Twitter on a single web page.
Post Like a Pirate– This tool allow you to convert your post into pirate-speak before posting it to Twitter. I, however, don’t need it, because I already speak like a pirate. Yarr!
Quitter will help you how to use Twitter to quit smoking. Bonus points for cool name.
Roll the dice – You can use this service to do all the silly things on Twitter like roll a dice, flip a coin, deal cards, or generate a random number.
StrawPoll – Sends out polls on Twitter that you can participate on. As they say, you can never have too many polls.
TrackThis – This is an useful service to get updates of your shipment using Twitter. It supports FedEx, UPS, USPS and DHL tracking codes.
Twee60 – You can tweet your Xbox live status with Twee60 automatically.
TwitResponse – Set up your Twitter posts for the future.
TwittEarth – This is a 3D model of the earth displaying the latest updates on Twitter across the globe. You can download the tool as a screensaver.
Twitterfeed – Posts your blog posts automatically to Twitter.
TwitterMeThis – When you follow TwitterMeThis, it will send you a question randomly. If you are the first to answer that question, then you get $5.
TwitterSpy – provides you a Google map on its site. when you hover your mouse above certain locations on that map, you get to see the latest public posts from that area. Strangely addicting.
Tweetclouds – Create a word cloud from a public Twitter stream using this service.
Tweetgift – Remember Facebook where you can poke, throw a sheep, or hug a friend? Tweetgift enables you to do the same on Twitter.
Twaction – Another service that lets you do Facebook-style pokes and slaps at friends.
Twistori – Based on Summize, this service collects Twitter messages with words such as love, hate, think, believe, wish, and feel and displays them on its site with automatic updates.
Twitpoll – You can participate on polls using Twitter through Twitpoll.
Tweetshots – this service allows you to take your Twitter posts to Tumblr, embed in websites, or send over email.
TwitterAnswers combines Twitter and Mosio, so that you can send questions over Twitter and have them answered by other people.
Twitter Karma – This tool fetches your Twitter friends and followers and displays them for you, letting you paginate through them in a nicer way than you would on Twitter.
TwitterNotes – You can create notes on TwitterNotes using Twitter and tagging your notes.
TwitterPoster – This site generates a mosaic of user icons of those with a large number of followers on Twitter.
TwitterSnooze – If you have friends on Twitter who are updating every 10 seconds and are irritating the hell out of you, you can simply now snooze them away using this tool.
TwitterSpectrum – Based on Summize, this tool show you the associated words of two pair of words or names in a nice spectrum layout.
Xpenser – Record your expenses using Twitter. You can also use other mediums like email, SMS, IM, voice, etc.
Who Should I follow Who Should I follow – Find interesting people to follow on Twitter using this tool.
Using Twitter for Business
October 26, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
When I first heard about Twitter–a tool for instantly broadcasting the stream-of-consciousness minutiae of your life to the world–I was pretty sure it was a cross between a complete waste of time and navel gazing on crack.
Turns out I was right.
A quick peek at the most recent posts–called “tweets”–include information on what people are having for breakfast, laptop woes and depressed thoughts over last night’s home team loss. (Plus a bunch of foreign-language tweets that may range from the ridiculous to the sublime and back again.)
Twitter users–often called Tweeple (or worse) can update their status using 140 characters or less, the aforementioned “tweet.” If you join Twitter you can “follow” other tweeple, which causes their updates to appear on your home page. In turn, they can follow you as well, a form of permission-based marketing. You can also converse with them through Twitter, but always in 140 characters or less.
It’s kind of like an IT haiku.
Within this expanding base of exhibitionist navel gazers are a growing number of people who are using Twitter for business. And I’m not just talking about aggressive Web marketers who tweet every blog post they make and create links to all their online activities.
Rather, there are professionals who are using Twitter as a communications tool. (Imagine that!) Here’s how you can use Twitter for business:
- Followindustry leaders who post links to important resources and influence conversations.
- Post questions for quick answers and answer others’ questions to establish your credibility and expertise.
- Keep up on the buzz in your industry.
- Network with like-minded people.
To find these interesting tweeple in the midst of all that noise, you can use the Twitter search box that will search matches in others’ profiles, but not on individual tweets. Here are a couple of 3rd party tools that allow for more advanced searches:
- Who Should I Follow?: Finds and suggests like-minded people based on your tweets.
- Summize: Allows you to search tweets for keywords and offers lots of customization tools.
The more people who follow you on Twitter, the more influence and networking opportunities you have. Thus, it makes sense to try and build a following. Here are some ideas on getting others to follow you:
- Follow them. There’s an almost kneejerk reaction to follow people who follow you.
- Post some good tweets right before following someone else. I find that if someone follows me and they only tweet abouthow hungry or tired they are, I don’t follow them back. The same goes for people who haven’t tweeted in a while.
- Reply to people you are following, especially if they’re not yet following you.That’s a good way to engage someone and get them to follow you, even if they didn’t follow you immediately. Remember, though, some people have thousands of followers, and may not be able to respond to every reply.
While the rules and guidelines of Twitter etiquette are still evolving, guidelines from other social media sites can used:
- Treat others with respect
- Participate in the community
- Do more than promote your own agenda.
Professionals and consultants have had the most impact at Twitter; most businesses are still trying to figure out how to use Twitter as a communications tool. If you’re not a one-person shop, here are a few ideas to help get your creative juices flowing:
- A restaurant tweets their daily specials
- A ticket agency tweets about-to-expire tickets
- A realtor tweets new homes on the market
- A chamber of commerce tweets local events and promotions.
For more ideas, or just to engage me in conversation, I invite you to follow me at Twitter. I promise not to tell you what I had for lunch.
Unless it’s really good.
Rich Brooks is president of flyte new media a Web design and Internet marketing company. Flyte designs professional Web sites and promotes them with strategic Web marketing campaigns that include search engine optimization, email marketing, business blogs and more.
He blogs on Web marketing topics regularly at flyte blog: web marketing strategies for small business and publishes a monthly email newsletter called flyte log. You may also find articles by Rich at the TalentZoo.com
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