#6: Twitter for Beginners – An All-Inclusive Guide, Part 2
All of my resources were collected since I joined Twitter from fellow Tweeple, and are credited by way of @link to their profile. I encourage you to also follow these fine Tweeple!
Click here for Part 1:
- What is Twitter?
- Why Use Twitter?
- What to Tweet
- How to Follow
- Tweet Etiquette – RT, @reply, DM
Part 2:
- Sharing Tweets Elsewhere – Widgets, RSS
- Twitter Management Apps
- Twitter Terminology
- Linking in Tweets
- Bonus Twips
Sharing Tweets Elsewhere
Widgets, RSS
OK! You’re all set up with your very own Twitter account! You’re having fun tweeting and reading other people’s tweets! Great! …Now what?
Perhaps you would like to share your tweets with people outside of twitter. Embedded twitter feeds are becoming commonplace on many websites. There are two main, basic ways to do this, both of which require some knowledge of html.
The first is by snagging one of Twitter’s own widgets. These can be accessed by clicking here, or through the Apps link at the bottom of your Twitter home page. There is both a dynamic Flash version or javascript/html version. Simple copy/paste the code Twitter gives where you would like to place the widget on your website, blog, or other social profile!
The second option is through various third party RSS feed options. I highly recommend widgetbox because it is free and simple to use and customize. Another option is described on ThinkVitamin’s blog. This method pulls a twitter search feed of specific hashtags (described later).
While there are many other options, these should give you a good start!
Twitter Management Apps
If you visited the Apps page from the link in the previous section, I’m sure you noticed the wide-range just in that short list! If you are truly a Twitter power-user, you must install TweetDeck. This management app allows you to see several views at once, including the main feed, your @replies, your direct messages, and other windows of your choice. Most useful to me is the creation of groups to track my niche tweeps.
If you find that you are spending a lot of time trying to figure out who to follow back when someone follows you, sign-up for the online app TweetLater. Among other things, TweetLater allows you to (as the name implies) schedule tweets for later posting, but also what they call Vetting Followers. By setting your account to auto-follow but also vet followers, TweetLater will hold your new followers for 72 hours for your review to either follow, ignore, or block.
If you spend many tweets posting links, give HootSuite a spin. Not only does HootSuite provide custom short-urls, but each url is statistically tracked. HootSuite also gives the option to schedule tweets, and has a nice interface for tweeting instantly or seeing all tweets.
Twitter Terminology
Here’s a short list of the most popular terms I’ve seen, thanks to the Twitter Wiki:
- Failwhale- the whale held up by birds and string that shows that Twitter has crashed. In danger of extinction, but still seen from time to time.
- Hash Tag - the “#” sign which allows Twitters users to group their tweet with a particular event or conversation. The hash tag makes it easier to search that particular conversation on TwitterSearch. The hash tag is used like this: #pbwiki
- Twittcrastination – avoiding action while Twittering, procrastination enabled by Twitter use
- Tweeple – Twitter people, Twitter members, Twitter users
- Tweeps – Twitterites that follow each other from one social media/network to another.
- Tweeter – A user of Twitter (compare: Twitterer).
- TweetIn – When a group of twitterers agree to get together at a set time to twitter
- TweetUp – When twitterers meet in person in one’s home nest.
- Twitterati – The glamorous A-List twitterer’s everyone wants to follow.
- Twitterrific – a really good Twitter thing
- Twoogle – Twitter as the human Google. Pose a question, get near-instantaneous results.
- Tword – Words formed by appending “Tw” to the original word
Linking in Tweets
Due to the nature of the 140 character limit, don’t even try to copy/paste a full link! Instead, see this list of 20 URL shorteners. The one’s I’ve seen used most are:
- TinyURL – has bookmarklet for quick shortening!
- owl.ly – is part of previously mentioned HootSuite and includes stats and bookmarklet
- bit.ly – has bookmarklet
- tr.im – bookmarklet and stats
- is.gd - bookmarklet via instructions page
Bonus Twips
Remember the link to the name is different than the link to the article!
- @chadengle: Easy Twitter Search in Firefox
- @ eDulcinea: Essential Twitter Advice, Apps and Tools
- @briancray: 7 Websites To Check Your Influence On Twitter
- @smashingmag: 50 Twitter Tools and Tutorials For Designers and Developers (All else will find this useful too!)
- @minervity: 12 Useful Web Based Twitter Tools
- @mayhemstudios: Resource Superlist For Twitter Folks
- Another Huge list of Twitter Tools
If you missed Part 1, catch up here!
And don’t forget to add me, @5t3ph, on Twitter!
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1. Twitter for Beginners, Part 2! « ThinkDoBeCreate | March 15, 2009 at 10:56 am
[...] Read Part 2! [...]
2.
Misty Belardo | March 15, 2009 at 11:15 am
Cool site and nice way for newbies to go to for Twitter tips. I do the same thing on my blog. But mine are just the essentials that most of my followers ask me.. Great job. Hope you can check out some of the stuff ive done too = )
3.
chad engle | March 15, 2009 at 11:27 am
Thanks for the quote!
4.
Kristi Faulkner | March 16, 2009 at 6:40 am
Steph, this is amazing. I was going to write something similar for all the folks who are constantly asking me about Twitter, but now I don’t have to! You’ve done a spectacular job here. In fact, I’m going to post this on my blog and send people straight to you.
Thanks for taking the time to make this so simple and easy to understand!
Kristi
5.
p@r@noid | March 16, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Thanks for the nice post…
retweeted
http://twitter.com/denharsh
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