Twitter, like most things online, has TMO (too many options) and finding the best tool to make the most of your Twitter experience is important. I like to keep things simple and direct so after using a few twitter interfaces I've settled on Tweetdeck.
If you already have a twitter account, perfect, if you don’t you can easily set it up by going to http://www.twitter.com. Set up your profile, which is something you want to spend some time on. I recommend using your real name. Be straight forward about who you are and what you do. Your online bio, just like your tweets, only gives you a few characters to work with so make them stand out. You want people to know what you do and what you are about.
When using Twitter I like to use the 'water cooler' analogy and make a few tweets over coffee in the morning, during a few breaks during the day, perhaps a few minutes at lunch and maybe before signing off for the day. I'm not good about setting timers but that's sometimes a great way of making sure you don't waste too much time around the twitter water cooler. If you need help on using Twitter here are some tips on what to Twitter about.
I don't recommend using twitter.com itself as your interface, it's a little awkward and there are more efficient and informative twitter tools to use, I can’t name them all here but I've used enough of them that I’ve settled on Tweetdeck. It has a nice clean interface that let's you see only the tweets that you want to see. By doing that you don't get so overloaded with tweets plus you can get news and information on exactly what you're interested in.
Ok, here's the lowdown on how I use Tweetdeck, I'm still experimenting and having mastered all the features but these are the ones that do the trick for me.
You can download Tweetdeck for free at http://www.tweetdeck.com/beta/. Once downloaded, log into Tweetdeck using your twitter id and password. Once you’re in, set up your front panel to display friends and messages. The cool thing about Tweetdeck is you can set up windows to see your favorite things. The panel across the top gives you all your options. You can see as much as you want or as little. Here’s some of what you can do:
Group your messages – I group my messages to get tweets from a select few. For me these are the people that I’m interested in the most for getting pertinent information. Your groups can change, for example some days I might be more interested in hearing from just personal friends, other days I might be more business oriented; it just depends.
Get stock tweets – I don’t normally tune in on the tweets about stocks, but it’s a great way to keep up with going on at Wall Street. (some interesting tips there!)
Get the buzz and news currently going on – I use twitscoop to see the hot topics and discussions going on.
Just get the tweets you want – I use the Twitter search and get only tweets on the topic you're interested in.
For such a simple tool, I'm constantly amazed at how much Twitter can offer each of us, no matter what field of interest we're in and so far Tweekdeck is the best tool I've found for helping me zone in on the people and topics I'm most interested in.
Try it, I think you'll like it!
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