So, with Tweetdeck 0.26.4, you cannot see your own tweets like you can with other clients, and older versions of Tweetdeck.
However, if you try to add yourself to a group, this is what you get:
What’s wrong with that picture? I mean, seriously.
I’m afraid to hit “Follow”. I really am. I’m afraid I might cause TweetDeck to spontaneously combust.
As I posted a while back, I was testing something with Twitter with regards to who you follow and what you type, and how that relates to robo-follows.
Well, just today, I decided to do something. I took my test account and followed everyone it suggested.
In the span of an hour, I had 15-25 followers. I then followed a few more random people, and I had 5-10 more followers.
Right now I’m sitting at 228 following, 38 followers with 3 random updates I did (one is a recent RT cause I could).
This could get interesting. I am going to start doing more random follows soonish and see if I can get above 50-60 followers without really doing anything.
Stay tuned….
I have been on Twitter for a little over 6-7 months now, I think, and I have always wondered “Where the hell do these random people that follow me come from?” Granted, half of them are spam type accounts that get removed, but still, we humans are a curious bunch.
So, I have decided to embark upon a little experiment involving a test Twitter account, and keywords.
Every few hours or so, or when I think about it, I will post tweets to my test account with nothing but random keywords that I think might trigger a follow. I will then keep track of which keywords generated followers. I can probably partially figure out why certain people followed me based on the keywords I used.
Now, here’s the part that makes this kind of tricky, I am not sure if just posting a few keywords every so often will trigger a suspicious activity warning. I am thinking not because I am not mass following people and tweeting spam. If you’ve ever seen a suspicious account before it gets suspended, you can tell.
The test account will not follow anyone, yet. As time passes, I might start following news accounts, and maybe some interesting news people, and some sports stuff. That will all depend on how many followers my keywords generate.
I will track how many are legit accounts, how many are spammish type accounts trying to promote crap, and how many are suspended accounts (or ones that eventually get suspended).
As a side note, I like the name I came up with for my test account, so I might make a different one because if it ends up my test account gets suspended, that’s gonna suck. Hm…
Some results will be posted here in a few weeks, and then again in a month.
So, now that you have signed up for a Twitter account, customized it, and started tweeting, you might be wondering: Do I have to use the Twitter website for updating my Twitter?
The answer: no. There are all sorts of clients available for Mac, Windows, even your cell phone.
Note: Since I have no experience with the Mac clients, those won’t be covered. I’d recommend Googling for Mac client information.
I will focus this post on 3 areas:
- Windows clients
- iPhone clients
- Blackberry clients
Windows Clients
As there are lots of Windows clients, I will only cover the 2 I have used.
Note: These Twitter clients require an additional piece of software called Adobe AIR. Don’t worry about what that means. If the site, or whatever, tells you you need it, it is completely safe to install.
DestroyTwitter: Good, and simple. The interface is neat, and the setup/configuration/customization is easy.
TweetDeck:This one is just freaking cool. It’s the one I use because of the customization. The best part (IMO): You can group Tweets together. So I have one group for Friends, one for News, one for Sports, one for Weather, and one for Politics. Then you check off which member meets the criteria for each group. It makes it a bit easier to follow. When you add someone new, don’t forget to put them in a group. 
Blackberry Clients
Twitterberry: This is really the only one I used for any length of time (before switching back to my iPhone). It’s easy and serves it’s purpose.
Blackbird: I tried to use this one, but it’s pretty weird. I only had it on my Blackberry for about 15 minutes.
iPhone Clients
Twitterfon: Best free one out there.
Tweetie: Costs money, but you can do more with it like look at Twitter profiles, manage multiple accounts, etc. I switched from Tiwtterfon to Tweetie.
Any client that doesn’t have a link here, you can Google and find it. They are all pretty easy to use, and simple to install and configure.
Happy Tweeting!
As usual, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to leave a comment, or contact me.
@mdmcaus on Twitter
Rule #1: No pooftahs.
Question #1: Should one’s Facebook status and Twitter updates be the same?
Rule #2: No pooftahs.
Question #2: If so, why, or if not, why?
Rule #3: I don’t want to catch anybody not drinking….
Question #3: Which do you prefer, or do you consider them separate entities and treat them both the same? (so to speak)
Me? I keep them as separate as possible. They do overlap every once in a while. For example, I will see something of interest from someone I follow on Twitter. That link will find its way to my Facebook.
I do not use a site to update every possible status on Facebook, Twitter, etc at the same time as my audiences between Twitter and Facebook are different.
I post a lot more stuff about MMOs (WoW especially) on Twitter. I post more geeky stuff on Twitter, period.
I do have one thing that is a semi-cross between the two. I made a Facebook page blog, but it’s not gaining ground on followers, yet. So, blog stuff does mix between the two, but you can easily ignore the update, or not become a fan of the page I have for my blog. (Shameless plug!: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Omniblog/145487225283 – if you are already on Facebook, search for Omniblog, you should find it with all of its 2 fans) I have 1 fan, besides me, and all blog posts get posted as updates to that page.
So, if you want to update both statuses, that’s up to you. But, I will not be enabling cross updates between Twitter and Facebook (thanks but no thanks Tweetdeck).
I do not prefer one over the other. As I stated earlier, I consider them separate entities with separate audiences. Twitter serves its purpose, and Facebook serves its purpose.
I’ve had a few people ask me, paraphrasing of course, “WTF is Twitter?”
I like to sum it up this way:
Twitter is Facebook status in 140 characters without Facebook.
Now, that might be oversimplifying it a bit, but for now, that will suffice, especially when you look at the Twitter page.
What’s a Tweet?
A tweet is an individual update on Twitter. Much like your status message on Facebook.
What do I need to get into Twitter?
You really need one thing: A Twitter Account. Go to The Twitter Website and sign up for an account.
Some pointers:
Voila, you now have a Twitter account. Now, the next step: Follow people!
Just as you add friends in Facebook, you follow people in Twitter. Just click on “Find People” and start searching. You can search on a variety of criteria.
Twitter Account Settings
You can customize all kinds of things for your Twitter account. Everything from your avatar picture, to whether everybody can read your tweets.
There is one setting I should point out that some people do use, and that’s protecting your tweets. If you click on the Account tab under Settings, there’s a checkbox for “Protect my updates.” This only lets people that are following you see your updates.
When I read Tweets, what’s up with these weird looking web addresses?
Those are special addresses and sites that take a really long web address and condense it to be more Twitter friendly.
What if I want to shorten a web address
The easiest site to use is TinyURL.
What do I Tweet about?
Whatever you want to. I, personally, keep my Twitter updates separate from my Facebook status. They will never be the same thing.
What’s this @ stuff I see?
That’s a reply to that user. So, if you see @mdmcaus in an update, it’s someone reply to something I posted. For someone to see your reply, however, they must be following you (I think, someone correct me if I am wrong.)
What are Direct Messages
Direct messages are just that, direct messages to someone. They do not show up in the public feed, they are between you and whomever you messaged. You will get an email notifying you of a direct message. They are also available, along with replies, on your Twitter page when you login.
Questions?
You can follow me on Twitter as mdmcaus and I’ll be glad to help.
There are other ways to update your Twitter status other than using the web page, but since this is a beginner’s guide, I will not cover those, yet. If you want to know more about Twitter clients, especially ones for your cell phone, let me know.
So, I have seen this once, and I think I saw/heard about it again this weekend: Doing semi-game play-by-play through Twitter.
Is there such a thing as too much Twittering, aka too twitteriffic, I mean, with 100 API calls an hour, how much play -by-play with Twitter do you really need to do?
At the start of the college baseball season, someone was really doing a play-by-play of a college game. I was getting so many updates, it was dizzying to try to keep up. Luckily with Tweetdeck, I can remove them from a group, which I did. I then unfollowed them.
Now, let me clarify, Twittering from a game to give updates on players, coaches, injuries, calls, etc is fine and is somewhat limited as shown by Lisa Salters at the Dallas Mavericks vs Phoenix Suns game this past weekend. Her Twittering, despite her connection issues, was fine. Check out what she did: http://twitter.com/saltersl
So, update Twittering, fine, play-by-play with Twitter, not so fine. If you want to know what’s going on, get a radio, get a TV, get ESPN Gamecast (if you can), use ESPN360.com, or just don’t bother trying to keep up with the game on Twitter. I mean, there’s enough information, and then there’s too much.
Playbytwitter(tm) is too much. That’s what I am calling it, Playbytwitter, or Twitterplay(tm). Although, the latter sounds kind of naughty…hm…
