Top 10 Twitter Hacks

With Twitter gaining momentum everywhere from on the field to in the classroom, I thought some tips might prove helpful.

Call it link bait, call it hypocritical, just don’t call it a comeback.

1) Be a Good Twitter Citizen
If you have a primary ID, name or handle that you use for email or social networks, use the same one on Twitter so you’ll be easily recognized. And in your profile be sure to link back to your Web site, blog or socnet page so folks know who’s following them. The more context you can provide the better – especially if you’re like me and don’t update every single day.

And remember that, while it offers the immediacy of SMS texting, Twitter offers the permanence of blogging. What you say on Twitter stays on Twitter.

2) Send Direct Messages Faster
Sending private messages directly from Twitter’s web interface can be a pain if you have to scroll through a long list of mutual followers. Pressing the first letter of the person’s ID while you are in the DM dropdown allows you to page through names quickly and easily. If you want to spam, er, DM a group of people at once, check out Twitter Groups. Just use it sparingly as we all know how it feels when to get too many group messages. For folks using Twitter via IM, there are even more helpful commands.

3) Twitter Karma
The simplicity of Twitter’s interface can sometimes be its curse. To figure out who’s following whom, check out Twitter Karma. Twitter Karma makes it easy to see your overall follow status and add folks as desired.

4) Gauge Topic Traction
Want to see if the Twitter community is chatting up or linking to a certain topic? You should check out any combination of Twitterverse, Twitterbuzz, Twitstat, and/or Tweetscan.

5) Visualize, Data Mine
There are a couple of ways to quickly visualize your Twitter information. Twitter Blocks allows you to visually navigate your Twitter community of friends and followers. Tweetstats is like Twitter CSI. In a few seconds, it makes it easy to assume that Robert Scoble probably used Twitter via the Web to send a note to Eric Rice early on a Sunday morning in November. Or does that read like the game Clue?

Much like Google, Twitter is always tinkering with its platform so be sure to follow their blog to keep up with the latest tweaks.

6) Fun with Twitter
Most of these “twicks” are thanks to Twitter’s API. Some of them seem to be created purely for the (nerdy) fun of it. Twittertale and Tweetspeak are perfect examples of this. Then there’s the guilty pleasure of Twitter Confessions. Or check out Twitterholic and Tweeterboard to see if you know some folks that might need a Twittervention. Yep, two jokes in one hack. Not my first (or best) attempts at Twitter humor.

More productive fun can be had on Twitter, using it to hone your writing skills.

7) What Does Twitter Look Like?
A Flickr search shows a ton results for Twitter and there is also a Twitter Group on the site. But Photophlow takes this a step further and mashes the two sites together.

8) Save the World
Twitter has potential in helping people get targeted information at a point of need. The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health uses Twitter to broadcast health messages (via Canuckflack).

The American Red Cross has established Safe and Well through the efforts of Ike Pigott. Safe and Well uses Twitter to notify friends and family of your status in the aftermath of a disaster.

A Reuters article points out that “these technologies all have a possible role to play in the aftermath of a natural disaster or human attack, when the danger is over, but not before. Why should anyone trust their lives and those of their families and friends, to systems which they cannot and do not trust even their credit card details to?”

9) Know the News. First
You can subscribe to plenty of news sources on Twitter, including Reuters, The New York Times, Google News and CNN Breaking News. Twitter tends to be an early warning system when it comes to breaking news and you’ll see many stories there before you will on mainstream sites. Reporters are seeing benefits to this.

10) Take Twitter with You
You can push your Twitterstream to Facebook to replace your update and serve it up on your blog as well. This is good as folks are seeing Twitter cut into the volume of blog posts out there.

Twitter by the Ton
There are a metric ton of good Twitter tips, tools and hacks, with new ones being published almost daily. These are just a sample as folks see new uses for Twitter. If you’re on Twitter let me know what your favorite tip is and I’ll add some to this list.

UGAConnect - Athens, GA uploaded by hyku
tags | Twitter | Twitter Hacks

Comments

[Ike]

Thanks for the promotion of Safe and Well. Just as important is knowing how to check for a loved one who was in a disaster zone where communications are out. Go to redcross.org, and look for the "Safe and Well" banner, usually in the upper right. That's the public-access side of the registry. In this case, the Twitter channel is more "last resort" than "first option."

David Stephenson has a big grasp on this stuff: http://www.stephensonstrategies.com/

[RONG CHANG-CHIEN]

Thank you for sharing these tips. Twitter is considered another new way to communicate online after blog, and it is getting popular now. Sometimes, I have trouble with high tech things. These are really helpful to engage into Twitter.

[Geoff Livingston]

Twitter's got problems, but it's better than Facebook!

[Mark]

great list! How come no writers put their their Twitter URL's in their posts?!
I'm http://twitter.com/markmayhew

[michelle v]

This was a good post filled with great tips. I'm trying to learn more and more about Twitter and found this useful.

[Bradley Woods >> Conceive, Believe, Achieve]

Awesome list! Going to link it up on twitter!

[Bradley Woods >> Conceive, Believe, Achieve]

I wish there was a way to track the popularity of every tweet you make. It would be a good way to see what titles work best to prompt action.

[Kami Huyse]

One more great tool is Terraminds. I love it for looking up keywords, like a username, or you can also look for your business name, then you can subscribe to searches via RSS - it's a great monitoring tool.

[Kevin Dugan]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Someone also recommended I check out mytweetmap.com. It's a neat way to see where you and your friends/followers are located on the map.

[Lisa Anderson]

I may be late to the game, but that was some very useful information on a service I would have never considered using, but now? I just might. Thanks!

[Lindsay Lebresco]

Nice. Just added to Facebook and personal blog. Thanks for the tips!

[Shannon Nelson]

Funny that I came onto your post about this--I just signed up for Twitter yesterday and when updating my profile in MyBlogLog I saw that it has tons of social networking sites that you can add to your profile, including Twitter and you can follow your friends that way as well.

Also--I try to stop by here at least once a week, although I don't ever comment. I'll try to comment more often.

[Pierro Marie]

Howdy;
Thats a nice list .
I love and use twitter too (@konterfai)
-> but I am amazed at how many people do not know it

[Kevin Dugan]

Lisa - Try it, you'll like it.

Shannon - Please do comment more often. Would love your input.

And thanks for everyone for the feedback on the tips. Glad they are proving helpful. Check out Tweetvolume as well...a new one I found since writing this post. http://www.tweetvolume.com/ It's a great way to compare how much traction certain words are getting on Tweeter.

[Torley]

Thanx for the useful article, I'm gunna check out some of these tools right now!

[David Taboada]

Thank you for this valuable and compact post.
I have been using Twitter Karma for several days, but lately is not working properly. Any alternatives? Keep it up!
http://twitter.com/_katalink_

[John Redford]

They say the best cure for water on the brain is a tap on the head.

http://www.br3games.com 3000 Free online Games

[Fernando Garcia]

Great tips! There is also an updated list of twitter tips at http://www.realsoftwaredevelopment.com/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-twitter/

[Jonathan]

Great article! Thanks!

[PennyPhone]

I have been using Twitter Karma and very satisfied with the results.
Thanks for this valuable post.

PM me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/PennyPhone

[Dean]

This is great stuff - good link bait material ;)

@vistanow

[Metal kids]

Very cool blog, good article! it's good work!

[Vince]

This top ten list is fantastic. We just started using Twitter and find it a powerful social media tool, and really fun to be a part of. We are @toptentopten. You can post this to our site http://www.toptentopten.com/ and link back to your site. We are trying to create a directory for top ten lists where people can find your site. The coolest feature is you can let other people vote on the rankings of your list.

[Sweton Fleming]

hi buddy.....ur study regarding twitter followers was really very amazing ...these facts were really unknown to me..Visit http://thetwittersecret.com/

[Sildenafil Zenegra]

Very interesting tips, thank you so much. Have you more?

[IndySQUARED]

Hello! Great tips, thanks! I am looking for a good resource for ghost writers / ghost writing. Any idea's? Thank you!

[fish]

I love my twitter account and I'm always looking for new ways to improve on what I'm doing.

[Account Deleted]

Useful information as well as share good stuff with good ideas and concepts of Top 10 Twitter Hacks. I have one doubt about twitter, how to display twitter updates in facebook page?. These days many peoples buy reserach paper related to social network technologies. And also just wanna say thank you for the information that you have been shared and just continue writing an article.

[SEO Company]

I think an under estimated use of Twitter is the trending feature. You can see what everyone is talking about, and it's a great way to utilize the "Buzz" for your own purposes, whatever they may be. It's funny how many times I'll find out about some kind of breaking news story from Tweets from my friends before I hear it on a news source.

[schedule tweets]

Undeniably believe that which you said. Your favorite reason seemed to be on the web the simplest thing to be aware of. I say to you, I certainly get annoyed while people think about worries that they plainly do not know about. You managed to hit the nail upon the top as well as defined out the whole thing without having side-effects , people can take a signal. Will probably be back to get more. Thanks

[aimbot pb]

Can I simply say what a comfort to discover someone that genuinely knows what they're talking about on the web. You actually realize how to bring an issue to light and make it important. More people ought to check this out and understand this side of your story. I was surprised you aren't more popular given that you definitely have the gift.

[twitter tools]

Yes! Finally someone writes about twitter tools.

[watch tv shows free online without downloading]

I think the admin of this site is in fact working hard in support of his website, since here every material is quality based material.

[Installment Loans Online]

Hi there! This blog post could not be written much better! Looking through this article reminds me of my previous roommate! He constantly kept preaching about this. I will forward this post to him. Pretty sure he'll have a good read. Thanks for sharing! Installment Loans Online

[Free Minecraft Account]

It's really a great and helpful piece of info. I am happy that you shared this helpful information with us. Please stay us up to date like this. Thanks for sharing.

[twitter followers stats]

I consider buy twitter followers brassy 100 it might go better down towards the undersurface or something, sub-continent, country, realm or say and city. Go forward and go on from there since we take issue jolly intemperately on that. That's all that I'm base that whatever image you uploaded is proceeding to restate in the background. Hconcluded all over the ConnectFX formal and is that they permit developers to access their data directly and physique merchandises that create working with twitter a good deal leisurely.

[luxury car wallpapers]

I also love parties but these calibrations were wonderful and very funny

[vaughan bassett bedford falls]

I thank this very blog, which provides some important applications

[jasa coring]

I was actually captured with the piece of resources you have got here thanks!

[tas etnik murah]

Thank you for new issue, I really like this website

[Klinik Hipnoterapi Surabaya]

Great post. Your site is quite interesting and very well written. I am waiting for your next post

[ilmu Pelet]

I have read your article.thanks for giving us a important information.I hope you will continue your posting of article.

[jual blazer korea]

it's really nice and meanful. it's really cool blog. Linking is very useful thing.you have really helped lots of people who visit blog and provide them usefull information.

[loovme.com]

It is really a good visiting here .I'll bookmark your blog and check again here regularly.

[obat pelangsing aman]

Your post was very nicely written. I’ll be back in the future for sure!

[jaspria]

Great post. Your site is quite interesting and very well written. I am waiting for your next post

[luxury sport cars]

like you post 2 tumps up for you