Can I Please Have Some Ketchup With My Twitter Tots?
Twitter is making big waves these days and has been throughout 2007. If you haven’t heard of Twitter, it’s kind of like Instant Messaging but different and better.
In their own words:
Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing? Bloggers can use it as a mini-blogging tool. Developers can use the API to make Twitter tools of their own. Possibilities are endless!
And I’ll just add – THE WHOLE FREAKIN’ GLOBAL COMMUNITY!!
You have 140 characters to answer the question, “What are you doing?”
So what’s the point?
Well, people want to know what you’re doing, what you think, where you’re at, what you’ve found, what you’re watching on TV, what you’ve written, what you’re listening to, are you awake or sleeping, are you going out or staying in, what you like or dislike, answering others questions, on and on.
How Do I Tweet?
You use a computer or mobile device. It’s all at http://www.twitter.com. You have four tabs on your Twitter home page – Recent – Replies – Archives – Everyone. The default tab Recent will list the recent tweets from the folks you follow. Replies are people who have sent you Tweets. Archives list everything you’ve typed in the 140 character text box and sent. Everyone is, well, everyone on Twitter, and it helps you find other interesting people and what they’re Twittering about.
How Do I Follow Someone?
Start with your friends and family or go looking for Tweeters in the stuff you’re interested in or not interested in, which can turn out to be something you’re interested in. If you read a blog or blogs and admire the blog’s author, maybe the blogger has a link on their blog to their Twitter profile. Click on their profile to follow them. Or you could just start tweeting to no one and get a feel for it. Then go out and find tweeters by using the tools listed in this article.
Your first Tweet in the 140 character box could be:
- Hello Word or
- Hi my name is
or
- Good morning Tweets or
- I’m in L.A. anyone available for lunch or
- I found this cool link if you like
or
- Does anybody have this type of phone that I have? It’s a Fabulous Phone 500 and I think it’s broken.
- I think you get the idea.
How Do I Enhance My Twitter Experience?
Here are 55 articles and tools that will assist you with your Twittering:
- TweetVolume
- Help at Twitter
- Tweet like a Pirate
- Twitter saves lives
- Extra Super Tuesday
- Bring lists to Twitter
- Twitter through Skitch
- A game at Wordy Birdie
- Quit smoking with Qwitter
- See who’s Tweeting locally
- The Twitter FAQ at Twitter
- Photos and Videos on Twitter
- What is Twitter Doing Today?
- Follow a daily poll at StrawPoll
- Post to Twitter with TwitterMail
- Another Firefox add-on – TwitterFox
- TwitStats – More stats for your Twitter
- Politweets – When Twitter gets political
- Show some appreciation using tweetgift
- Twitter on your iPhone at thincloud.com
- Have a question? Check out Dearlazy.com
- Virtual Assistant Sandy works over Twitter
- Your Twitter stats provided by TweetStats
- Visualize your Twitter feeds with tweetPad
- A List of News Organizations using Twitter
- Make your feelings known with plusplusbot
- Eavesdropping on Twitter using overheard.it
- Follow Snoop Dogg and check out the badge
- What have you tweeted in the last 24 hours?
- Look for more people to follow using Twubble
- What Twitter Does For Me by Remarkablogger
- Do real-time Twitter searches with Tweet Scan
- Create a crowd with CrowdStatus (alpha status)
- Create groups of private tweets with GroupTweet
- Why I Deleted My Twitter Account by GapingVoid
- Need more than 140 Character? Twitzer for Firefox
- Follow a conversation using Quotable. Very Nice.
- The Big Juicy Twitter Guide by Caroline Middlebrook
- Use Commuter Feed for you local traffic incident reports
- TweetCloud – Creates a tag cloud of your Twitter words
- Send your latest Flickr photo to Twitter with SnapTweet
- TwitterShare allows file sharing reported by ReadWriteWeb
- Twittown – The Unofficial Twitter Community (alpha status)
- Summize offers a better Twitter search reported by Mashable
- Twitter: A Valuable Marketing Tool & Much More by ClickNewz
- Foamee tracks who you owe beer or coffee to (and vice versa)
- A real-time geographic visualization at twittervision. Just plain fun
- A new kind of Social Portal called Gridjit reported by The Blog Herald
- Write Text Longer Than 140 Characters in Twitter by Digital Inspiration
- Twitter Meter queries all indexed words sent to Twitter’s public timeline
- Harvest On Twitter – A Future Twitter Business Model? by ReadWriteWeb
- Turn your Twitter status into an email image signature or for your website
- Five Reasons Twitter is an Essential Social Media Tool by Search Engine Guide
- 17 Ways You Can Use Twitter: A Guide for Beginners, Marketers and Business Owners by Dosh Dosh
- Twhirl – A Twitter client that runs on your computer using Adobe AIR to run it. I’m currently using Twhirl in addition to Flock for my Twittering. It’s pretty darn nice.
For more information on the tools above and how you can use them please be sure to check out Demo Girl and Twitterholics.
Final Thoughts
Twittering is like having everyone in a big room from around the world and everyone is walking around talking with each other. Pretty cool.
Although, I have this vision that there’ll be a huge Twitter convention where everyone will be in the same conference room, and it will be completely quiet except for some clicking sounds, actually a lot of clicking sounds. Why? We’ll all be sending Tweets via our mobile device and too busy to look up and start talking to each other.
Here’s my Twitter profile – http://www.twitter.com/BillS2000
Feel free to leave your Twitter profile in the comments so everyone can becomes followers and followees.




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Tater Tots > Twitter Tots
But twitter is good too!
I’m already following you. If anyone wants to follow me, head to twitter.com/orangejack
Rob Williams’s last blog post..Stir-ing things up
Thanks for the advice. I have installed Twhirl and it looks pretty good.
Follow me – http://www.twitter.com/domfosnz
Dominic’s last blog post..Hello world!
Yaro’s got a nice post over at http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/897/yes-i-am-on-twitter/ with a video.
Here’s another cool trick from the video:
In Google type:
site:twitter.com “weight loss”
Press enter and there you go. Fill in the topic you’re interested in.
Very cool!!
Howdy…your SnapTweet link is incorrect.
@SnapTweet – Sorry about that. Corrected.
Check out this link as well at Make Tech Easier –
http://maketecheasier.com/16-interesting-things-you-can-do-with-twitter/2008/04/14
STUMBLED!!
Voted for you at:
http://www.newsdots.com/tutorials/55-twitter-tots-learn-technology-online/
http://www.topstumbles.com/tutorials/55-twitter-tots-learn-technology-online/
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@Geoserv – Awesome – Thanks
I tweeted an @reply about this to you, but here it is for posterity: Thank you, thank you, thank you for the Qwitter link, which pushed me to trying to quit smoking again.
I’m http://twitter.com/narc if that’s not obvious
@narc – Thanks. It is hard to quit. I used to sit at my desk programming thinking, “How am I going to quit?” But I did. It was a combination of looking at my 2 year-old daughter (needs a father who’s alive and healthy), I started exercising – so smoking made it painful to exercise, and just feeling sick a lot. I had a untouched pack in my car for about a month before I threw them out.
Nice list of articles. Thanks. BTW, I saw this, as you mentioned it in twitter.
Nice Site. I am new here but will be visiting more often as you have done a good job.
Thanks
My twitter account (that I started about 1 week ago) currently reads – Nick is realising that none of his friends use twitter – other that this i cant find anything else to say.
I like the look of those twitter tots though… we dont get them in the UK, but I know what they are as they remind me of Napolian Dynamite and his tata tots!
@UFE – Napolean Dynamite was the inspiration for the title.
Great Nice. I am new here but will be visiting more often as you have done a good job.
thanks nice article
@Kaka – Thanks for stoppin’ by.
thanks for sharing , great list of articles. Twitter is surely catching on around the net and is a pretty cool tool !
thanks for sharing ………………
It give a bit strange feeling, but it all depends upon the taste of the user.
Thanks for sharing.
Don’t forget about iPhone Twitter apps such as Twitteriffic…
I think it’s time I learn about “tweeting.” Everyone seems to be doing it to advertise their website…except me.
Ed Harris
Yes I kind of skipped the iPhone stuff because I don’t own one. I wish I did but I think the service here in Omaha, NE isn’t up to par. At least that’s what some of my friends tell me. Thanks for stoppin’ by Scoville Scale.
Yes, there are some folks who use it for advertising, driving traffic to their blogs/websites, making deals, etc. It’s a time sink so it’s best to maybe set a specific time you use it and for how long. Thanks for stoppin’ by Ed.
Thanks for sharing this post.
http://www.babydailylog.comYes, there are some folks who use it for advertising, driving traffic to their blogs/websites,
That dish certainly looked yummy to my eyes. I would love to eat it someday and hope that it is as tasty as it looks.
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A year later and I am still twittering and with thanks to your article and links . I still come back here from time to time when I need to visit them.
To those who think what will I say using Twitter , well I started out connecting with other parents around the world who like me have kids with Autism , twitter we all found was a nice quick way of popping and saying hi and giving a quick update on how things are goin – it really works for us !
and now I am using it to promote blog posts , it lets twitter know everytime I publish – its just too easy !!
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@Penthius: Thanks Penthius. What a great comment to receive and wonderful to hear how you’re using twitter. Very cool.
i am building a new site with a twitter clone php script as soon as i am ready i will post you the website adres. meanwhile keep twittering
Twitter’s becoming famous day by day and almost all of my friend’s are using it. By the way i liked the picture at the top, the dish looks very delicious.
Just found out that Twitter links are no-follow, still it is a great way to get your followers to visit your website. I am twitting every time I write a good article. (Not too often!)
I have just started using Tweet Deck lately and love it. One thing that has helped me to slowly build followers is to take the time to really participate with other users who are talking about some of the same things that I am talking about. Also, using some of the various WordPress plugins that integrate your recent tweets into your blog is a beautiful thing as well. Great list of 55 Twitter resources.