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The Spinning Donut

Helping People Use Technology

55 Twitter Tots

April 13, 2008 By Bill 56 Comments

Tots

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?”

Twitter

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:

  1. TweetVolume
  2. Help at Twitter
  3. Tweet like a Pirate
  4. Twitter saves lives
  5. Extra Super Tuesday
  6. Bring lists to Twitter
  7. Twitter through Skitch
  8. A game at Wordy Birdie
  9. Quit smoking with Qwitter
  10. See who’s Tweeting locally
  11. The Twitter FAQ at Twitter
  12. Photos and Videos on Twitter
  13. What is Twitter Doing Today?
  14. Follow a daily poll at StrawPoll
  15. Post to Twitter with TwitterMail
  16. Another Firefox add-on – TwitterFox
  17. TwitStats – More stats for your Twitter
  18. Politweets – When Twitter gets political
  19. Show some appreciation using tweetgift
  20. Twitter on your iPhone at thincloud.com
  21. Have a question? Check out Dearlazy.com
  22. Virtual Assistant Sandy works over Twitter
  23. Your Twitter stats provided by TweetStats
  24. Visualize your Twitter feeds with tweetPad
  25. A List of News Organizations using Twitter
  26. Make your feelings known with plusplusbot
  27. Eavesdropping on Twitter using overheard.it
  28. Follow Snoop Dogg and check out the badge
  29. What have you tweeted in the last 24 hours?
  30. Look for more people to follow using Twubble
  31. What Twitter Does For Me by Remarkablogger
  32. Do real-time Twitter searches with Tweet Scan
  33. Create a crowd with CrowdStatus (alpha status)
  34. Create groups of private tweets with GroupTweet
  35. Why I Deleted My Twitter Account by GapingVoid
  36. Need more than 140 Character? Twitzer for Firefox
  37. Follow a conversation using Quotable. Very Nice. 🙂
  38. The Big Juicy Twitter Guide by Caroline Middlebrook
  39. Use Commuter Feed for you local traffic incident reports
  40. TweetCloud – Creates a tag cloud of your Twitter words
  41. Send your latest Flickr photo to Twitter with SnapTweet
  42. TwitterShare allows file sharing reported by ReadWriteWeb
  43. Twittown – The Unofficial Twitter Community (alpha status)
  44. Summize offers a better Twitter search reported by Mashable
  45. Twitter: A Valuable Marketing Tool & Much More by ClickNewz
  46. Foamee tracks who you owe beer or coffee to (and vice versa)
  47. A real-time geographic visualization at twittervision. Just plain fun
  48. A new kind of Social Portal called Gridjit reported by The Blog Herald
  49. Write Text Longer Than 140 Characters in Twitter by Digital Inspiration
  50. Twitter Meter queries all indexed words sent to Twitter’s public timeline
  51. Harvest On Twitter – A Future Twitter Business Model? by ReadWriteWeb
  52. Turn your Twitter status into an email image signature or for your website
  53. Five Reasons Twitter is an Essential Social Media Tool by Search Engine Guide
  54. 17 Ways You Can Use Twitter: A Guide for Beginners, Marketers and Business Owners by Dosh Dosh
  55. 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.

Filed Under: Social Media

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Rob Williams says

    April 13, 2008 at 7:25 am

    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

  2. Dominic says

    April 13, 2008 at 8:16 pm

    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!

  3. Bill Stevens says

    April 13, 2008 at 9:16 pm

    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!! 🙂

  4. SnapTweet says

    April 14, 2008 at 2:06 pm

    Howdy…your SnapTweet link is incorrect.

  5. Bill Stevens says

    April 14, 2008 at 2:41 pm

    @SnapTweet – Sorry about that. Corrected.

  6. Bill Stevens says

    April 14, 2008 at 2:47 pm

    Check out this link as well at Make Tech Easier –
    http://maketecheasier.com/16-interesting-things-you-can-do-with-twitter/2008/04/14

  7. Geoserv says

    April 15, 2008 at 9:10 am

    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/

    Geoserv’s last blog post..PliggRanker v9.9.0

  8. Bill Stevens says

    April 15, 2008 at 12:13 pm

    @Geoserv – Awesome – Thanks

  9. Narc says

    April 17, 2008 at 1:26 am

    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 🙂

  10. Bill Stevens says

    April 17, 2008 at 6:05 am

    @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.

  11. Eric Herberholz says

    May 18, 2008 at 10:10 pm

    Nice list of articles. Thanks. BTW, I saw this, as you mentioned it in twitter.

  12. RandyBrown says

    August 16, 2008 at 5:22 pm

    Nice Site. I am new here but will be visiting more often as you have done a good job.

    Thanks

  13. Kaka says

    October 18, 2008 at 11:53 am

    thanks nice article 🙂

  14. Bill Stevens says

    October 19, 2008 at 8:10 am

    @Kaka – Thanks for stoppin’ by.

  15. Scoville Scale says

    January 4, 2009 at 4:44 pm

    Don’t forget about iPhone Twitter apps such as Twitteriffic…

  16. Ed Harris says

    January 4, 2009 at 9:55 pm

    I think it’s time I learn about “tweeting.” Everyone seems to be doing it to advertise their website…except me.

    Ed Harris

  17. Bill Stevens says

    January 7, 2009 at 2:03 am

    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.

  18. Bill Stevens says

    January 7, 2009 at 2:05 am

    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.

  19. chrislittle09 says

    February 13, 2009 at 3:16 am

    Thanks for sharing this post.

  20. Speed Joe says

    July 8, 2009 at 12:28 pm

    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.

    Speed Joes last blog post..Vodafone verlängert die Aktion: DSL All-Inclusive sechs monate kostenlos

  21. Penthius says

    July 20, 2009 at 4:17 am

    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 !!

    Penthiuss last blog post..Book of Changes 04:23 Season 4 Finale

  22. Bill says

    July 20, 2009 at 10:49 pm

    @Penthius: Thanks Penthius. What a great comment to receive and wonderful to hear how you’re using twitter. Very cool.

  23. Alan Jamal says

    August 7, 2009 at 7:30 am

    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

  24. Tim says

    August 11, 2009 at 11:48 am

    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.

  25. jeremy says

    September 27, 2009 at 6:00 pm

    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!)

  26. Hex Bolt says

    May 10, 2010 at 3:21 am

    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.
    good

  27. David says

    June 14, 2010 at 3:29 pm

    Great effort for this post..Cheers!!!
    Well i had created account on Twitter since and could not get impress with its simple interface. But now I have come to know about its significance socially. Twiiter is the power of today for socializing and for sharing your updates of web aswell.

  28. Elicia Maulden says

    July 17, 2010 at 7:59 am

    Hello, I’m a webmaster in Paris. Just wanted to tell you I thought your website was cool. Thanks for updating it!

  29. nuvi 255 says

    July 31, 2010 at 6:20 am

    I still have not really got into twitter more of a facebook fan, i think ill start using it soon

  30. Augrae says

    August 1, 2010 at 1:31 pm

    Wow! This is an amazing post! Since, Twitter improves from the contest for whole market. As a result of great tweets received and transmitted in twitter, the marketers innovated young methods to accommodate and coordinate their clients Inaccuracy. With that, I want to share with you this latest software I just discovered in the web that can really help in organizing twitter accounts. I found this very useful. Better check this out!

    http://evertweet.com/beta-party/

  31. gallery804.com says

    September 2, 2010 at 5:14 am

    A nice article,thanks for your great job.

  32. Beth says

    September 6, 2010 at 12:47 pm

    Its funny running into this old post about twitter and see how it was just starting to become part of pop culture. Look at it today in 2010, every news caster, and business has a Twitter. Like Larry King, do you really think Larry is “tweeting” all day long?

  33. Bill says

    September 7, 2010 at 12:14 am

    @Beth: Are you saying that Larry King DOESN’T tweet all day? You’re breaking my heart. 😉

  34. George says

    October 1, 2010 at 12:09 am

    Twitter is definitely a strong social network which can be a good start for any business, personally I never have time for twitter, find other things more important even if i takes 5 mins to tweet.
    JDM Parts

  35. jessemarry says

    October 20, 2010 at 5:56 am

    twitter is very strong social networking site. For our websites and for personal use it will very useful to share with all. Thanks for sharing the information

  36. Irena says

    November 15, 2010 at 5:40 am

    I admire Twitter sucess. It becomes more and more popular. Recently I also registered my new account on Twitter and I am very impressed by it´s features

  37. Amit Inizer says

    December 6, 2010 at 3:11 am

    Twitter is awesome… we can share our thought worldwide within second… more n more people see your link and comment on it and get the chance to communicate many people of different kind fields…

    so its great..

  38. Raffaello Tamagnini says

    January 10, 2011 at 11:27 am

    well thanx for your post. here in italy twitter is not so common in italy but I have just registered and I m starting to like it. i hope in some time it spreads around in europe as in USA

  39. kikio says

    January 24, 2011 at 3:06 am

    Twitter is amazing.
    get the chance to communicate many people of different kind.

  40. angelio says

    February 21, 2011 at 10:12 am

    We must know Twitter. and i like it.
    and about this will list the recent tweets from the folks you follow.

  41. Cadouri says

    March 16, 2011 at 5:48 am

    Very very interesting! I love twitter and I use it a lot for my personal and business account!

  42. Rattan says

    May 30, 2011 at 11:06 pm

    I thinks ketchup is not too good for this. Hot sauce is better. I am Indonesian and I love hot food and spicy food. But…, the problem is there is no food like that in my town. Only similar food named “rissol”.The shape is almost same. Inside it you can find so many vegetables. The best is with egg and small dices of carrot.

  43. Shawn says

    June 26, 2011 at 9:40 pm

    I prefer ketchup any day. Add a drop or two of Tabasco and you will be in heaven. Delicious!

  44. Just Naira says

    December 6, 2011 at 7:27 am

    Thanks for this great post. I can now use my twitter account better now since i now have means of getting people to follow me.

  45. Bill says

    December 6, 2011 at 11:05 am

    Just Naira » Thanks Just Naira. Glad it helped.

  46. michael4877 says

    July 6, 2012 at 6:47 am

    I’m not a big twitter fan, but it can be fun and have its benefits, plus the company just sold I think for a ton of money, so obviously they have been doing something right

    Thanks
    Opstijgend vocht

  47. johnbravo says

    August 16, 2012 at 6:11 am

    Very very interesting! I love twitter and I use it a lot for my personal and business account! http://www.kuratalqadam.com/

  48. Fussed Blogger says

    September 30, 2012 at 10:22 pm

    Great share!
    Twitter is a best source of traffic from other countries. I think using these tools we can yet increase traffic from Twitter.
    Thanks for sharing.

Newer Comments »

Trackbacks

  1. How To Stop Smoking » Blog Archive » 55 Twitter Tots says:
    April 14, 2008 at 9:37 pm

    […] post Contact the author and continue reading […]

  2. Top Stumbles - Best of StumbleUpon says:
    April 15, 2008 at 9:07 am

    55 Twitter Tots | Learn Technology Online…

    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….

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