Library clips

Twitter Tips

Twitter enables you to post updates to your presence stream via SMS, IM, or the web form.

I use IM updates, if you leave it on, you can get lots of updates, it depends on how many friends you have, this is what I do:

- I open my IM in the morning and post on
- then I post get
- then I post off, but still keep my IM window open

What I’m, doing is posting on to receive updates as they happen, but I want to see what I’ve missed out on while I was asleep, so I post get to receive the latest updates from all my friends.
I could choose to do nothing else and just wait for the updates as they happen, but if you have a lot of friends that post frequently you will have IM popping up all the time, so I just turn it off, by posting off.

In an hour’s time I will post on, and then post get, and then post off again.

LINGO
on - enable twitter updates
get - get recent updates from all your friends
off - disable twitter updates

If you want to get the last update from just one user instead of all your friends you can post on, then post get username instead of posting get.

LINGO
get username - get this person’s last update

You may decide not to post off in this instance as you won’t mind updates if they are just coming from one friend, but this isn’t so…you can’t keep it fixed to just keep getting updates limited to this person, because you posted on earlier, sooner or later you will get live updates from any of your friends.

The way around this is to post on, then leave all, then follow username.

LINGO
leave all - turns off updates of your entire friends list
follow username - you will get updates from this person

In contrast if you want updates from all your friends except one, you could post on, then post follow all, then post leave username…then you might post off, otherwise you will get heaps of live updates.

LINGO
follow all - turns on updates for your entire friends list
leave username - disables updates from this person

MORE LINGO
nudge username - encourages this peron to update
stats - a few statistics about your Twitter account
help - sends back a list of Twitter lingo commands
invite 415-555-1212 username - sends a text to invite a someone (the number is this person’s actual phone number)…but this commanr doesn’t work with IM.
Add 415-555-1212 username - to add a friend
accept - accept friend invitation
deny - deny friend invitation
delete username - works from the web only, bit sure about IM

On your web settings there is an auto-nudge to remind yourself to update, there is also a Sleep option to auto turn your updates on and off.

Chat

Twitter is more about presence, stream of consciousness, rather than chat. Reason being if someone replies to anothers Twitter post how do others know the context, it is a kind of spam to everyone else.

Person A posts, Person B follows Person A (Person B has added Person A as a friend), Person B sends a reply type post, Person A receives this as they follow Person B (Person A has added Person B as a friend) .
Person C follows Person B (Person C has added Person B as a friend), but doesn’t not follow Person A (Person C has not added Person A as a friend), this means Person C did not receive the inital post from Person A.

So when Person B sends a reply type post to Person A, Person C will receive it as they follow Person B, but will not understand the context (they won’t know what this post is replying to as they did not see the initial post by Person A since they don’t follow them).

Some people seem to be using Twitter in this way, but at least when they do they are using a greeting command so others know just to ignore it eg. @username - yeah 2pm sounds fine.

A way around this is to post the “reply” as a Direct Message (private) to a friend, by posting D username [insert message here]

eg. D Paul yeah 2pm sounds fine.

Then the original person can reply by sending a direct message back.

I wonder if you can send a direct message to multiple people
eg. D Paul + Peter yeah 2pm sounds fine.

LINGO
D username - send a direct (private) message

On your web settings you can set to get just Direct Messages only (I don’t think there is a phone command for this)

Here is the post by Eirepreneur about this chatting issue:

“I’m beginning to see more and more people using Twitter like IRC or a chat room, with messages like this -

Username: @Whoever: Agreed, I thought the same thing

Now unless I’m also following ‘Whoever’ I don’t have a clue what ‘Username’ is talking about and even if I did this isn’t a chat room….. it’s not for conversation… it’s for stream of consciousness thoughts or status reports. Yes, I could of course just stop following the people who do that but better to first try instilling an appropriate netiquette for the new medium.”

Tom Morris has an answer that goes beyond Direct Messages:

“…I wish Twitter would introduce a way to send a “public direct” message - meaning that it would be sent direct to the person but also could be seen by anyone who is a friend of both you and them. That way, people who are just friends of one participant in a conversation don’t get bothered with the updates….”

This makes sense - Person A could send a public direct message to Person B, and whoever follows both Person A and Person B will receive the message. That way when Person B replies, it can be done the same way, whoever follows both of them will get the reply.

eg. if Person C follows Person B, but not Person A, then they will not get the initial public direct message post from Person A…this is nothing different so far. BUT, when Person B replies with a public direct message to Person A, Person C will not see this even though they follow Person B. The reason they don’t see this is that it is not a normal post, but a public direct message post.

To re-iterate to get the initial message or reply Person C has to follow both Person A and Person B (both of the people have to be added as a friend in Person C’s profile)

Hmmm…Twitter is not meant to be used for chat, and perhaps this would induce more chatting…but at least it won’t be shown on the public page, since it’s not confusing anyone, I don’t see the harm, it is just extending the direct message option.

If this was implemented this would be the closest thing to a “group”, even though it is not a formal group.

Update by mobile email hack

As I explained in my last post I don’t want to pay to receive updates by SMS (not sure if you have to anyway, as you are receiving).

Since I can receive emails for free on my phone I could get Twitter updates for free, all I have to do is get the RSS feed of my friends timeline (available from my user page or my admin page):

eg. http://twitter.com/statuses/friends_timeline/10120.rss

Then use an RSS to email service like Rmail…done, now I will receive an email any time one of my friends updates.

This is a lot of emails, so may instead I could choose 3 or 4 friends I want to follow. To do this I just go to their user page and grab their feed.

eg. of mine http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/10120.rss

Then I would go to Rmail and set up 4 separate RSS to email updates.

You could splice the 4 feeds into one feed (using Feed Digest or others), but this isn’t really going to make a difference in the frequency of delivery.

For each RSS feed or the spliced feed maybe you could choose some sort of digest delivery (this means you don’t want the email as it happens, you’d rather get an email every 3 hours with the accumulated updates all in the one email).

But what I want to do the most is be able to post by email (as it only costs me $3 a month to send unlimited emails).

Is there a way I could send an email to my IM, which would then automatically send the post to the Twitter contact…this seems impossible?

[ADDED 26/01/07: Just realised my phone provider lets you use MSN or Yahoo! IM for $5 a month, this is great news, maybe I can post (and receive) to Twitter via IM on my phone]

[ADDED 07/02/07: Whois Command - whois - profile of a person (includes: last update, location, bio, and website)
eg. whois johnt]

[ADDED 15/03/07: Twitter : what are the possibilities]

[ADDED 15/03/07: Twitter comments or conversations]

[ADDED 16/03/07: Twittermaps mashup]

[ADDED 26/03/07: TwitterVision : realtime maps]

[ADDED 26/03/07: Twitterholic]

[ADDED 26/03/07: TwitThis and TwitterBuzz]

[ADDED 27/03/07: Mail2Twitter and RSS2Twitter]

[ADDED 28/03/07: TriGGr, Autotwit]

[ADDED 3/04/07: EmailTwitter.com now has email updates on demand and direct messages]

[ADDED 4/04/07: Twapper does Twitter groups]

[ADDED 4/04/07: Pluggd mashup that will post to Twitter the current podcast you are listening to]

[ADDED 10/04/07: Twitter Earth]

[ADDED 10/04/07: Twitterverse word bursts]

[ADDED 12/04/07: Twitter word bursts: Twitterverse, Twitterzone, TwitterSearch, ZoomCloud]

[ADDED 12/04/07: FeedBlitz enabling to subscribe to blogs with Twitter]

[ADDED 12/04/07: Twitterment : search and trends for Twitter]

[ADDED 27/04/07: Twitterviz, urlTea, Phonetag]

[ADDED 2/05/07 : TweetTweet, Twazr]

[ADDED 8/5/07: TwitBin, Tweetbar]

[ADDED 11/5/07: FeedBlitz Direct To You, Tweetr]

[ADDED 16/05/07: Monitwitter]

[ADDED 22/05/07: Twittervision 3D]

[ADDED 23/05/07: Tweetvolume]

[ADDED 13/06/07: DIY mashup of Twitter friends tweets on a map]

[ADDED 18/06/07: Roundup : Twittermosaic, Twit Dir, TweetAhead, twitter timer, Twitigg, Egorcast, brabblr, Twitter replies]

[ADDED 12/07/07: Twitter in real life]

[ADDED 19/07/07: Roundup: Flotzam, Twitt.icio.us, Twitterfaces, Tw3t, Twittermail]

[ADDED 3/08/07: Groups : Twitter, Pownce and Jaiku]

[ADDED 3/08/07: Roundup: Satisfaction, Nouncer, Yappd, Twitku, Grazr Twitter Reader]

[ADDED 08/09/07: Groups : Twitter, Pownce and Jaiku]

[ADDED 27/09/07: Terraminds Twitter search channel hack]

[ADDED 27/09/07: Twitter channel hack for real]

[ADDED 30/09/07: Tracking Twitter is almost a channel]

[ADDED 30/09/07: Roundup : Twitter Digest, OutTwit, Twiddeo, TwitBacker, TwitterNotes]

[ADDED 11/11/07: Roundup : Eventtrack, Tweet Scan, Inner Twitter, TwitterPoster, Loud Twitter, Twibble]

[ADDED 14/11/07: Roundup : TwitterWhere, Twype, tweetafile, PingTwitter, Twit Like Me, TwitterSync]

[ADDED 14/11/07: Roundup : Twittercal, Twitter-a-day, Twitstat, Twitteria, TwitDB]

[ADDED 11/12/07: Roundup : TweetChannel, PlusPlusBot, Tweetl, @locals, Twitter @replies update]

[ADDED 24/01/08: Roundup : Ideajam, SHOULD do THIS , digFoot , digfoot, Tweeterboard, Gridjit]

[ADDED 30/01/08: Roundup : Roundup : Tweetmeme, Shouting Mat.ch, Twitter100, Hellotxt, Heysan]

[ADDED 31/01/08: Roundup : twit.io, TwitterWhere, vcasmo, kwout, ControlC]

[ADDED 5/03/08: Roundup : TweetSpeak, Twitter Packs, Twittershare, Tweet What You Eat, Twixtr]

[ADDED 5/03/08: Roundup : ReaderBurner, Strawpoll Twitter, Twittermeter, Twimblr, Qik]

[ADDED 25/03/08: Roundup : Quotably, Twemes, Twitzer, Twitsig, serendipiTwitterous]

[ADDED 9/04/08: Roundup : Twitter Teams, Twitter Treats, Twitter Lights, Twitter Soap, Twitter Friends Network Browser]

[ADDED 9/04/08: Roundup : Comtwit, TweetPeek, Twitpic, TweetBurner, TweetClouds]

[ADDED10/04/08: Roundup : Twubble, GroupTweet, Ambient Avatars, Twitterfox, Twitterlocal]

[ADDED 15/04/08: Roundup : TwitterWho, TwitsLikeMe, SnapTweet, TwittNot, TweetDumpr]

[ADDED 15/04/08: Roundup : twaction, Twhither, Tipr, TwitLinks, Twitter Troll]

[ADDED 16/04/08: Roundup : DailyTwitter, ReporTwitters, gtFtr, ili.st, RetweetMe]

[ADDED 19/04/08: Roundup : Summize, Twitterspy, Twitter Presenter, Twit Plus, 24 o’clocks]

[ADDED 4/06/08: Roundup : Twitter PollDaddy, TwitResponse, TwitterReply, TwitEarth, Twitimonials]

[ADDED 4/06/08: Roundup : YouTwit, Twist, Twistory, Twerp Scan, Twitternothing]

[ADDED 4/06/08: Roundup : TweetWheel, Twitter Blacklist, Twitt(url)y, TweetSpeech, Twitterfone]

[ADDED 4/06/08: Slandr takes on Twitter mobile]

[ADDED 10/06/08: Roundup : Crowdstatus, Twistori, Tweetcube, Twanslate, Twiddict]

[ADDED 12/06/08: Roundup : MyTweeple, TwitterSnooze, Who Should I Follow, Twit 2 SMS, Twisky]

[ADDED 16/06/08: Roundup : Tweet 2 Tweet, Does Follow, TwitTag, TwitterCounter, Twitter Ratio]

[ADDED 16/06/08: Roundup : TwitterPark, TweetAnswers, TweetLists, Twellow, TwitterCard]

[ADDED 19/06/08: Roundup : Tweet Boards, Twitscoop, My Tweet Map, Tweet Later, Tweeqs]

[ADDED 17/07/08: Roundup : Twitabit, Twannabe, Tweet Thread, TwitterBash, TweetMarks]

[ADDED 17/07/08: Roundup : Tweetshots, TweetPaste, Matt, Chirrup, Twebinar]

[ADDED 25/07/08: Roundup : Twiffid, TwitterFresh, Twitter StreamGraphs, Easy Tweets, Replize]

[ADDED 25/07/08: Roundup : Twadl , AnswerMe, Tweenky, TweetMyPage, TweetParty]

[ADDED 14/08/08: Roundup : Monittor, Phweet, TwitStamp, Roomatic, TwitHire]

[ADDED 19/08/08: Roundup : Tweetake, Twitly, FLOATwitter, ToAnswer, Twit-it]

[ADDED 22/09/08: Roundup : Twitter Grader, Tweetrush, Lazytweet, Twittad, tweetSMS]

[ADDED 22/09/08: Roundup : Twitgraph, Tweetbeep, Twitbuzz, Tweeple Twak, TwitterSafe]

[ADDED 16/10/08: Roundup : excla.im, Twitterkeys, Dwigger, Social Tops, Tweader]

[ADDED 5/11/08: 5 options for mobile web Twitter]

[ADDED 5/11/08: A conversation on Twitter]

[ADDED 5/11/08: Groups on Twitter]

[ADDED 17/02/08: Roundup : TwitSnip, Qwitter, Flockup, FriendOrFollow, TwitterThreads]

[ADDED 21/12/08: Roundup : TwitZu, TwitterGadget, BrightKit, Twitter Groups, TweetWaster]

[ADDED 16/01/09: Roundup : Who Follows You, Set up your Twitter list, Twply, Mr Tweet, Twitter-to-FriendFeed Contact Sync]

[ADDED 16/01/09: Roundup : Tweetree, Power Twitter, Retweet Rank, twtapps (twtcard, twtpoll, twtvite), TwitterFriends]

[ADDED 16/01/09: Roundup : Tweetvisor, Twitwall, Twitblogs, Just Tweet It, MyTweetSpace]

[ADDED 19/01/09: Roundup : re-twit’d, TweetGrid, Twitority, PeopleBrowsr, TwitTangle]

[ADDED 19/01/09: How many ways do you use Twitter?]

[ADDED 16/02/09: Roundup : Tweetbacks, Tweetsuite, Magpie, Twittertise, 2tweet]

[ADDED 16/02/09: Roundup : Snipt, TweetStalk, TwitterEyes, Twitzer, adCause]

[ADDED 16/02/09: Roundup : TwitterSheep, 140it, Retweetist, Twitter Mosaic, TweetValue]

[ADDED 16/02/09: Roundup : TweeTube, TweepSearch, Tweet3, Twilert, TwitterScope]

[ADDED 23/02/09: Microplaza is a memetracker the micro way]

[ADDED 27/02/09: Roundup : Twitseeker, Twinfluence, Retweetradar, Bubbletweet, Twitter Influence Calculator]

[ADDED 27/02/09: Roundup : twtrip, JustSignal, Twalala, TweetBackup, Tweetag]

[ADDED 19/03/09: Roundup : twitalyzer, Twitterfall, TwitterMapper, Tweepler, Twitter Friends]

[ADDED 19/03/09: Roundup : Tweetcc, Cotweet, Twitter Remote, Twickie, Ginx]

[ADDED 19/03/09: Twitter 3 years on, and why it’s the killer app!]

[ADDED 19/03/09: BackType Connect and BackTweets : Who’s talking about your blog post in Twitter and more]

[ADDED 19/03/09: Roundup : Twitter search results on Google, Search Cloudlet, wwwitter, filttr, Tweetpkr]

[ADDED 19/03/09: Roundup : Hootsuite, Nearby Tweets, Twimailer, Retweetability, Top Twitter Friends]

[ADDED 2/04/09: TwitteReader and GTweet]

[ADDED 2/04/09: Roundup : Topify, NutShellMail, tweetworks, PleaseRT.me, WeFollow]

[ADDED 2/04/09: Roundup : twitlonger, Tweetizen, TweetSum, FriendFilter, Twibes]

[ADDED 2/04/09: Roundup : EasyTweets, Socialtoo, TwitProfiles, Tweetzi, Twitterfish]

[ADDED 2/04/09: Social search, Help engines, and Sense-making]

[ADDED 15/04/09: Roundup : Flaptor, TwitterSplit, Twi8r, Less Friends, Twittley]

[ADDED 15/04/09: Roundup : FeedNest, Localtweeps, TweepDiff, Tweepular, TweetBrain]

[ADDED 15/04/09: Roundup : Twazzup, Twitr, Twitoria, TweetReach, Tweepz]

[ADDED 1/06/09: Roundup : Spreadtweets, Twitzap, Tweefind, Plodt, LoadedWeb]

[ADDED 1/06/09: Roundup : Sat Twitter, Mailana, Favrd, Tweeter Tags, When did you join twitter]

[ADDED 1/06/09: Roundup : Twanalyst, Morsetweet, Tweba, TweetTrail, Twitt3D]

[ADDED 1/06/09: Roundup : Twubs, Unclutterer, Twollo, Mutuality, Your Twitter Karma]

[ADDED 1/06/09: Roundup : MyCleenr, Tinker, AddTweets, BigTweet, Twitlet]

[ADDED 1/06/09: Roundup : ConvoMonitor, pagetweet, TweetALink, SayTweet, Tweecious]

[ADDED 1/06/09: Twitter fix replies, Friendfeed and Facebook comparison]

[ADDED 1/06/09: Roundup : TweetBios, TweetEffect, Tweeterate, TweetIE, TwittBot]

[ADDED 1/06/09: Roundup : TwitterCompressor, twitwoop, Twitoaster, Twonvo, Twitterel]

[ADDED 1/06/09: Roundup : Repeets, twtbizcard, twitmatic, hoodlenow, tagth.is]

[ADDED 1/06/09: Roundup : vlingo, Poll Everywhere + Twitter, TwitVid, TwitDoc, Mixero]