The Joys of Twittering

by on Apr 24, 2009

I’ve voiced my opinion of Twitter and how I’m sure nobody cares that it’s an hour before lunch, I’m starving and I have no idea what I have to eat at home. But, with a new current events based project I’m working on, Twitter seems to be a good match.

Here are some tools I’ve found to work well…

  • Twitter Tools plugin for WordPress – This is just what I was looking for. It can automatically post tweets from WordPress posts, or vice versa. It can also list recent tweets on my sidebar and allows me to post to Twitter from my blog’s sidebar.
  • Tweet This plugin for WordPress – If you want to make it easier for people to retweet your blog posts, then this is the way to do it. This plugin will add a “Tweet This Post” link below every post, so Twitter users can easily pass it on.
  • Twitterbar Add-on for FireFox – This enables FireFox users to post to Twitter via the browser’s address bar. I thought I would need this, but as long as I can access my site, I can post from the sidebar. But without the Twitter Tools plugin, this would probably be very useful.
  • TweetDeck Desktop Client – If you’re behind a firewall, like me, and can’t access Twitter.com, or many of the other related sites, this is the solution. It gives me full access to Twitter without having to go to the site. There’s also Seesmic, which is quite popular as well.

Unfortunately, I haven’t found a Twitter client that is compact enough to run off of a flash drive… There was one on PortableApps.com, but it no longer works. I’ve also looked into Mitter, provided by Google, but there are several other files required for it to run on Windows. Any suggestions?

  • http://tucsonseosolutions.com/blog Boris

    I have a Twitter account and I gave it about a month, but it still seems like a waste of time to me. I am online 12-14 hours a day. I just don’t have time for this. I never text nor am I into IM… So Twitter just doesn’t have much appeal to me.

    Boris´s last blog post..The 109 Day Link Building Explosion Day 92

  • http://drivelocity.com drivelocity

    I hear you… I’ve stopped IMing because I’m mostly online in the office and have work to do. Home time is family time and I’ve already caught myself getting online at home more often once I started using Twitter and TweetDeck. There’s just too much activity to keep up with!

  • http://odzyskiwanie-danych.findmy.name Odzyskiwanie Danych

    The last thing I need right now is a twitter exension for firefox. I’m already spending around 3-4 hours a day on twitter. With the toolbar I’d probably be twitting 24/7.

  • http://www.fretmusic.co.uk/ PA Systems

    Nice plugins. Actually it is too difficult for anyone to give preference to one plugin among these 4 plugins. However it all depends on your requirements. But from my points of views all the plugins are superb.

  • http://www.gamestock.co.uk/ ps3 games

    Twitter is a great social networking platform. Tweeting on twitter is a very nice & appreciate able experience & i think these plugin makes this platform more user friendly. I like the Tweekdeck plugin the most because it can helps you in tweeting even when you are behind the firewall or another security solution.

  • http://drivelocity.com drivelocity

    Just to be clear for the past two comments, of the four Twitter-related tools I mentioned, only two are plugins for WordPress. The others are a FireFox add on and TweetDeck, a stand alone Twitter client.

  • http://livebingotv.com John Livebingotv.com

    There are numerous websites available that can allow you to create a personalized background on Twitter. However, if you ever wanted to completely brand your Twitter Profile but don’t know how, My TweetSpace allows you to easily create your branded Twitter background.

    John Livebingotv.com´s last blog post..Why play at LiveBingo.com

  • http://www.uprinting.com/Brochure-Printing.html Brochure Printing

    I have a Twitter account too, but not most of my friends don’t have one so it’s been neglected lately. I don’t have the time to look for contacts manually. I can imagine this can be really useful in promoting one’s blog though. These are excellent tools, the “Tweet this post” one is my favorite. Thanks for sharing!

  • http://drivelocity.com drivelocity

    No problem. I really like the two plugins I use. The Twitter Tools one is a “set it and forget it” type. I don’t have to think about manually tweet posts made on my blog(s) – it does it for me. The Tweet This plugin simply eliminates a step in the tweeting process. For people who use Twitter a lot, it’s really helpful.

  • http://www.trendhaus.com.au Branding Sydney

    In Twitter, we have several spots to share more about who we are. Take advantage of this! Complete our profile as much as possible, paying special attention to the Biography area. We don’t have a lot of room here, but this is where a lot of Twitterers go to see if we are someone that they would like to follow.

  • http://my-weightlosshelp.blogspot.com kent

    Even I am neglecting my twitter account a lot. When I opened the twitter account, I was very enthusiastically tweeting many of my online activities, but the enthusiasm slowly faded off!
    .-= kent´s last blog ..Discover Six Fast Ways to Loose Weight =-.

  • http://drivelocity.com drivelocity

    Branding Sydney, You’re right, I think it’s smart for businesses to provide as many contact points as possible. If you have a lot of sites, one for each site may not be practical, or even possible.

    kent, I think it’s a major distraction, but a plugin like Twitter Tools can automate the posting. Of course, you still want to make some personal-style posts, so you don’t look like you’re spamming. Only posting links is an easy way to lose followers.

  • http://www.brainline.org Traumatic Brain Injury

    Twitter tools help the posting a bit. Hootsuite does a pretty good job, can be accessed just about anywhere.