All Tweets On Deck! How Power Users Use Twitter
The free app is not only available for your desktop, but also for iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, and Android. While I still do a lot of tweeting on the fly via text message, there are many times when I want the full Twitter experience. That’s when I use TweetDeck.
At the top of my Reasons to Use TweetDeck list is being able to have more control over Twitter. TweetDeck gives you the ability to create columns of Twitter users based on Twitter lists, keywords, mentions, direct messages, trending topics and more. This may not be important when you are just starting out on Twitter, but once you reach thousands of followers you need a way to sort things to view the tweets that are most important to you. What is great about TweetDeck is that I can sync those columns easily whether I’m on my iPhone or desktop. I rely heavily on my columns to help me keep Twitter under control. If you are simply using Twitter.com for your use of Twitter if you have a large following it just is not possible to see everything easily and Twitter easily feels overwhelming. Along with being able to sync, you can also modify your Twitter lists and TweetDeck columns via your phone, not just on your desktop, by adding or removing list members.
When I am on the go, I can add a new column for a temporary event without having to sync it to my main account, I usually do this by doing a Twitter search for the event #hashtag. Need to easily follow someone you just met? Simply bring up TweetDeck’s Quick Follow screen and let them type in their Twitter handle and click the Follow button. While I personally do not geo tag my tweets, that function is available as well for those of you who need it at large events. Once you have read all of the current tweets, just shake your phone for an instant refresh of columns, this is an iPhone only option at this point (if you see me in person you can catch me doing this often). Not only will TweetDeck update your Twitter stream with tweets, pics, and links, but you can also update your Facebook account, use multiple accounts, and cross post to all of them at once.
After you install the free app, take some time to play with it, look around TweetDeck.com and ask others about their favorite features. Even though I have been using TweetDeck for over a year, I learned even more just writing this post. The one negative is that it does tend to crash, at least on my iPhone (both 3G and 4), often enough to notice. I’m not quite sure why, but I love the app enough that I don’t let it bother me.
I use TweetDeck as well and really like it!
Any tips you would like to add on how you personally use it? Maybe an extra tweak that you use that I didn’t mention?
I’m hooked on Hootsuite. I like that it’s not a program that I need to add to my laptop. There’s a free app and I can add lists using the same parameters as TweetDeck. The only thing I can’t do is shake my phone to refresh. Darn, I’d love to do that!
Hootsuite is also a great program Connie. It is interesting that you like the desktop version because it isn’t a program and that is one of the reasons I prefer to use TweetDeck, because it is a program onto itself. HootSuite is a good tool if you are working in teams as well.