Archive for the ‘Twitter Tools’ Category:
How To: Turn Your Twitter Updates Into Posts
So you spend hours everyday updating your Twitter profile? Whether you use your Twitter account to keep track of your favorite links or just want to share your experiences with the world, you may have the opportunity to turn your Twitter posts into blog posts that make sense. For that to make sense, you will need to have Twitter updates that can be truly useful to your readers. It could be a collection of your links or other people’s stories that you have found interesting. But you want your Twitter posts to make sense. If you have a Twitter account that has some valuable content you can repackage as a blog post and run your blog on WordPress, Twitter Digest is your friend.
Twitter Digest for WordPress goes through your Twitter updates each day and creates a blog post from them. You can define post frequency, which is useful if you are not too active on Twitter.
Trst.me: Your Ranking On Twitter
There are many people who spend hours everyday posting to their Twitter accounts and building relationships. In fact, all bloggers need to take time to get involved on Twitter and connect with others in their niche. Many assume that the more followers you have, the better off you are. That can’t be further from the truth. The quality of your followers is more important than the quantity (though I have to admit sometimes quantity can outweigh quality). Plenty of Twitter ranking tools pay more attention to the number of followers each Twitter user has instead of the quality. Now there is a tool that addresses that issue.
Trst.me is a simple to use Twitter tool that ranks you based on the quality of your followers, instead of just the quantity. It not only counts the number of followers that you have towards your ranking, but also the number of followers your followers have. In many ways, the algorithm used by Trst.me is similar to the one used by Google for its PageRank program (though there are differences).
Here is what my Twitter account looks like when using this service:
Add Retweet Function To Your Blog with Topsy
When someone talks about adding retweet functionality to blogs, many bloggers jump to the conclusion and assume the best service out there for such a function is the one offered by Tweetmeme. Don’t get me wrong. Tweetmeme is a wonderful service that makes it easier for people to not only find your posts but also help spread the words around them. But it’s not the only game in town. Topsy is another top Twitter aggregator that can help your content go viral fast. It’s easy to implement as well.
Topsy provides you with numerous ways to add its service to your blog. You can easily grab a piece of code from Topsy.com and post it to your blog to let your visitors retweet your posts and find out which one of your posts are popular.If you happen to run your blog on Wordpress, you can just download the plugin offered by Topsy. Read more »
Jotabl: Add a Twitter Shoutbox To Your Blog
Bring Twitter to your website is one of the best ways to get more traffic. One way to do that is by adding your content to Twitter from time to time. Of course, if you can get people to re-tweet your posts, your traffic is only going to grow. But there is more to Twitter than just sharing your posts on it. You can also use it to solidify your existing community and build new relationships. Jotabl is one example of a service that lets you do just that. It’s designed to help you integrate a shout-box on your website. Your visitors can use the box to give you instant feedback or share their thoughts about your posts on Twitter.
The process is pretty simple. You’ll have to have a Twitter account to take advantage of this service, but you won’t have to post to Twitter when you post an update to the shoutbox. When you are creating your shoutbox, you can filter swear words just to keep the trolls at bay.
Why Bitly.tv Matters?
In case you missed it, Bitly.tv launched just recently to allow Bit.ly fans to find the videos that are being watched online. Bit.ly is one of the best tools to shorten URLs and track their performance overtime. Now you can find out about the top videos on the Internet by taking advantage of Bitly.tv. The service is very new and is expected to be improved in the future, but even today you can use it to find out what type of content gives you the best chance to go viral online.
Let’s take a look at the videos in the above image. There are obviously short films and animations that are included in the above list. But you can also see science and Photoshop tutorial video going viral as well. Bitly.tv lists a whole lot of videos on its front-page, so they should give you enough ideas to come up with your own viral content and even figure out what kind of information people are looking to consume online. Read more »
Talk & Tweet Like a Pro with Twalkin
Twitter is a great place to connect with other folks, expand your network, and catch up with your current and former colleagues. We have seen many services that go beyond what Twitter has to offer and allow you to add your video and audio to Twitter as well. Twalkin is an innovative service that brings it all together. The service is designed to allow you to talk to your Twitter followers, make big announcements on Twitter, or have a private chat with your Twitter friends. You will need to have a phone and a Twitter account to get started, but that shouldn’t be a problem.
Creating a Twalk couldn’t be any easier. All you have to do is log in with your Twitter account and add a Twalk. Here is where things get interesting. You not only get to define how many people can join you in your Twalk session, you can also define specific people who you would like to be a part of your session.
Once you have filled out the information required to create your own Twalk, you are all set. The system will handle the rest for you. Your fans are provided with a phone number and a pin number to join you online.
You can also use Twalk in conjunction with your iPhone to connect with your followers and hold online sessions more easily. All in all, a very exciting service that could come in handy if you are into developing stronger relationship with your Twitter followers.
5 Free Tools To Schedule Tweets Ahead of Time
I am personally not a big fan of automating Twitter tasks. Not the ones that don’t need to be automated (e.g. adding friends, tweeting, …). But sometimes, you’ll need to wait before you can tweet something. Sometimes, you are going to be away for a few weeks, but you don’t want your Twitter account to become stagnant. Whatever the case, having a tool that would allow you to schedule your tweets ahead of time could come in handy. There are plenty of paid tools that allow you to schedule your tweets for the future and even fully automate your Twitter accounts. While you don’t want to rely on these tools heavily, it’s nice to have them when you need them.
If you are looking for free tools to schedule tweets ahead of time, here are 5 free Twitter tools that could come in handy:
Hootsuite: the best Twitter management tool on the market hands down. I may be a bit biased here, considering that I have been using it for months. But I can tell you that as long as you don’t want to spam Twitter, Hootsuite has everything you need to manage your Twitter accounts more effectively.
Socialoomph: also known as Twitter Later. This service allows you to automate your welcome messages, schedule tweets in the future, and vet your followers at the same time. The premium version has even more flexibility to offer but you are not obligated to pay up to use this service.
Twitter Feed: another service that I have been using for months. It’s designed to help you connect your blog to Twitter. If you schedule future blog posts, this is a great tool to take advantage of to let your followers know about it. Read more »
Share Screencasts on Twitter with Screenr
Being active on Twitter goes beyond talking about what you have had for lunch or what article you are currently leading. Sometimes you want to demonstrate something to your followers, and there is no better way to do it that making a screencast. If you have the right software, you can go about doing that easily. But you are still going to have to upload your screencast and share the URL on Twitter afterward. With Screenr, you won’t have to worry about any of that. Screenr is a cool Twitter tool that lets you take instant screencasts and share them with your Twitter users fast. No hassle, no extra steps to take.
The whole process is pretty simple. Once you connect Screenr to your Twitter account, you can move the screencast window around and click record to start your screencast. Once you are done with your screencast, you can just write a description for it and have it published on Twitter.
Sharing a screencast on Twitter couldn’t be any easier. Screenr takes the pain out of the process and makes creating simple screencasts and sharing them with others a piece of cake. Great for short demonstrations.
Connect With Your Twitter Fans with Tweetiator
If you own a fairly popular blog, there is a good chance that your content gets tweeted and retweeted on Twitter. Of course, if you provide your readers with a “tweet it” button, you are going to get a lot more tweets. You can always figure out how many clicks your content has gotten. But wouldn’t it be nice if you could figure out which users have tweeted your content and communicate and follow them? That’s where Tweetiator comes in.
Tweetiator tracks links that have been clicked and lets you know who are your fans and gives you an easy way to follow them back. So you could say Tweetiator is a URL shortening service on steroids. You can not only get e-mail alerts from your Tweetiator account, but you can also download the tracking log in .CSV format.
Signing up for Tweetiator is easy. You have to provide the service with your web URL, install the javascript tracking code, and you are ready to go. The service is offered for free for 30 days, but it will cost you $4.95 a month thereafter. The good news is that if your content is very popular on the social media sites, you can use this service easily to find your fans and connect with them. A great way to solidify your online community.
Twitter Times: Make a e-Newspaper Out of Your Tweets
I don’t know about you, but I never imagined having thousands of tweets on my account. But when you tweet 25-30 times a day, your tweets add up. Now wouldn’t it be nice if you could grab all your tweets and make an e-magazine or e-newspaper out of it? That’s exactly what you get to do with Twitter Times. Twitter Times is an innovative service that goes through your tweets and makes your own e-magazine (based on your tweets) fast.
