Twitter Guide: Learn some interesting tips and tricks for Twitter.
Q: Can I respond directly to someone’s tweet? What’s the difference between an @reply and a direct message?
A: You can respond to people one of two ways: with direct messages, which are private, 140-character exchanges, or with @replies, which are publicly viewable. You can send a ‘@reply’ by simply adding the ‘@’ symbol and the particular user’s name to the beginning of your message (example: “@switched: I really liked that article on Twitter!”). These @replies are ideal for furthering a public dialogue. On the other hand, direct messages, which you can send by clicking ‘Direct Messages’ in the Web site’s right-hand bar (or by preceding a text message with ‘d’ and the user name), are better for things you want to say to an individual, rather than the whole ‘Twitterverse.’
Q: What is ReTweeting?
A: ReTweets are re-posted updates that give credit to the originator of the message. In other words, you’re simply cutting and pasting someone else’s tweet and posting it on your own feed, linking to the person who first wrote it. ReTweeting builds goodwill within the Twitter community, as long as you don’t overdo it. There is no need to reTweet every update that makes you giggle, but, if something strikes you as particularly interesting or funny, you can reTweet it by copy-and-pasting the update and preceding it with “RT” (for ReTweet) and the person’s username. That person will get a copy of the ReTweet, and most likely thank you for it! (ReTweeting is also a good way to get more followers, by the way.)
Q: I am a blogger and want to cross-post articles from my blog into Twitter?
A: Go to
FeedBlitz, type the address of the feed in the Subscribe box and choose Twitter from the subscription options. The other option is
Twitter Feed but that requires you to have an OpenID.
Q: I know that TwitPic allows me to post pictures on Twitter but I want to use my existing Flick account with Twitter.
A: Go to
TwitterGram and associate your Flickr name with your Twitter account. Now assign a special tag (say Twitter) and any picture that you post on Flickr with that Tag will automatically get posted in your Twitter account as well.
Q: I just ordered a laptop on eBay and the owner shipped it via UPS. I want to track this package on Twitter.
A: Follow
TrackThis on Twitter and send this bot a Direct Message with your Airway Bill Number. You’ll be notified each time your package changes location. Works with FedEx, UPS, DHL and USPS.
Q. I want to add events in my Google Calendar using Twitter?
A: Go to
Twittercal, add gCal as your virtual friend on Twitter and add events by simply sending direct messages to your new Twitter friend.
Q: I am a blogger. How can I add “tweet this” links to all my blog post?
Q: Oh! I just saw a spam profile on Twitter that is using my picture and tweets. I want to report impersonation on Twitter.
A: Send a message to Twitter spam watch team at
@spam with the suspicious user name.
Q: My Twitter friend just sent me a tweet in French. I want to translate his message into English.
A: Follow
twanslate and send a direct message with the text you want to get translated along with the language code of the target language (en for English, fr from French, etc.).
Q: I want to use Twitter as a Gmail Notifier.
A: Create a new Twitter account and set the status of updates as “Protected” so that the updates don’t appear in a public timeline. Now subscribe to your
Gmail RSS feed using FeedBlitz and become mutual friends.
Q: I want to use Twitter as an alarm clock to remind me that I have to pick my daughter from school in 30 minutes.
A: Follow
timer – send a direct message with the reminder time and it will ping you at that time. For instance “d timer 30 pick daughter”.
A: Go to
tweetbeep and set up alerts for certain keywords and web URLs. You’ll get an email notification as soon as someone mentions you or your brand or
your blog posts in their tweets.
Q: While I like the default Twitter search engine, I want to know about other alternatives.
A: Try
Tweet Scan and
Monitter. Unlike Summize, you don’t have to refresh the Monitter page each time there’s a new result matching your search query. And it support multi-column search so may track multiple keywords on the same screen.
Q: I want to conduct a quick and simple poll on Twitter. Is it possible?
A: Go to
StrawPoll and create a poll. Your Twitter contacts can participate in the poll by simply sending an @reply message.
Laura Gonzalez President of
Virtual Business Solutions, providing Business and Website Consultant and Coach. Specializing in teaching professionals how to leverage the internet and their website as a tool to generate new customers, increase sales and be more productive.
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