Totally Incorrect » twitter

Tweetboard – Twitter conversations

David — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 12:13:04 +0000

If you use Twitter, you might have noticed that Tweetboard Alpha has been a (possibly rather annoying) trending topic of late. The developer has been using Twitter to get peopel to sign up for the alpha testing program.

I’m not sure I like that kind of marketing, but it does seem to have worked – the developer 140ware has been overwelmed with requests try out the application.

Tweetboard is actually a pretty clever idea, one I was tempted to try out myself.

Basically it allows the site owner to set up a little tab that allows conversations to take place with visitors using Twitter. You’ll see the tab on the left side of your browser window. You can log in with your Twitter ID and we can have instant conversations as well as see my recent Tweets. The concept has been described as being a micro-forum: probably pretty close.

If I keep Tweetboard installed, it might well replace the Twitter widget I already have on the Totally Incorrect! homepage – I’m not really sure yet.

If you want to try out Tweetboard on your own site or blog, head over to the Tweetboard site.

There is also a good write up by Jennifer at Mashable.. She thinks it is a cool idea as I do. Will it stay on my site? Hmm, time will tell.

Is this something you’d use on your site? What do you think of the developer’s Twitter marketing methods? You can go ahead and let me know via the Tweetboard tab =)

Mixero – another Twitter desktop app

David — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 19:59:51 +0000

Wow, there are starting to get to be a lot of desktop applications for Twitter. I’ve already written about two of the ones I use, Tweetdeck and Seesmic Desktop. Recently the Mashable guys compared 19 different apps – all designed be an improvement on using the actual Twitter website. I had never imagined there were so many of these.

Anyway, the other day I noticed a suggestion from David Teicher in a blog comment to try out an application called Mixero – not one of the Mashable 19! David is a guy who usually knows what’s going on so I tracked down the website for the application.

Mixero looked to be rather interesting, but I couldn’t find anywhere to download the app. There was a contact form so I sent a quick message asking if I could try out the app. I quickly got a reply with a link and an invitation code – great new stuff to play with!

Mixero uses the old faithful Adobe Air (don’t all the Twitter apps) so it was installed and running in no time.

Everything Panel

My first impression when starting Mixero was how simple and uncluttered the UI is.

I’ve gotten used to using Tweetdeck or Seesmic, both of which have a tendency to take over my desktop – not so with Mixero.

I can still save searches and these are shown as icons. The image ot the left shows my normal mode with my “everything” panel displayed. The icons to the right are my saved searches (Mixero calls them channels). I just need to click on an icon to make that channel active in the main panel. If there is an update to the content of a channel, a little icon on the icon shows how many new updated there are – much more elegant than my description.

The little blurbs on my avatar at the top show if I have any new @replies or DMs.

Obviously while in a panel, I can reply, DM or Re-Tweet to any of the posts there. I can follow and unfollow other users as well. All the functions you’d expect such as search, URL shortening (I use bit.ly which uses their API key for identification) are there.

Panels can be detached and moved anywhere on the desktop if I want to. I can re-size them and pin them so they stay on top of whatever I’m doing on my PC – nice feature!

Mixero Contacts Panel

I really like how Mixero allows me to keep track of my contacts as well. Contacts can be sorted into groups which can be manipulated in many different ways. I’ve only just started to build my contents groups. The image here shows my 12for12k contacts list as an example.

The developer of Mixero must be a David Allen fan because just as in Getting Things Done, Mixero can use contexts. I haven’t had the chance to delve into this yet, but this feature allows the user to set up contexts for office, work or others.

One of the really nice things is that all the settings can be synced so that Mixero can be used on different machines. I have it set up on my desktop and laptop and the syncing works fine.

Mixero Avatar Mode

On of the coolest features of Mixero is Avatar Mode.

This fits right in with the tagline of “reducing the noice.” Avatar mode effictivly minimizes the application to just the users avatar and the channel icons. This little icon cluster stays on top of the desktop and shows when new items are received.

In this example, I’ve received a direct message (I’ll bet it’s one of those nasty auto “thanks for following” ones) and there is 1 update in my 12for12k channel. If I hover my cursor over the alerts, I’ll get a good preview of the new content. I can see what’s going on without having to disturb my work – well, at least not too much.

Avatar mode is a really cool feature!

Nothing is perfect and there are a couple of things that could be better with Mixero. For a start I hate the putrid green colour of the links, I wish it was either blue (like Seesmic) or changable (like Tweetdeck) and the application does not seem to handle multiple accounts or connect to Facebook.

I’ve been using Tweetdeck and Seesmic Desktop for a while and they are really very close in how they look and function. it has been fun to try something that is very different. I really like the minimist approach that Mixero has taken. The combination of clean simple design with plenty of feature makes it a winner for me.

Sorry Tweetdeck and Seesmic, Mixero is now my favorite Twitter app. Better yet, there will be an iPhone version soon as well!

Want more information? Head over to Mixero.com and while you’re there, have them send you a download link.

How many of the 19 apps in the Mashable comparism have you used? Have you test driven Mixero? I’d love to know what you think.

Update: the nice Mixero dudes have given me some passcodes so you can try our the applciation for yourself. You can download from their site and use the passcode 12for12k. If you like Mixero, please consider making a donation to the 12for12k charity. If you don’t like it? Well making a donation to 12for12k will help you feel better

Twitter Desktop Apps

David — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 02:46:43 +0000

If you use Twitter to any extent you will have noticed that the Twitter website is not really that good at managing your activities. This is especially true if you follow a lot of people or want to get involved in any of the #chats.

Fortunately, when there is a problem a solution is often forthcoming and this is no exception. There are several desktop application designed to help improve the Twitter experience and the two most popular are Tweetdeck and Seesmic Desktop. These two applications have a lot in common. They are both based on Adobe’s Air platform and both allow for a number of different columns to be set up.Let’s take a look at them…

I’m not going to go into a lot of detail – there will be all kinds of techie reviews all over the Internet already. I will however, give you my thoughts on how each of them works for me personally – I’ll be interested to hear if you see things the same as I do or differently.

Tweetdeck

Seesmic Desktop

Both apps cover all the basics:

Multiple columns
Searches that update automatically
Facebook integration
Setting up of groups
managing conversations
Shorten and post links

Tweetdeck actually has more features including online sync for backup and the ability to customise the colours. Seesmic doesn’t seem to allow customising of the colours, but I must admit that I like the default Seesmic colours better than any I’ve been able to create with Tweetdeck. I also have not been able to get the Tweetdeck Facebook account working – this is more likely due to my incompetence than the app, but these things should be easy.

Tweetdeck also just came out with a shiny new iPhone app. I must say, I’m thinking that this has so much potential. It has a few problems, but for a 1.0 release it is just brilliant and also syncs with the desktop version.

Conclusion – if you need all the features or are a Twitter power user, Tweetdeck is the one to go for.

In my personal case, I’m not so sure. Both are fantastic apps that really enhance the whole Twitter experience and it is really hard to choose one over the other. At the moment I’m finding that, although I love the features and power of Tweetdeck, I find myself using Seesmic Desktop more. The interface is just that bit simpler and seems to fit into my usage a little bit better.

I have no doubt that Tweetdeck and Seesmic Desktop will both continue to evolve and improve. I wonder if my conclusion will be the same a couple of months from now?

You can learn more at the websites for the two applications

Tweetdeck
Seesmic

Do you use Tweetdeck or Seesmic? Which one is working better for you personally? What features would you like to see in new versions?

David’s Twitter Newbie Tip II

David — Fri, 29 May 2009 21:21:12 +0000

Congratulations – you’ve gotten the job to deal with Social Media at your company – a license to play around in Twitter and Facebook while everyone is working!

On Twitter, all you need to do is get some followers and you are away.

Here’s a thought though – a small thing but important to me:

I hang out on Twitter whenever I have some time and I love to communicate with people. That’s the key word – PEOPLE! If we have interests in common, I’d be really happy happy to network and chat with you – that’s you the person. If you use a corporation or organization name, I lose interest rapidly, no matter how great the company might be.

If you feel the need to include your business name, fine. I’d have no issue chatting with Steve_at_Apple, but just Apple? No thanks – how do I even know it’s the same person each time?

So that’s my latest Twitter newbie tip. If you want to communicate with me (or people who think like me) keep it at a personal level.

Have fun with Twitter!!
David.

One Small Tweet For a Man

David — Wed, 13 May 2009 00:13:39 +0000

Twitter has been in the news a lot of late. What with unparalleled grown, the first person to get a million followers (I still have no idea who this guy even is), the arrival of Oprah and the 300,000 people who came with her (most of whom will have left just as quickly), there have been a lot of milestones reached.

For me though, the most significant Twitter news happened to day – Tuesday May, 12 2009. This was the day day that Mike Massimino, a NASA Astronaut became the first person to Tweet from space!

On Twitter Mike is @Astro_Mike and you really should follow him if you are a Twitter user. I think it is amazing he documents his day just as though he was going to work just like you or me! He is actually on the Space Shuttle mission where he is going to be spacewalking to fix the Hubble Telescope – not quite your 9-5 job!

So here is the historic Tweet from Space

Great stuff Mike!!

David’s Twitter Newbie Tip

David — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 22:23:48 +0000

Getting some followers.

If you are just discovering Twitter (as I was a short time ago – I’m still basically a newbie!) you’ve probably found that it gets much more interesting when you build up a group of followers. There are a lot of strategies around for doing this, including many schemes that offer to get you thousands of followers in a very short time. If you want to do this – go for it. Personally, I think it is better to build a network of people with similar interests to yourself; people you might actually want to have conversations with.

Here’s a strategy that I think works.

Provide some information in your profile. If anyone (other than a spam bot) is interested in becoming part of your network, they are going to want to get a feel for what you are all about. A quick one line intro, a photo and a link to your website or blog goes a long way.
Post a few tweets on subjects you are interested in. For me, I will usually not follow anyone who hasn’t made at least some posts.
Find some people with similar interests and follow them. A lot of the people you follow will follow you back – especially if you’ve taken care of the first two steps. If you look at someone’s profile and their numbers of followers and followed are pretty balanced you’ll know you are in with a good chance.
Join in the conversation. A really good thing to do is to get involved in some of the organized “chats” on Twitter. I’ll post more on these in a future Twitter Tip if you don’t yet know what these are. The one’s I like to take part in are #blogchat on Sunday and #smbiz chat on Tuesdays. There are a lot more to be found.
If you find a good organized conversation with a subject that interests you, you’ll find a lot of people to follow and (if you take part) you’ll be followed too.
If you find something of interest on Twitter Retweet (RT) it. This lets more people see the interesting content and the originator of the material will usually thank you and often follow you. Here’s a good guide to ReTweeting.

You’ll find that once you get a few followers and start becoming active in the community, your number of followers will increase with little or no effort needed. I’d strongly suggest that you follow back people that take the trouble to follow you. I nearly always do except for the “get 10,000 followers by lunchtime” and “get rich quick while sitting on your bottom” crowd. It’s a good policy to always check out the bio of anyone you are thinking of following (see my first point at the start)

Most importantly of all, I think Twitter works best if you just want to network and have fun, rather than having an agenda.

If you are a Twitter user, how did you get started in building your network? Are there any great tips you could share?

David’s Quick Marketing Tip

David — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 02:07:36 +0000

Want to keep up with what’s hot and exciting in the world of media and PR?

If you use Twitter (of course you do!), it’s easy. Just do a search on #journchat and follow the conversation.

#journchat takes place each Monday evening 8 – 11 PM Eastern.

There is more information to be found here.

It is very interesting to see how people in the PR business are getting to grips with social media and other changes. It seems to me that the world of print media is going to be in for a rough time unless they can find a way to actually build profits from their on-line efforts.