Comments are off for this post

I’ve had a few people ask me how to get more Twitter followers and what apps I use. I have to spend some time thinking about how to word my condensed answer on how to get Twitter followers – I don’t have zillions of followers, so I’m a bit relunctant to say I know anything special, but I do have a few, so I guess I must have done a couple of things “right” along the way (or I just got lucky, which is probably a lot of it). In the meantime, here are a few things I’ve been using and Tweeting about:

TweetDeck

• Pros: When you start following a lot of people, it’s hard to spot some of those special Tweeters you really want to keep up on. With TweetDeck, you can create a special column filled only with those special peeps. I also use it to search for the names of our clients so I can monitor the chatter about them.

• Cons: It occassionally dramatically slows the performance of my PC and even crashes it. I’m also sometimes annoyed by their data limits – once you hit then the windows won’t refresh for a while.

Twitpic

If you use Tweetdeck, Twitpic is incorporated into the functionality.  You can link your Tweet with a photo – and with only 140 characters to use, it’s nice to allow your picture to tell your story because a “picture is worth a 1000 words” and Twitter is only a bumper sticker.

• Pros:  Easy to upload and share photos.  Also allows sharing, blogging and comments.

• Cons:  It’s supposed to work seamlessly with TwitterBerry, but it never works.

TwitterBerry

I’m a BlackBerry user, so TwitterBerry is my mobile app.  You can Tweet within the app and save SMS charges and you can also see replies and direct messages and reply back in an easy-to-use format.

• Pros:  Simple interface and superb mobile convenience.

• Cons:  The aforementioned Twitpic problem (not a big deal) and you constantly have to refresh to see what’s new.

TwitterSearch

Well, the name explains it all – enter your keyword, get results.

Twitter Grader – Location

Want to see who’s Tweeting near you?  Enter your city and you’ll see the top Twits in your locale.  Interesting but I do admit I felt a bit voyeuristic too.

Twitter Balloon

See that little Twitter widget to the right, with my pic in it?  That’s from Korelab and it’s a Twitter balloon.  It’s not the easiest to configure, but the instructions are in the blog and I like that it’s a bit more visual than the other Twitter widgets I’ve seen.

SocialToo

I used to get an email every time somebody followed me, but because my inbox is also inundated with Russian spam, I decided to eliminate anything extraneous.  I now get a once-a-day summary email from SocialToo that tells me who followed me (and which one of my Tweets was where they began to follow) and who drops me (and which Tweet bored them to tears).

PowerTwitter

This Firefox add-in cleans up the regular Twitter interface.  After you load it up and go to the normal www.twitter.com site, you’ll see photos and video thumbnails, plus links presented in a much nicer format.  Plus, the company behind this is from Marin – yo!

Related articles

• Notification Aggregator AlertThingy Rips A Page Out of TweetDeck’s Book (techcrunch.com)
• HOW TO: Live Inside Twitter and Still Stay Productive (mashable.com)
• Birds of a Feather Twitter Together [The Mossberg Solution] (solution.allthingsd.com)
• Netbytes: Small talk is the next big thing for the twittering classes (guardian.co.uk)
• Twitstat Study: BlackBerry Users Are Totally Addicted To Twitter (techcrunch.com)
• Twhirl and AlertThingy expand supported services (news.cnet.com)

4 comments

Have you ever thought about creating a place on the internet that’s not just filled with text and static photos but with artists and poets, musicians and muses, techies and non-techies all meeting and interacting in an environment designed with their sheer creativity?  I’ve been playing around in Metaplace as they have recently entered their invitation-only alpha stage and it’s a place where I can really lose myself.  I started out at Metaplace Central and bumped into visionary and creative genius, Raph Koster.  We strolled around together and he gave me a giant bouquet of balloons.  I then transported myself to another world where little blue aliens bounced around.  I saw sign post to go ice skating, so I tried that experience too.  I found myself in a winter wonderland next to an icy lake, where I could try my slalom skills (they were pretty bad).  Finally, I hopped back to Metaplace Central and played a little game of Connect 4 with Raph.  He kicked my butt.  Drats – I need some practice.

If you’d like early access to see and experience what the world is coming to, please use this special code MPCONSORT to get in to Metaplace .  Just don’t challenge me to a game of Connect 4 – it’s too embarrassing.

Related articles

• Get a sneak peek at Metaplace MMO with Boing Boing Offworld (boingboing.net)
• Metaplace Readies Virtual World Platform (InformationWeek)

1 comment

Perhaps Lars Hinrichs‘ Christmas list this year included a new tie, a new iPod, and maybe an acquisition of leading news company in the states.  I don’t know if he’s getting the tie or iPod, but I can report that XING has acquired New York-based socialmedian, an innovator in the online social news category founded by Jason Goldberg who also lead Jobster (by the way, the photo is of Daniela Hinrichs holding the newest addition to the XING family).

In the deal, XING will pay a combination of cash and stock valued at 2.9 million Euros (approx. $ 4 million), with a performance-based earn-out valued at between 0.5 – 2.5 million Euros (approx. $700K to $3.5 million) payable over three years.

With socialmedian, XING members will be essentially have their own personal news assistant trolling all sources of news, which we know doesn’t just include websites.  Socialmedian essentially collects, sorts and organizes information from social services such as Twitter, Digg, Del.icio.us, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, GoogleReader, FriendFeed, the international blogosphere, and industry and online media sources, then filters that information through your social contacts.  What this means is that you only receive the news you need to know based on your interests, job, and passions, from the people in your networks.   Given we at Consort use many of these various services, we all applaud XING’s newest baby.

1 comment