Reality is Perception

Two of the main stats I’ve heard since the explosion of Twitter within the last year or so (and other status-like apps like Google Buzz) are the high number of new users, but also the high number of users that abandon their Twitter account shortly after.

From my last post where I talked about the evolution of all these social networking sites, I’m saying the reason why most people don’t stay with Twitter is because of the lack of design in the Twitter website, and users not knowing the best alternatives.

There are multitudes of sites and apps that you can register for and download that you can find by just doing a Google search on “Update Twitter Apps” like this one from TechCrunch: http://techcrunch.com/2009/02/19/the-top-20-twitter-applications/

I’m going to keep this from being a tome of reviews though, and just stick with what I see are the main two options: the Twitter website and Tweetdeck.

The Twitter Website

First off, don’t have a Twitter username that’s longer than 10 characters. Your username (like @bhbeak) is going to be included if someone re-posts what you’ve said into their status, and if you have a 30-character-long username, it won’t leave them any room to comment, etc.  aka. KEEP YOUR USERNAME AS SHORT AS POSSIBLE while still allowing people to recognize who you are. If you need ideas, let me know, and I can tell you what your celebrity name would be.

When you first login to Twitter, it takes you through a Wizard to choose suggested topics like Art & Design, Books, Business, etc. and gives you recommendations of people to “follow” (whose tweets you want to see in your “stream”).  The next step is you can find friends that have Twitter accounts already so you can follow them.

It can search your Gmail, Yahoo or AOL account for your friends that use Twitter and present them so you can choose who you’d like to follow.

Finally, you can search for Twitter usernames (like mine is @bhbeak) and follow them.

Ok, so now you have your Twitter account setup, and you’re even following some people (or at least me ).  Now you have TWO problems..

PROBLEM #1 – Everyone’s statuses that I’m following are all on one screen, and there are only a few that I want to MAKE SURE that I can always see when they update.

The Twitter website provides a solution to this by allowing you to create lists and add people to them.  That way only the people’s status who you add to that list (like a FAVES list) show up there, making it much easier to manage.

You can setup a list by clicking on the New List link on the right side of your Twitter Home page under the Search Box and Lists title.  Give your new list a name, a description (optional), and set the Public/Private flag whether you want anyone to see your list or not.

Once you have it setup, you can go to any Twitter user, or your Followers/Following list and click on the Lists button on the right of their name and click which List(s) to add them to.

Once you have a list setup, you can click on the list under the LISTS section on the right side of the Twitter page to see all the tweets from users in that list.

Setting up lists is great, and a very useful feature that we’ll discuss later, so I’d definitely recommend at least setting up a FAVES list, if not more by topic/group/etc.

However, the problem I have with it is it’s still only one list on the screen at a time?  What if I have 10+ lists and don’t want to have to click through each one?  That’s almost worse than having them all in one stream…

RESOLUTION TO #1 – Enter TWEETDECK

Tweetdeck makes it easy to see each of your friends’ statuses by splitting the screen into columns for you to see them separately, instead of separate pages or (even worse!) one single stream.  How on earth would I be able to really read and follow the statuses I’m interested in when some of the people I’m friends with fill up my stream constantly?  That’s why Tweetdeck is so good.

Once you have Tweetdeck installed, go into Settings – Accounts, you can put in your Twitter login info, and it will automatically pull in your Twitter stream, as well as allow you to post to it.

This brings me to Problem #2:

PROBLEM #2 – Now I have Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn AND NOW Google Buzz, too.. Do I have to update each of them individually?

RESOLUTION TO #2, Part 1 – Tweetdeck can update Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn all at once!

In Tweetdeck, the same place you put in your Twitter info, you can also put in your Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn login info, and it will automatically pull in your streams from those sites, as well as allow you to post to them all at once.  If you don’t want certain posts to go to Facebook, for instance, you can just uncheck Facebook above your post and it will only update what you have highlighted (in the example screenshot, just Twitter will be updated).

It will also do great things like shorten any URLs you put in your post so they take up less room.  There are also fun buttons like adding a photo, or adding your current location, etc.  Play around with those and let me know what you like best or what’s most useful.

RESOLUTION TO #2, Part 2 – Setup Google Buzz to link to your Twitter account!

While everyone’s still trying to figure out what the heck to do with Google Buzz, don’t miss out on building rapport with your Google contacts when it’s really easy to post there.

Login to your Gmail account, click on BUZZ in your left menu, and next to your picture and name at the top, it refers to your number of “Connected Sites”.  Click on that link and it opens up this window, where you can click on the services to connect your Google Buzz to.
- For this example, click on the Add button next to Twitter.
- Type in your Twitter username.
- Twitter will ask you for your password and approval, and once you click Approve/OK, it will be connect.
- That’s it!  Now every time you tweet something (from wherever), your tweet will be posted on Google Buzz!

While you’re at it, if you’re using Google Reader or any of the other services listed in Google Buzz, Add them as well!  I’ve found that Buzz is best when it is just connected to what I’m already doing and pulls in auto-posts from various places.  That makes it VERY low maintenance!

What do you think?  Have you used Tweetdeck before, or did you follow these instructions to start using it?  I’d love to hear your experiences with setting any of this up, and even what questions you have that I may be able to help with!  Leave a question/comment below!