Twitter Desktop Applications
I don’t go to http://twitter.com to read tweets, that would take too much time. Instead I use Seesmic. Seesmic is a deskktop twitter application that runs in the tray on my Vista computer. It allows me to have several twitter accounts and to send tweets to any or all of them. It also allows me to organize whom I follow and thereby filter incoming tweets into sensible categories. There are plenty of other twitter applications that do some or all of this. I’ve tried most of them and settled on Seesmic.

Seesmic Desktop Twitter Application

If you intend to use twitter and be able to leverage its social power then a desktop twitter application is highly recommended. You may want to consider TweetDeck, TwitterFox, Twhirl (Windows & Mac), and plenty more.

Twitter’s Search widget makes use of Hash Tags and key words, focused by AND/OR operators. Lets use Oprah Winfrey for an example. Searching the hash tag #oprah gives us all tweets that specifically use the oprah hash tag. Adding in OR #oprahwinfrey will then display all tweets with either #oprah or #oprawinfrey. The following is a list of search operators supported by twitter:

Search Operators

You can type these search operators directly into the search box. (Alternatively, you can use the advanced search form to automatically constuct your query.)

Operator	Finds tweets…
twitter search	containing both “twitter” and “search”. This is the default operator.
“happy hour“	containing the exact phrase “happy hour”.
love OR hate	containing either “love” or “hate” (or both).
beer -root	containing “beer” but not “root”.
#haiku	containing the hashtag “haiku”.
from:alexiskold	sent from person “alexiskold”.
to:techcrunch	sent to person “techcrunch”.
@mashable	referencing person “mashable”.
“happy hour” near:“san francisco”	containing the exact phrase “happy hour” and sent near “san francisco”.
near:NYC within:15mi	sent within 15 miles of “NYC”.
superhero since:2009-07-26	containing “superhero” and sent since date “2009-07-26″ (year-month-day).
ftw until:2009-07-26	containing “ftw” and sent up to date “2009-07-26″.
movie -scary	containing “movie”, but not “scary”, and with a positive attitude.
flight	containing “flight” and with a negative attitude.
traffic ?	containing “traffic” and asking a question.
hilarious filter:links	containing “hilarious” and linking to URLs.
news source:twitterfeed	containing “news” and entered via TwitterFeed

Example Oprah Feed

Twitter Search Widget»

Twitter is all over the place
Good Morning America doesn’t ask for emails anymore – they want you to twitter them. What gives? What’s so great about Twitter? How can it be a tool for your business? The key question today is how a service with bite-size messages can be smart, useful, maybe even necessary.

Naysayers
There are a lot of naysayers out there when it comes to Twitter, the most popular microblogging platform at the moment. Such ignorance is incredibly shortsighted. Success in business has much to do with relationships. By following people on Twitter and other microblogging platforms like Facebook, business owners have an opportunity to foster relationships on a deeper level than if they were to just read someone’s blog or socialize at a conference.

Blogging Bog Down
Anyone with a basic education and a Web connection can microblog, which in the case of twitter limits you to 140 characters. The incredible growth of blogs is well-documented. If microblogging is easier…

By publishing your Twitter feed on your homepage, you can share vital business information your visitors; similar to your Facebook status (more on that later).

For businesses that have daily news/information to offer, adding a twitter feed to your homepage boosts the impact you can achieve with a Twitter account and keeps the Search Engine gods happy too, because you are adding fresh content to your homepage on a daily basis. Yes, you must “tweet” or post to twitter often! Get creative and think of ways that you can offer fresh snippets of information to your clients. You learn to think in new productive ways.

Businesses such as H&R Block, IBM and Nike are now using Twitter to respond to customer queries. Market researchers look to it to scope out minute-by-minute trends. Media groups are focusing on Twitterers as first-to-the-scene reporters. (They were on top of the Flight 1549 Crash Landing on the Hudson River) Loads of new applications and services are growing around the Twitter platform, leading some to suggest that the microblogging service could become a powerhouse in social media.

How I’ve Been Using Twitter
In my world, there are constantly evolving tools for design, css, javascript, php etc. The professional who develop these tools use twitter extensively. By following (tt) them I see their tweets (tt). Good ethical twitter users tweet about things of value. Rather than posting inane trivial blips, they record valuable information, links and more. I have found more relevant information in searchers of twitter than I have in those same searches on Google.

Here are some of the reasons I twitter:

• Myriads of resources: useful articles, code, blogs, audios, video, and upcoming teleseminars.
• Access to movers and shakers (I’ve exchanged messages with luminaries like Guy Kawasaki and Shane Chipp; I’ve sent messages to Oprah’s Twitter account, but am not convinced that anyone actually reads them. As of today she has 1,643,233 followers.
• Powerful ways to grow my own community and get connected with people I ought to know about
• Ability to flag useful articles, including some that I write, or events I am involved in.
• And yes, a number of new friendships.

All this with only a few hundred twitter users that I’m following.

You get:

• 3 social media accounts; twitter, Facebook and scrnshots.
• Custom graphics for twitter, Facebook and website links.
• Registration with top five twitter search engines.
• Facebook business page.
• Twitter feed integration into website.

Cost: $250.00