Twitter is a valuable source of news updates. Without proper management, it can be a real time suck! There’s only so much time in a day, you need to make each tweet, each following count for something. Why not utilize some free Twitter tools to lighten your load so you can focus more on building relationship with your tweeps?

Twitter News Aggregators:

These apps summarize the most relevant and popular updates from your Twitter stream with very simple setup procedures. Best of all, you can subscribe to your friends’ to find out what is hot in their Twitter network too.

#1  The Tweeted Times

Tweeted Times creates real-time personalized newspaper from your Twitter stream and arranges them by popularity based on total mentions from your Twitter friends and theirs. You can then subscribe to the newspaper via RSS reader or promote it to your network.

Special Tip:

Customize your newspaper digests from public Twitter lists or search results. A great way to filter your stream if you are following a wide range of Twitter users.

#2  Summify

I was going to skip Summify because it had stopped receiving new registrations after acquired by Twitter. However, I can’t deny the fact that it helped tremendously in gathering social news feeds from various social networks: Twitter, Facebook and Google+, presenting them in one-page summary so one can catch up on daily news updates via web or mobile. Normally it takes 1-2 hours to collect the stories.

Special Tip:

Summify is visually appealing comparing to Tweeted Times and both give me slightly different results in their daily news updates. I love how I can easily share individual story without having to leave Summify.

#3  Paper.li

Paper.li offers more configurations when collecting trending news: optional to add photos, videos and to order the news by priority via drag and drop. You can add anything you read from the web to your paper and share it with your Twitter network. Being a publisher is all about providing content, which makes it all the more important to follow the right people in gaining valuable resources that interest you.

Special Tip:

Besides Twitter stream, you may import stories from other websites via RSS Feed and Google plus account as well. You can feature, hide or delete an article; block a user or website from your newspaper.

Declutter Your Twitter Stream:

#4  Slipstream

Slipstream works perfectly in Twitter web to eliminate irrelevant tweets without having to block or unfollow anyone. You can hide tweets containing a specific keyword, tag, either from a user or everyone in your Timeline, @replies or twitter lists.

Special Tip:

A huge time-saver if you don’t wish to get caught up by a trendy topic or hashtags you’re not interested in. My only problem with Slipstream is that it only supports limited browsers at the mean time: Chrome and Safari. We need more browser choices.

#5  StrawberryJam

StrawberryJam pulls in popular links shared by your friends and gives a clear overview of what’s trending in your Twitter network. You get to see the results ranging from last 8, 16 and 24 hours. Did I mention you can even see real time results too? Turn on the Preview and you can read the post excerpts, giving you some idea what is the story about.

Special Tip:

Enter specific keyword, tag or twitter list to find out most shared links in the mentioned category. Great app if you’re looking for popular links to share.

Twitter Following/Followers Management:

#6  ManageFlitter

It has been awhile since I cleaned up my Twitter account. Thanks to ManageFlitter, I was able to clear a few inactive accounts while discovering contacts I should communicate more. It allows Google+ integration so your public posts can be imported to your Twitter stream after configured.

Special Tip:

Free version of ManageFlitter only lets you ‘unfollow’. If you’re interested to know which of your followers you didn’t follow back, another free app you can use is ‘Friend or Follow’.

#7  FollowFriday Helper

I was able to jump on the FollowFriday bandwagon easily thanks to FollowFriday Helper which displays a filtered list of those we interacted most recently. You can choose to write personalized or multi-user recommendation tweets from within the app.

Special Tip:

Various hashtag suggestions are given other than #FF. Add multi-user recommendations by clicking at their Twitter username; navigating from one page to another won’t affect your pending recommendations in the text box. Thoughtful.

I was meant to add Formulists and Conversationalist in this category but unfortunately their sites are shutting down soon. Still yet to find a Twitter app that supports smart lists updating. For other Listing options, you can refer to 6 Twitter Lists Applications to Expand Your Network.

Twitter Account Management:

#8  Tweetbackup

Tweetbackup allows you to run daily backup of your twitter posts which you can then export to be downloaded. Tweetbackup is the subsidiary of Backupify, a well known backup app for social media accounts.

Special Tip:

Although it says to backup people you followed but neither can I locate the backup file nor the setting for that purpose.

Brand Monitoring on Twitter:

#9  Topsy

Tracking your brand mentions on Twitter can be done easily with Topsy. Get real time search results over the social web from the past 1 hour to 30 days, sort them by date or relevance. Use advanced search to filter your results if need to.

Special Tip:

Topsy adds Google+ in their real time results too. A good method to track who shared or mentioned your brand on Google Plus.

#10  Twubs

Twubs makes hashtags useful as it enables tracking for certain conversations, information, shared movements and memes. With Twubs, you’re able to view latest tweets of your preferred topics.

Special Tip:

There is no official claiming of hashtags so anyone can edit the hashtag descriptions. This could be a risk if someone deliberately sabotages a brand by altering their hashtag content. Therefore, commitment is required to monitor twitter chats and events closely.

Smart Scheduling of Tweets:

Tweet-scheduling can be a hassle. Often times I wonder do those scheduled tweets earned a spot in followers’ streams or simply dropped off their radar? Here are the solutions to the problem:

#11  Timely

Timely analyzes your past tweets and schedules them at suggested time slots for your optimum exposures. The timing will adjust itself after you added more tweets. Later, find out how your tweets performed in stats (number of clicks, reach and reactions). You can also skip or limit weekend posting as well.

Special Tip:

You can reply to those who mentioned you within the Timely app. Add a bookmarklet to your browser for quick and effective scheduling. No edit can be done on suggested time slots except deleting them.

#12  Buffer

Buffer is often compared to Timely but if you want to have control over your scheduling time then Buffer is your go-to app. Set your time slots and add up to 10 tweets for one Twitter account (Free version). Personally, I love how Buffer is integrated with other awesome apps like StrawberryJam and SocialBro. As a bookmarklet or browser add-on, you can add content easily to buffer!

Special Tip:

Buffer button is also available for websites to encourage readers to buffer your content. Adjust your time slots not only in hours but on different days by ‘Change days’ option. Ability to post less on certain days is available for paid accounts.

Recommended Read: 6 Points To Ponder Before Using Automatic Status Updates

Innovative Use of Twitter Stream:

#13  TweetWally

TweetWally is great for both personal and brand promoting purposes. I’m a Facebook addict so thanks for TweetWally’s embedding feature, I can gather all my Facebook-related tweets and share it with my blog readers. You can claim a vanity URL for your account and customize its appearance to fit your brand.  Here’s my TweetWally if you wish to take a look.

Special Tip:

No edit can be done on displayed tweets. Require constant monitoring so no irrelevant tweets are included.

Twitter Analytics:

#14  Twitsprout

After hearing so many good things about Twitsprout I decided to give it a go. It takes about 7 days to collect data for a new account but it’s worth the wait. Twitsprout transforms your historical data into a beautiful infographic, showcasing the stats for your new followers hourly, number of people retweeting you and number of mentions received.

Special Tip:

TwitSprout works best in Chrome; upgraded Firefox and Safari browsers (both version 4 and up).

#15  SocialBro

SocialBro is a Twitter community management tool but I must highlight its real-time analytical feature: you can find out who are the most active users in your stream in the last 5 minutes (twitter timeline, public Twitter lists or any search terms). Although free version only provides monitoring up to 100 active users every 10 seconds but that’s good enough for me.

SocialBro’s very own Insights is equally impressive where you get to track languages, timezones etc for your followers/following. You can export then save your data in PDF.

Special Tip:

Always synchronize your account to get the most updated results. SocialBro can do a lot more than analytics alone, including managing following/followers, discovering best time to tweet (integrated with Buffer) and so much more.

Don’t just take my words for it, try them out. Not all Twitter apps are suitable for everyone. Find out what is your biggest Twitter challenge and incorporate some of these tools to boost your online presence and productivity. You’ll be surprised how well these apps could work!

Now Is Your Turn…

Are you currently using any of these Twitter tools? Do you have more apps to add to this list? Feel free to share in your comment. Or you can always share with me on Twitter: Follow @wchingya

 

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You should know by now how much of a facebook fanatic I am.  Since last year, I have not been blogging much about other social media apps except facebook. Well this week, I decided to do them justice by introducing you some of my favorite social media applications that got my attention long before 2011. Some of them may not be new to you, but they are all ‘love at first sight’ to me.

10 SOCIAL MEDIA APPS TO WATCH IN 2011

If you are expecting something grand, complex then it’s not the purpose of this post. These social media tools impressed me with their simplicity and best of all, they are cost free.

Twitter:

#1  Formulists

I remembered how tedious it was to group all my twitter contacts MANUALLY into Twitter lists. When I first heard about Formulists I was overjoyed! It is exactly what I needed to manage and reach out to other Twitter users based on our recent interactions, direct or indirectly. For example, I have an auto-updating list for ‘Thanks-For-Listing-Me’ generated by Formulists. Not only I can return the favor, knowing which lists I belong to but at the same time getting to know these kind people better:

Formulists also gives you filtering options such as bio and location so you can better customize your lists for targeted contacts. This video explains it all:

Remark:

What I love is you can keep your lists in Formulists even though you deleted them from your Twitter account, a good way to refer back or exchange lists whenever necessary. Formulists provides a sidekick account if you used up all 20 twitter lists (limit) but till now I have yet gone into that so unsure how that works.

#2  Mentionmap

Fear not, you’re not in Charlotte’s web but a twitter conversation web to show you relevant people to follow on Twitter. Back then it was all about people and location search, now Mentionmap makes it ‘visually’ capable in discovering who our friends talk to recently and how we can expand our network through these potential contacts.

Remark:

Best of all, no Twitter authorization is required to compare your map with friends’, something a lot more relevant comparing to Twitter’s very own app called ‘Who to Follow’.

Blogs:

#3  Apture

Apture is a must-have if you are all about twitter and facebook sharing. Besides the catchy Twitter and Facebook share buttons, the search bar is equally impressive by offering results from your blog and Google. Your readers don’t have to leave your site in searching for ideal content. It works the same when someone highlight any phrases within your blog post,  just click ‘Learn more’ and the search results will show up before you :

Remark:

Apture bar occupies the top spot of a blog. However, it moves following the reader’s scroll bar to encourage social sharing after reading! Pretty neat, huh?

#4  Hellobar

I was having my regular blog visits when I found this app on a friend’s blog. It is no Apture but a ‘notice’ bar for specific call to action.  Let it be a simple greeting, your latest blog post (via RSS setup) or even your latest tweet. Unlike Apture, it sticks on top of your blog and doesn’t move along with the scroll bar.

Remark:

All is well except newly registered users may wait a day or two before you’ll get the Beta key emailed to you.

#5  BlogPulse

BlogPulse is all about discovering what’s hot and what you think matters in the blogosphere. You can find out who wrote about your brand and offered a link love! For instance, Evelyn mentioned my site in her post last year which I wouldn’t have known if I didn’t check with BlogPulse. I hurried over for a comment, praying she wouldn’t mind my delayed thank-you. Imagine how many more blogs had slipped under my radar!

Remark:

BlogPulse can be very helpful for bloggers. Apart from Google Blog Search we need a focused tracker that not only about hottest trends but to discover potential bloggers we can network with.

Forums, Discussion Boards:

#6  Omgili

Someone said to me earlier that forums are outdated. I don’t quite agree with that. Forums may not be the mainstream but they have their own impact in shaping a community. Forums are ideal for detailed, in depth discussions. We should not neglect them when it comes to brand-monitoring. Omgili is perfect for the job in discovering what people are saying in message boards, discussion threads about any topics at all.

Remark:

Forum used to be the major ground for bloggers to interact with one another. Thanks to Omgili, I was able to track a discussion thread in which my Twitter account was mentioned. When participated in the discussion, I remembered how forum is still playing the role in building trusts and knowledge-sharing among the members. You’ll never know who you end up meeting with along the path.

Expanding Social Connections:

#7  Rapportive

Rapportive is a nifty tool that shows you more than just a plain email address. Based on the sender’s email, Rapportive is capable of pulling in gravatar image, LinkedIn profile, Twitter updates, Skype account and many more. You can follow up (I prefer not calling that ‘stalking’) your potential clients/readers closely on various social media sites. If you wish to check on other recipients in the same email, just hover your mouse over the recipient’s name or email address will do.

Remark:

Absolutely loving it! Highly recommended if you are hoping to extend your social network in 2011!

#8  Qwerly

Qwerly helps you to discover where your Twitter friends are ‘hanging’ on the social web. Type in the twitter username like this ‘@wchingya’ and it will give you an overview of who your twitter contact is and how you can connect with him/her other than Twitter. Exactly why it is referred to as the ‘whois for Twitter’.

Remark:

You can verify and claim your profile by signing in with your Twitter account. It’s that simple to claim your vanity URL with Qwerly.

#9  About.me

Props to Mari Smith for this handy tip. About.me is a custom profile and a dashboard for your personal analytics based on your social accounts like Twitter and Facebook. Create an account via your email then select your username. Add in as many personal details so others can reach you from your about.me account. It gives a huge interface up to 1680×1050 pixels but it’s advisable to keep the size optimum. Feel free to check mine out.

Remark:

It’s all about SEO benefit, whether you’ll be using the analytical tracking or not. I’d love to grab my vanity URL whenever I can. Another thing I love is other people can reach me by ‘Email Me’ button without having to disclose my email address publicly at all!

#10  Wordle

I HAD to include Wordle because it’s so much fun!  Wordle is basically a toy to generate word clouds based on the URL you provided that contains RSS feed. A good way to find out what is the site mainly about. See how it describes my blog, do you think it’s accurate?

Remark:

Its visual effect is compelling! You can randomize, change the fonts or colors. So much you can do with it, it’s time to get creative with your site.

Now Is Your Turn…

What is your favorite social media tool of all time? Which application above you’d like to try best? Tell us.

SPECIAL GUEST NEXT WEEK!~

Don’t forget we have a special guest blogger next week to talk about social media for the first time on Social @ Blogging Tracker! Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss it.

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It has been a year since I last modified my Twitter background. While inspecting my own social media sites for improvements recently, I couldn’t help but noticing how cheesy and uninformative my Twitter background was! It was created when I wrote about personalizing Twitter background with Free Twitter Designer. It’s time for a change!

#1: Why Should We Personalize Our Twitter Background?

Understanding why we need to personalize our Twitter background is vital. It is not about decoration but to:

i)   Manage Personal Branding

People will visit your Twitter page from your social media links and search engines. Be ready to impress at first sight.

ii)  Maximize Exposure with Limited Background Space

Blend in your intro with relevant background design. Provide social contacts for others to reach you.

iii) Show your Brand & Personality

An unique background attracts, it should say something about who you are, your passion and niche.

Another good reason is you might get a free promotion from a post about Twitter background, exactly like this one! (Good for @mashable and @marcome)

#2: How to Personalize Your Twitter Background?

After knowing the purpose, now it’s time for the real challenge – to personalize a Twitter background. Here are some options you can choose from:

a) Use a Twitter Background Generator

For those who are not into crafting their own images, tons of template selections can be found from Twitter background generators. Some setbacks are the duplicate designs and their brand name on your wall. Usually a minimal payment is involved to modify, for example, $4.99 to remove Twitbacks brand while Twitrbackgrounds will charge $9.99 for personalized backgrounds. Login is required for both services.

Tweetbacks, on the other hand offers free templates for modification (.psd). Personalized your information and photo before upload it to Twitter page.

Another service I love is Free Twitter Designer – a background generator and image editing application. A Twitter stream box is given so your design will not run off on the actual page. You can tweak the image settings, blend in the effects and colors, view the final results in different resolutions:

b) Personalize Twitter Background with Image Editing Application

My favorite method so far as it gives you:

• Full control over designing and positioning.
• No distracting brand name on the background except your very own.

Photoshop:

I created my second and third Twitter background with Photoshop. The dimension for the canvas size is preferably 1600 px x 1200 px so it will fit in fine for most screen resolutions. Keep the important information close to the left of Twitter stream. As of right, use non-essential designs as mostly they won’t be visible on regular screen resolutions. Apply Twitter Background Checker to monitor your background designs:

Resize the image to less than 250kb to optimize page load time (maximum file size: 800kb).

I created a blank template to fix for resolution 1280 x 1024. You can tweak its opacity level to adjust text/background image freely. If you interested claim it via the contact form and I’ll send you the file in .psd format.

Suggested Read: Twitter Background Design How-To and Best Practices; Build Twitter Background with Adobe Fireworks

Gimp & Pixlr:

You can download Gimp (for MAC & Windows) or try the web application Pixlr to customize your background image:

PowerPoint:

Not my top-pick for complicated designs but Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 is competent to create a simple and colorful Twitter background. Save your final result as .jpg to be uploaded as your Twitter background. PowerPoint is not a designing program so there will be limitations, such as cumbersome process with measurement and positioning:

Extra Tools:

Some amazing tools to assist your background designing:

• MeasureIt – A FireFox plugin to measure width and height for a web page.
• Peekr -  On and off feature that gives you a clear overview of the entire Twitter background without the stream, control panel etc.
• Twitter Background Checker – Twitter background viewed in high and low resolutions.

If personalizing a Twitter Background is too time consuming for you, you can:

c) Outsource to Professionals and Graphic Designers

Everyone’s definition of ‘quality’ may differ in art. Understand your own needs is important before finding the best designer that fits you. Make sure you are providing enough information so the designer knows about your expectations. Be communicative and respectful for both sides.

#3: How to Upload Your Personalized Background to Twitter?

Let it be a picture or a neatly designed template, it’s time for the final results. To upload it:

1. Log on to your Twitter account.

2. Go to Settings > Design > Change background image

3. Browse to locate the image file you’re ready for.

4. Click Save and see the magic appears before your eyes.

#4: What Makes a Good Twitter Background?

Last week we had a discussion over at the Facebook Fan Page about my second Twitter background. Ricky’s commentary about the font visibility brought my attention of how ignorant I was about my Twitter background.

I did not take the design seriously so instead of just the font, I changed the whole Twitter background. I prefer a non-business-like, harmonious background with nature elements. It may not be my best design yet but I’m happy to keep it for awhile.

For a Twitter background to serve its purpose, we need to refer to why we need one in the first place. Following these designing guidelines will be an added advantage:

• Make sure the background is none distracting for your main info.
• Clear and readable fonts (for example Arial, bold). Avoid spindly text for important messages.
• Use contrast colors for text & background.
• Make full use of the blank areas. Ensure main info are visible regardless low or high screen resolutions.
• Complex does not mean elegant. Keep the K.I.S.S principle in mind unless you have a different purpose for your background design.

There is no right or wrong, but the impression and friendliness you would like to portray to others. Think of it as your name card, but with personality.

Now Is Your Turn…

When was the last time you personalized your Twitter background? What makes a presentable Twitter Background in your opinion? Share it all in the comments below.

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The commenters rocked the house in previous post discussion about automated status updates!  It’s a controversial subject but I’m pleased with the constructive opinions given by all individuals. Whether to love or hate the service, it has much to do with the user’s networking ethics. Regardless which side you’re on, I’m grateful for your participation in making this post quite a hit last week! So here’s to:

This week’s Twitter #MustFollow list: Bloggers who treat comments seriously & provided insightful feedback:

@ConnieFoggles @marketmetweets @Jan_ Geronimo @KiwiGordie @aks2008 @esther96 @Happymaker @TwtrCoach @PetLvr @virtuosoblogger @FreemanLegacy @FamousBloggers @AussieSire @Elmot @SoftwareCritics @Anklebuster @InfozBlog @arafat21 @Anneonline @IntrovertZone @JimiJones @Zeenatsyal @Mitch_M @GrowMap @Janniefunster @jenaisle @HereWeAre_wLuci

(Hullbert, kindly provide me your Twitter acc)

** Starting this week, I’ll be acknowledging commenters for their valuable feedbacks on written posts. More about this soon so do keep the quality comments coming.**

Two weeks ago, a reader brought up this question in his comment for 3 easy ways to share selective tweets on Facebook Page:

I emailed George personally suggesting some tools that may fit his needs. After seeing how ugly mass-scheduling can get, I figured there’s a need to keep a clear conscience with 6 Points to Ponder before using Automatic Status Updates. I was deeply encouraged for most commenters are into building genuine networks, but thanks to Cindy’s Tweetplan to grow a quality Twitter following, it shows us another perspective of how social media strategists can incorporate status scheduling as part of their out-reaching plan. With proper moderation and control, it can still be accepted to some extent as one of the communication methods.

But what suggestions can we provide George here in deciding which tool to use?

6 Status Updates Scheduler for Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn

In order to find out, I had been experimenting status updates (STRICTLY NO auto-DMs) from a few web applications available. All reviews are written based on personal experiences. If the results vary from yours kindly point out in the comments for further discussions. Most of these web applications are designed to integrate with multi-social media sites but here we will be concentrating on 3 that are most widely discussed – Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

1.

Twitter: YES

Facebook: YES

LinkedIn: YES

Hootsuite is a powerful Twitter web client. I was absolutely blown away with the ease to setup and its efficiency to avoid clutter with customizable interface: Multiple columns with naming feature, integrations with multiple social media sites…  More on the features will be covered in future topics but first, we’ll be focusing on its capability to schedule status updates.

Why is Hootsuite Powerful?

Not only it stands alone as a perfect scheduler but as a free Twitter web client, it is capable of delivering updates to various social networking sites. Thanks to its integration with Ping.fm., you can gain access to all the social networks covered by Ping.fm here.

Hootsuite supports multiple Twitter accounts; enables status updates to be sent to Facebook personal account and Facebook page respectively. It even shows you all the pending status and ability to edit them however, whenever required.

i) Click ‘Add Social Network’ to include your desired social media profile,

ii) After authorizing access to these networks, you can schedule status updates at will (synchronize or separately):

Pending Status Updates for Facebook Page:

New Status Published on Facebook Page as Scheduled:

Suggested Read: HootSuite Integrates Lists, Facebook and LinkedIn

2.

Twitter: YES

Facebook: YES

LinkedIn: YES

Sendible is a management tool. It’s not a Twitter client, neither will it flood your streams with live feeds nor real-time tweets. It’s all in your hands to plan and manage your contacts via all sorts of planner, scheduling and task reminder features available. Since no live streaming involved, you can minus distractions and PC memory consumptions during social media profile setups.

However, Sendible has one tiny downside for free account holders: all your tweets will end with ‘via Sendible’ or ‘#Sendible’ for all status updates. In order to eliminate that, you need to pay to upgrade your Sendible account.

Extra: Interesting find: when my tweet exceeded 140 characters it splitted into multiple tweets. What amazed me was the tag for ‘#sendible’ did not show at all!

Since I’m all about keeping tweets succinct within 140 characters and avoiding ‘#Sendible’ at all costs, I’ll keep this application at the back seat for the moment.

Suggested Read: Sendible Relaunches; Now a Powerful Social Media Marketing Tool

3.

Twitter: YES

Facebook: YES (only available after paid to upgrade)

LinkedIn: YES (only if collaborated with Ping.fm which is only available after paid to upgrade)

For SocialOomph (used to be known as Tweetlater), it’s all about boosting productivity online. Unfortunately, in order to integrate Facebook and Ping.fm (for Linkedin) you will need to pay for the upgrading. As for free account holders, you can have all the access you need to schedule tweets/feeds, monitor @mentions, RTs and manage follower list – it’s all Twitter-friendly here in SocialOomph. Even so, you are given the option to choose free trial of 168 hours with Professional account.

Suggested Read: Opt Out of Auto-DMs Using Social Oomph (good news for SocialOomph users: if you hated Auto-DMs)

4.

Twitter: YES

Facebook: YES

LinkedIn: NO

A simple, web application that’s still in Beta version, offering status-updating solely for Twitter and Facebook. Status updates consisted with links will be published alongside with bit.ly as the default URL-shortener service. After several trials, I found the scheduling worked out fine but might be slightly delayed from the actual timer. For those who have tried this service your feedback is very much welcomed for a more accurate comparisons.

5.

Twitter: YES

Facebook: YES  (only if integrated with Ping.fm)

LinkedIn: YES (only if integrated with Ping.fm)

A web interface for Twitter. More towards business support-customer interaction purposes, one general CoTweet account for multiple Twitter users. One impressive feature that beats out existing desktop/web clients is the ability to schedule tweets. View your pending updates and edit them if needed. If you’re a Tweet-scheduling maniac, here’s a bunch of Twitter applications to choose from.

6.

Manual Configurations for Status Updates

Why manual? Because even auto cars can put you in trouble if the battery is dead.

Automatic scheduler may have its limitations, try not to be overdependent on a particular application. For precautions sake, better equip ourselves with manual configuration back up plan (just in case). I’m going to keep this brief but I’m sure you’ll get the idea:

i) Combination of Hootsuite with Ping.fm (Preset the following features in Ping.fm before setup the Hootsuite scheduler)

ii) Combination of Hootsuite / SocialOomph with Selective Twitter Status

Now It’s Your Turn…

Which status updates scheduler do you like best and how does it fulfill your needs in social networking?

If you’re not into scheduling, kindly share how do you make up for the time lost in social networking during absence or offline hours?

How important is networking to your blogging career?

Having trouble separating social lives between leisure and work? Let Facebook Pages help you out.

I’m on Facebook Page for days now and glad that I don’t have to bombard my own profile site with updates my friends find annoyed *chuckle*. But being active on Twitter, wouldn’t it be fantastic if we get to publish selective tweets between personal and Facebook Pages? Good thing that’s now doable in various Twitter platforms and I’m going to show you how.

3 Easy Ways to Share Selective Tweets on Facebook Pages

Tweetdeck (v0.30.5)

1. Go To Tweetdeck Settings > Accounts > Add New Account > Add Your Facebook account.

You will prompt to add your Facebook Pages as well. Isn’t that convenient?

2. Approve the authorization to connect with Facebook by logging in.

3. Tweetdeck will display all Facebook Pages that you are administrated.

Pick either or all for your preferences; publish posts or comments without repeated logins:

4. Now your can update your Facebook account or Page(s) via Tweetdeck.

Seesmic Desktop (v0.6.2)

1. Go to Control Panel > Accounts > Click the ‘+’ sign & Add your Facebook account.

2. Click at the newly added Facebook account, you’re optional to have either or both included for:

a. Administered pages – Facebook Pages you’re an admin of.

b. Fan Pages – Pages you followed.

3. Make your selections after you’ve authorized and integrated Facebook Pages with your Seesmic Desktop.

4. Configure the Extended Permissions to have posts/comments published via Seesmic Desktop without repeated prompting.

5. There! Add as many Facebook Pages you like and start your selective tweeting.

Twitter Web Page Interface

If your computer system is not compatible to either one of the desktop client above, Facebook has a plugin that’ll work just fine with Twitter web page interface. Introducing:

Selective Twitter Status – choose particular tweets to be published on either Facebook profile or Fan Pages. Make sure your Twitter updates are NOT protected on Twitter. Put ‘#fb‘ at the end of each selected tweet as shown below:

a. Put #fb at the end of your tweet, for example–
Your message here http://your link #fb

b. have #fb followed by a space then a link, for example–
Your message here #fb http://your link

Add the Selective Twitter Status to your application. Remember to click ‘Add to Page’ first before proceeding to your Facebook Pages setup.

During the configuration, you can have either Your Profile or Your Fan Page(s) to integrate with Twitter account. We’ll look at the Fan Page configuration first:

1. Go to ‘Your Fan Pages‘. Only pages you’re an admin of will be displayed. Make your pick.

2. Type in your Twitter username > Save Changes.

3. In order to have BOTH Fan Page and personal account compatible with the plugin, you need to grant permission for Fan Page first before doing the same for profile.

4. After ‘Grant Permission‘, you’ll be directed to allow status updates as illustrated.

Choose your Fan Page first and click ‘Allow Status Updates‘ before you do the same for your profile page.

But make sure you have filled in your Twitter name first before authorization.

5. This is how the updates will appear in Fan Pages:

Isn’t it great? Problems solved! Now you can post however and whatever you wish interchanging your Facebook personal account and Fan Pages.

Recommended Read: Use Google Reader to Import selective Twitter Favorites to Facebook Page

It’s Your Turn To Share

What other difficulties you faced while trying to integrate social media with one another? Do share your thoughts. And if you’re on Facebook, why not say hi and let’s connect at Facebook Page.

Can you do me a little favor to share this post with your network? ^^

Seesmic has just made me a very happy lady!

You’re probably guessing I’m talking about Seesmic Desktop 0.4. I admit the new version is just as impressive, but what I didn’t expect is the launching of Seesmic Browser-based Client! I can’t be thankful enough to Loic Le Meur for announcing the great news 4 days back.

Why I NEED Seesmic’s Browser Client…

I’ve always been a fan of Seesmic ever since the beginning of Twhirl. So, having an upgraded version of Seesmic Desktop 0.3-0.4 installed was no surprise. But as the software requirement increases, along with my bad habit of multitasking with Photoshop CS3 and multi-browsers, it’s not long after I complaint about the lagging problem my laptop had due to low memory. Contributing to this problem is the instability of internet service especially at night, resulting me either tweet (through Twitter main site) or no tweet at all. The cumbersome login/refresh puts me off sometimes, therefore I’ve always hoped for a more intelligent web-based Twitter client, and on 11th July, I literally did the dance of joy! (no, you don’t want to see that)

What is so Freaking AWESOME about Seesmic’s Browser Client?

Let alone the excitement, I will try to be professional here (cough cough) by sharing the 7 Things I Like About Seesmic’s Browser Client :

#1 Single to Multicolumn Layout with Easy Dragging

Seesmic’s Browser Client allows switching between single and multicolumn mode, just like most desktop clients could do. Scroll the bar horizontally across as you enjoy a one-page , long view of all the updates via ‘Timeline’, ‘Mentions’, ‘Sent’, ‘Search terms’ up to as many columns as you prefer. You can even rearrange the columns by drag and drop, how convenient is that!

#2 One Easy-Button Refresh for Real-Time Updates

Seesmic’s Browser Client equips with an instant refresh button for current page viewing without needing to load the entire browser as in Twitter official page. Just give it a click to have real time results shown by yellowish color-indicator that lasts about 5 seconds before it fades off completely.

#3 Space-saving List View Layout

The incoming tweets are displayed in such a way that user can interchange them between list (as shown above) and normal viewing. This is particular handy when I tend to follow up on the updates I missed minutes ago or upon login. There’s a ‘More’ button below in case you wish to go further back to the previous tweets.

#4 Easy Reply & Profile Check within The Conversation Box

By clicking at the single tweet (list or normal view), you will have a drop down menu indicating the below commands:

Curious about certain tweet? Why not give a thorough check on the user profile by hover your mouse over the person’s username and get a clear check on :

Profile: opens up a bio page including amount of followers/following, location, web address and recent updates. There’s an ‘unfollow’ button at the upper right corner just in case you need it.

Message: opens up a new conversation box at the far right of your columns.

#5 Separate Viewing & Easy Follow Ups for Direct Messages

When you click ‘Direct Messages’ at the left taskbar of the web-based client, a separate layout is opened, presenting you a list of DMs and your previous responses to them. This feature makes the DMs traceable so you won’t have to go back and forth, or get lost amidst a private conversation.

But how do you know there is a Direct Message awaits since it’s in a separate layout? There is, in fact, simple indications for unread DMs as shown below:

#6 Saved Key Word Search & Add to Favorites

One of the best features I enjoyed — to be able to save the key search terms and favorite tweets. As Seesmic Browser’s Client is basically connected with Twitter main site for info-sharing purposes, regardless where you have saved the tweets they will be found on both sites. For example, a keyword search saved in Seesmic Browser-based Client will show up on your Twitter site, and vice versa. Same as marking favorite tweets in Seesmic’s Browser Client – simply click on the star indicated to save the particular tweet.

#7 Add Link to your Tweet Using Bit.ly

In case you’re curious about the url shortener, the default service is Bit.ly. No API input is available so although you may not have your tweet stats recorded in your Bit.ly account, you can still follow up on the stats simply search the shortened bit.ly URL at its official page. To me, it’s one of the best traceable url shortener services I prefer apart from su.pr.

The only request I have is the group-saving feature. But I must say this is by far, the best web browser-based Twitter client I’ve seen so far. Especially the save-keyword search ability that connects with the official Twitter page and the traceable DM responses. Bottom line, I’m impressed with my web-based experience with Seesmic. It gives an alternative while promising its users some fantastic features that work similar to any desktop clients. So what’s next for Seesmic? Obviously to go mobile with iPhone, but that’s another story.

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Copyright © 2009 by Wong Ching Ya, All Rights Reserved, “7 Things I Like About Seesmic’s Browser Client “

It’s the moment that we’ve been waiting for: The Integration of Facebook account with Twitter, in Seesmic Desktop 0.2.0 release. I was pretty excited about it, and the setup is as easy and convenient as it seems.


First of all, What Is Seesmic Desktop?

Seesmic Desktop is one of the desktop clients for Twitter. What does desktop client do? Instead of us logging in everytime through the Twitter official site, which could be cumbersome sometimes, desktop clients make us life easier by allowing us to tweet over our PC desktop. Think of it as a twitter messenger. Efficient and easy to operate.

Let’s make Twitter + Facebook all in ONE place!
The process is similar to how you setup your Twitter account in Seesmic Desktop:

1. In the configuration bar, go to ‘Accounts‘, click the ‘+‘ to bring up the ‘Add your Facebook account‘ command box.

2. You will be asked to verify your Facebook account by key in your email add & password.

3. Then, the following confirmation boxe(s) will appear for Seesmic to remember your facebook account while allowing status updates etc be done through it.

4. There! You’re good to go. Account switching between Twitter and Facebook is now applicable in Seesmic Desktop. You could even have a split screen for the both.

So here is my most recent status-update for Facebook, via Seesmic.

For those who have yet to try Seesmic Desktop, you can download the application here. Good news is: No compulsory sign-ups for new users to download the latest version.

Other updated features from version 0.1.2 are as follow:

a) Following/Unfollowing Twitter users
b) Larger fonts
c) Ability to favourite tweets & Facebook posts
d) Configuration-shortcut button replacing the search tool (moved to upper right corner)

So, how have you enjoyed your Twitter/Facebook integration so far? Do you have further expectations? Love to hear your thoughts.

Please Retweet if You Find This Post Useful,thanks!

Copyright © 2009 by Wong Ching Ya, All Rights Reserved, “‘Facebook & Twitter: Holding Hands in Seesmic Desktop 0.2.0“

But if I wish to send him/her:

2. Public message – start with: @username + message

Example: @ching ya Hi, wish you a great day ahead!

3. Private message – start with: d username + message

Example: d ching ya Thanks for the add.

(only I can see it)

To me, these 3 are the most crucial ones . Other functions you can refer under the topic of Fun Stuff: friends, favorites, and stats!

A Twitter application, maybe?

Sure, lots of them here.

I’ll be trying out Twhirl perhaps, as for now, still downloading Adobe AIR for this application to work.

**UPDATES: Yes, and Twhirl worked fine to me. Easy to control and manageable. Just like any messengers.**

Today I found out…

1. A friend refers me to Twitter alert that allows you to follow close on particular subjects in Twitter world. Comes in handy if you wish to know what others had been discussing about you (& your products) in public without you knowing it! Same concept as Google Alert, I suppose.

A Lil’ Advice??

-Go slow and check out the member’s public discussions/sites before following, if you’re serious about finding those who are in the same niche as you;

-Love surprises? Interested in all subjects? Wanna get noticed by the public, fast? That’s the joy of following people randomly. However it could go a little messy sometimes. Why not take a browse at CrowdStatus to categorize your new friends.

- Don’t spam. It’s good to ‘share’ but never spam. I hate spammers, and only into sincere friendships. I like to visit the sites of my followers or those I followed, which I think it’s the best way to know a person’s activity better.

There’s Always a ‘BUT’!!
Apart from Spams, the twitter updates are flooding all over my mailbox! I really need to make some configurations before I go ‘aarrrgghhh…!’

So, You Twit? I’m at

http://twitter.com/wchingya

Enlighten me with your Twitting experience, perhaps?

(if you wish to find out how your Twitter Effect is, Click here)
Copyright © 2009 by Wong Ching Ya, All Rights Reserved, “To Me, Twitter is… “