Use TweetDeck to Manage Conversations
Posted on: July 3, 2009Author: Cali Lewis
26 comments so far
12 Days of Twitter :: Day 2
(learn more about the 12 days of Twitter)
You can have a conversation on a mobile phone, or you can have a conversation on a landline. One phone might make the conversation better, while another makes it completely frustrating (filled with static). Twitter is the conversation, and the Twitter team opened their framework so that different developers can build applications to make the conversation a better experience.
Some people use Twitter passively by following one or a few people with the sole desire of taking information in without participating. If that’s you, the Twitter website will be all you need. However, Twitter becomes more interesting when you have active conversations with hundreds or thousands of people. For that, you’ll want to use a desktop application. There are several free options (Tweetie, Seesmic, Twhirl, Twitterific), but after trying them all, I choose TweetDeck.
TweetDeck won my favor immediately because the design was beautiful and simple. Since launch, TweetDeck has added feature after feature that increased my ability to manage thousands of conversations.
Here’s what I love:
Columns
TweetDeck was the first application I saw to sort information into columns, and it makes a huge difference in managing conversations. Choose up to 10 columns from the options at the top of the application:
All Friends – Lists all updates from every person you follow
Mentions – Lists any tweet from anyone, whether you follow them or not, that includes @username. It’s a great way to make sure you have the opportunity to respond to any tweet directed to you or any tweet about you. *Please note: in the video I refer to this as @Replies. The name since changed to Mentions.
Direct Messages – Lists all private, direct messages (or DMs)
Group – Gives you the ability to separate your list of friends into groups. One example of how to use this is to make one group for your personal friends and family, and one group for co-workers. Once you have a group set up, you can edit by single clicking on the name of the group. It will open another column to edit who is in that group.
Twitter Search – This is an important one!!! Use this to track a keyword, or keywords, that are important to you. Want to know what people are saying about you or your business? Twitter Search. Want to know what people are saying about Harry Potter, knitting, or the latest episode of True Bood? Twitter Search.
TwitScoop – A look at what the hot topics are right now on Twitter. A “cloud tag” is a graphic representation of popularity. The bigger the word is, the more popular the topic.
Facebook Status Updates – Integrate Twitter and Facebook. See your Facebook Friend’s updates along with your Twitter friends.
Single Column View
If you’re multitasking and need to take up less screen real estate, choose the Single Column View.
Multiple Accounts
This is a fairly new feature, and it makes TweetDeck even more valuable! Manage your business account and your personal account without having to log out and in again.
Shorten URL
When you need to save characters in your tweet, you can use the URL shortener to collapse a long URL and make it shorter. You can choose your favorite URL shortener service.
Upload a Photo
You’ve probably seen a lot of twitpic links out there. You can use the Upload a Photo button to make it easy to post photos without having to upload one and then link to it yourself.
Recent Hashtags
Hashtags tell the world that a tweet is about a particular subject, and allows people to track conversations about that subject easily. To set up a search for tracking a hashtag, just use the Twitter Search feature. If your business is online, you’ll want to actively follow hashtags relating to your business. The same applies if you care what people might be saying about you personally on Twitter.
Recent Hashtags allow you to use hashtags you’ve used in the past on a tweet without remembering or looking them up.
Hover for More Options
When you’re ready to respond to people and do more, hover your mouse over a person’s picture You’ll find four main buttons:
@reply
Direct Message
Retweet
Options
Click on Options, and you get more choices:
User
–Add to Group – Add this person to an existing group
–Follow – If you’re not following this person, click to add to your friends
–Unfollow – Don’t like someone anymore? Unfollow.
–Block – This will block you from seeing someone’s tweets, @replies or DMs. You’ll never see them again. Great for spammers!
Tweet
–Translate – Translate foreign tweets so you can read them
–Mark as Read - Mark a single tweet as read
–Delete – Delete a single tweet
Column Specific Options
For each column, you’ll see these buttons at the bottom:
Cloud Tag – See what’s popular in that column
Filter – When you’re looking for a particular tweet or subject, you can use the Filter to temporarily “search” through that column
Mark All As Seen – I love this feature. When I’ve caught up with my tweet reading, I mark everything as seen so I know what’s new when I come back
Clear Seen Tweets – This will wipe out everything that’s seen so it doesn’t even show up in TweetDeck
Clear All Tweets - Clear everything, whether it’s marked as seen or new
Move Left/Right - Organize your columns in the order you want
Here’s a video I produced earlier this year that demonstrates how to use TweetDeck:
When you install any desktop application for Twitter, you might be asked to install something called Adobe AIR. It enables people to develop applications that will work on any operating system, so a developer with a great idea can make that application available to everyone. It’s a trustworthy download, so don’t be worried if you see this pop up.
Read More
Introduction to the 12 Days of Twitter
Day 1: The Secret Code: What are all those initials and symbols?
Day 3: Share Your Funny Anecdotes While They’re Still Funny
Day 4: Follow Responsibly
Day 5: 3 Newbie Mistakes Made by New Tweeters
Day 6: Use Twitter Search to Connect and Find
Day 7: Twitter Mobile
Day 8: Five Awesome Things You Can Do with Twitter
Day 9: Mix it Up!
Day 10: If You’re Not a TweetDeck, You Might Be a Seesmic
Day 11: Twitter for Prizes and Profit
Day 12: Schedule Tweets in Advance
« Twitter Porn and Spam?
July 3rd, 2009 at 6:43 pm
[...] be talking about TweetDeck on the next post. Previous Post« 12 Days of Twitter Next PostTwitter Porn and Spam? [...]
July 3rd, 2009 at 6:45 pm
[...] More: Day 1: The Secret Twitter Code Day 2: Use TweetDeck to Manage Conversations Previous Post« Look! Hayden Panettiere has a Kindle Next PostThe Secret Twitter Code: What [...]
July 3rd, 2009 at 7:32 pm
[...] Read more from the original source: Cali Lewis » Blog Archive » Use TweetDeck to Manage Conversations [...]
July 3rd, 2009 at 9:09 pm
Good evening (almost morning), @CaliLewis.
I couldn’t agree more about TweetDeck’s being feature-rich and, in some ways, superior to the other clients you mentioned here. I first gave it serious attention during WordCamp Dallas upon your suggestion, and it proved really handy with its columns and other features. (Long-time Twhirl user.)
Lacked one feature that I have become truly addicted to, though, and that’s keyboard shortcuts. Another nicety I enjoy on Twhirl is a user look-up, but that’s not a show stopper.
I just downloaded Nambu earlier this evening, and I’m finding it promising. Found it linked from the tr.im website (my favorite shortener). Has the columns, searches, and filters I enjoyed in TweetDeck PLUS keyboard shortcuts! (Also, it’s refreshing to be using a Cocoa app instead of Air for a change.)
Have you had a chance to review Nambu? If you covered it on the Brief, I may have missed that episode. Quite a nice find for the Cult of Mac, in my opinion. Would love to hear your thoughts.
Grace and peace…
Sean
July 4th, 2009 at 6:59 am
Does tweetdeck have an iPhone app??
July 4th, 2009 at 10:08 am
Yes, TweetDeck does have an iPhone app. It’s free as well. Just search for TweetDeck in the app store!
July 4th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
Hi Cali, I’m hoping you can answer a couple of questions I have about TweetDeck, as I’ve struck out elsewhere.
I gave TweetDeck a go a few months ago, but must be the only person frustrated by some very clunky limitations (oversights?). Before I reinstall it, I’m wondering if you can tell me whether it does the following yet:
- allows an “ungrouped” column in place of “all friends”
- allows groups to be closed and reopened when needed
With a laptop screen res of 1280×800, I’d also love to be able to manually size columns (by dragging borders as in just about every other app) and have more than two options for font size.
Unfortunately, without these basic functions, I find it’s too cumbersome to really effectively keep up with 300+ users and it’s very easy to miss someone that should be in a particular group. These improvements have been discussed and ‘promised’ over the last several releases. I’m curious whether any have come out yet before I reinstall and remove yet another “everything but the kitchen sink” app.
Thanks for any info you might have, and have a great weekend!
July 6th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Agreed, Tag. It owuld be really nice to have the ability to see which users I am following that are not in one of my groups. Maybe I am missing it, but it seems you just have to figure out who you have and who you don’t have grouped.
July 6th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
[...] to the 12 Days of Twitter Day 1: The Secret Code: What are all those initials and symbols? Day 2: Use TweetDeck to Manage Conversations Day 4: Follow Responsibly Day 5: 3 Newbie Mistakes Made by New Tweeters Previous Post« Use [...]
July 6th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
Hi cali i have some problems with tweetdeck,
i used it for a week and loved it but all of a sudden it crashed and then when i opened it again it was BLANK!!!
I tried the updates and reinstall of both adobe air and tweetdeck
I am stunned and heartbroken and yea im stuck with twhirl.So please help
July 7th, 2009 at 7:57 am
@Tag: No, I don’t believe it does those things.
The developer is making constant improvements to the Groups feature as well as all of TweetDeck. Make sure you give developers feedback so they know what you want!
@Anvesh: When you reopened TweetDeck, my guess is it that it cleared out the tweets – maybe it was at the beginning of an API cycle or something. If you wait a bit, new tweets will come back in. In your settings, check your API percentages. You’ll want to keep your total under 100%.
July 7th, 2009 at 10:29 am
I tried waiting but its of no use and i cant access settings too, if i click on twitscoop or any columns it says no account is configured thats all i can see
July 7th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
[...] to the 12 Days of Twitter Day 1: The Secret Code: What are all those initials and symbols? Day 2: Use TweetDeck to Manage Conversations Day 3: Share Your Funny Anecdotes While They’re Still Funny Day 5: 3 Newbie Mistakes Made by [...]
July 7th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
[...] to use Twitter Search I explained on an earlier post how to use Twitter Search in TweetDeck, a desktop application (watch the video for a [...]
July 7th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
Try @TweetDeck to see if he can help you further…
July 7th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
k thanks anyways!
July 9th, 2009 at 3:29 am
I was hoping this post would explain how to track conversations with tweekdeck, but despite the post title, it doesn’t actually talk about converstations at all, its just a tweetdeck tutorial;
So someone tell me, when I @ message someone, and they @ message me back 6 hours later, and I cannot remember what I sent them in the first place, how do I solve that problem?
July 9th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
[...] to the 12 Days of Twitter Day 1: The Secret Code: What are all those initials and symbols? Day 2: Use TweetDeck to Manage Conversations Day 3: Share Your Funny Anecdotes While They’re Still Funny Day 4: Follow Responsibly Day 5: [...]
July 9th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
[...] to the 12 Days of Twitter Day 1: The Secret Code: What are all those initials and symbols? Day 2: Use TweetDeck to Manage Conversations Day 3: Share Your Funny Anecdotes While They’re Still Funny Day 4: Follow Responsibly Day 6: [...]
July 10th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
[...] to the 12 Days of Twitter Day 1: The Secret Code: What are all those initials and symbols? Day 2: Use TweetDeck to Manage Conversations Day 3: Share Your Funny Anecdotes While They’re Still Funny Day 4: Follow Responsibly Day 5: [...]
July 11th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
[...] Desktop, and Seesmic Browser, which was released yesterday. I mentioned Seesmic briefly in my post about TweetDeck. From that, you know I use and love TweetDeck. Before TweetDeck added multiple account support [...]
July 11th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
[...] to the 12 Days of Twitter Day 1: The Secret Code: What are all those initials and symbols? Day 2: Use TweetDeck to Manage Conversations Day 3: Share Your Funny Anecdotes While They’re Still Funny Day 4: Follow Responsibly Day 5: [...]
July 14th, 2009 at 5:59 am
[...] to the 12 Days of Twitter Day 1: The Secret Code: What are all those initials and symbols? Day 2: Use TweetDeck to Manage Conversations Day 3: Share Your Funny Anecdotes While They’re Still Funny Day 4: Follow Responsibly Day 5: [...]
July 29th, 2009 at 8:20 am
Hi Cali, thanks for a great tutorial! New to twitter and am using Tweetdeck. I have 2 accounts but can’t work out how to view both accounts at the same time. I know that Tweetdeck works with multiple accounts so I must be doing something wrong. Any ideas what it is?
July 29th, 2009 at 8:30 am
In Settings, add both accounts, then you’ll add multiple columns of each thing. For example, click the Mentions button at the top and it’ll add a Mentions column for each account. Same thing for Direct Messages, etc.
Does that help?
July 29th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
Thanks very much. That worked great. I’m following you (@gadgethousewife) and love your geek brief vid casts! Keep up the good work.