Manage your Twitter account better with Tweetdeck
Many people rarely visit their page on Twitter.com, preferring instead to use a separate application.I’ve tried a few and think that Tweetdeck is the best one currently available. This short video shows you how to access some of the most useful features of the application.
Tweetdeck uses columns to separate out different tweets from the general stream of people that you’re following so that you can see much more easily the tweets that are most important to you. By default the application starts with three columns:
- All friends. These are all the tweets from all the people you are following.
- Replies. These are all the public messages that include your username.
- Direct Messages. These are all the direct (private) messages that you have sent or received.
But you can also add further columns. Two really useful ones are ‘groups’ and ’search’.
Groups
To add a new group, click on the groups button in the top of the Tweetdeck window:
Groups button in Tweetdeck
This adds a new column that will contain tweets from just a selection of the people you are following. You might choose to include just clients, or coworkers, or another group of people whose tweets you are especially interested in. You can set up lots of groups columns.
Search
You can already search Twitter by visiting search.twitter.com but there is no way to save the results of this search within Twitter itself. In Tweetdeck you can save a search query and have it constantly refreshed by adding a new search column. Here’s how. Click on the search button in the top of the Tweetdeck window:
The search button in Tweetdeck
You might use this to monitor mentions of your company name / website, products, competitors. It’s a simple way to monitor your reputation within Twitter and be able to act quickly if there is any discussion about you.
Easy access to features
Tweetdeck makes it easy to access Twitter functions such as reply, direct message and retweet. When you hover over a user’s profile picture, some new buttons appear.
To reply to a tweet, click on the reply button:
Reply using Tweetdeck
To send a direct (private) message to another user, click on the direct message button.
Send direct message using Tweetdeck
And to forward on a message that you have enjoyed or found useful, click on the retweet button. Retweeting is a good way to show that you value another user’s tweet. It flatters the original author, because it makes their message travel further and gives them credit for the original message. It helps your followers, because if you liked the original tweet, the chances are that your followers will too. It helps your followers to find new content and new people to follow.
Retweet button in Tweetdeck
You can follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/jamesward.