5 Vanity-Free Ways to Use Twitter
Since before Ashton Kutcher championed the service, Twitter has been a cacophony of meaningless vapid personal updates, narcissistic celebrity feeds (not including Levar Burton, of course), and bored Facebook users looking for a new way to stalk that girl next door. There’s no denying that the microblogging social network has managed to grow at epic proportions – easily becoming one of the most popular Internet fads of the year – but it’s not easy filtering the signal from the noise.
Here’s a novel idea: what if we could get more from Twitter than simply monotonous, (intentionally?) typo-plagued status updates? Newly created Twitter-spinoff sites suggest that the tweets of millions can be manipulated for the forces of good, and we’re absolutely keen to the idea. Some tech-savvy companies have used the service to improve customer communications, and news organizations have used it as a way to reach audiences not possible with television and print. For those of us who’ve managed to remain optimistic about why we signed up for the service in the first place, we’ve discovered several ways to make the most out of Twitter, even if you don’t have an account!
Aggregate Emerging Trends
News aggregation is not all Digg’s territory, y’know. Twitter has managed to become an alternative to the Internet start page clogged up with columns of RSS feeds. Whether you’re following your local news station, or your favorite Maximum PC editor, Twitter can became a suitable way to stay up to date on news as it happens.
However, following a Twitter feed can be a little exhausting when you’re not in the mood to have your entire feed bombarded with tweets every few seconds on a big news days. Twitter aggregators help you search Twitter feeds based on subject, so you can stay tuned into the news only you care to read about.
For example, if you’re looking for a way to track the latest tweets based solely on one topic or subject, try out Twist. Twist allows you to see the trends in twitter by simply typing in a search term. You can compare various topics, view a data chart comparing search terms, and scroll through the most recent tweets regarding your query.
Use Twist to help you find product reviews. If you’re in the market for a new smart phone, but can’t decide between an iPhone and a Blackberry, simply type in “palm pre, iphone” to see what your fellow Twitterati have to say about either product.
You can also use Tweetizen to create twitter groups and stay on top of what’s happening in all your areas of interest. The search query works the same, filtering tweets based on tags and keywords, but you can also create groups and invite your Twitter friends to join you in glorifying the topic you based your group on.
You can also embed your groups on your own website or blog, allowing random people to join your clique. This is definitely a great tool for anyone looking to get some website traffic, or for someone who is looking to facilitate a discussion based on a specific topic.
Twitturly not only aggregates the most popular tweets, but it also keeps a tally of how many times the news story, video, or picture has been posted or retweeted—similar to what Digg does with its site. Twitturly also includes a resourceful search feature and displays the usernames of each person that has tweeted the link.
Get Customer Service
Many corporations have jumped on the bandwagon to be a part of the microblogging fad, and in some cases it has actually helped boost the company’s repertoire with its customers. For example, @Palm_Inc and @DellOutlet have used their feeds to announce special deals and new products, as well as offer customers a way to directly reach the company with any questions or issues they may have, giving “customer service” a whole new meaning . All it takes to find a corporate account is typing in the name of your favorite name brand into Twitter search to see if they offer this feature.
You could also try the Retail Twitter Aggregator, which displays a number of feeds from major brick & mortar and online retailers who’ve embraced the Twitter model. If you’re looking for a quick way to find a deal from some of your favorite places to shop, this is definitely a site to bookmark. Try adding some of the retailers to your own Twitter for instant updates on any special offers. Twitter is definitely a good way to scope out deals and save a little bit of cash.
Oh, and if you’re just looking for a freebie, add @FreeStuffUS for free samples and great coupons. You have to be a US resident to benefit from this feed, however.
Integrate Tweets into Other Services
There are a plethora of Twitter applications that contain a multitude of features, like the ability to post status messages to both Twitter and Facebook. We’ve covered these before. However, if you’ve ever wanted a more permanent way to keep track of your Twitter feed, Twistory allows you download your Twitter feed and display it in your favorite calendar app as a “Twitter diary”. All you need is an active Twitter account and one of the applications featured, which includes web-based Google calendar, Outlook, and Thunderbird.
For "serious" bloggers looking to bring more traffic to their website, you can use Twitterfeed to post updates on new blog entries and inspire your friends to retweet the story if they deem it even somewhat interesting. Twitterfeed supports Livejournal, Blogger, Flickr and OpenID, and it post Tweets based on the changes you make to your RSS Feed. So, for every picture you post or rant your write, your Twitter will announce it to your followers.
Conversely, if you’d rather post your daily Twitter feed to your blog, you can use LoudTwitter to blog your tweets and omit the labor of having to write a new blog post every other day. LoudTwitter works with Movable Type, Livejournal, Blogger, Tumblr, and WordPress, as well as a few others.
Talk to Robots
Remember when AIM bots were popular back in the day? Well, there’s no surprise someone has discovered a way to program bots for Twitter. The idea behind bots is that Twitter could be used for more than just social networking, and that Twitter could be manipulated to create applications using various input devices. This is just another way that Twitter is being utilized as more than just a way for companies and celebrities to market themselves.
There are both direct message bots and Reply bots that perform a function based on your inquiry. If you’re looking to check out the fog levels in the Bay Area, direct message @Forecast with “d Forecast South San Francisco, CA” to get the latest weather update (you can also use your zip code). This is especially useful if you’re on the go and don’t have access to the web, but can send an SMS. Configure your Twitter to send and receive direct messages to your mobile phone to get the most out of bots. Check out the Twitter Fan Wiki for an extensive list of Twitter bots.
Play Games
Twitter users who usually find themselves immersed in word games will find Twitter games to be quite a delight. Check out ouTWITMe to play word games, like “Things you find in a basement”, where you guess the word based on the number of blanks you have to fill. This game is convenient because it does not post a status message if you play the game straight from its homepage, otherwise you can reply @Tweet_Quiz to submit a clue and receive a bonus clue via Direct Message within a minute. It’d be nice if we could someday play a Twitter game based on our favorite MUD games.
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