Originally posted in my old blog on 3/15/09.

Click here for Part 1:

What is Twitter?
Why Use Twitter?
What to Tweet
How to Follow
Tweet Etiquette – RT, @reply, DM

Part 2:

Sharing Tweets Elsewhere – Widgets, RSS
Twitter Management Apps
Twitter Terminology
Linking in Tweets
Bonus Twips

Sharing Tweets Elsewhere

Widgets, RSS

OK! You’re all set up with your very own Twitter account! You’re having fun tweeting and reading other people’s tweets! Great! …Now what?

Perhaps you would like to share your tweets with people outside of twitter. Embedded twitter feeds are becoming commonplace on many websites. There are two main, basic ways to do this, both of which require some knowledge of html.

The first is by snagging one of Twitter’s own widgets. These can be accessed by clicking here, or through the Apps link at the bottom of your Twitter home page. There is both a dynamic Flash version or javascript/html version. Simple copy/paste the code Twitter gives where you would like to place the widget on your website, blog, or other social profile!

The second option is through various third party RSS feed options. I highly recommend widgetbox because it is free and simple to use and customize. Another option is described on ThinkVitamin’s blog. This method pulls a twitter search feed of specific hashtags (described later).

While there are many other options, these should give you a good start!

Twitter Management Apps

If you visited the Apps page from the link in the previous section, I’m sure you noticed the wide-range just in that short list! If you are truly a Twitter power-user, you must install TweetDeck. This management app allows you to see several views at once, including the main feed, your @replies, your direct messages, and other windows of your choice. Most useful to me is the creation of groups to track my niche tweeps.

If you find that you are spending a lot of time trying to figure out who to follow back when someone follows you, sign-up for the online app TweetLater. Among other things, TweetLater allows you to (as the name implies) schedule tweets for later posting, but also what they call Vetting Followers. By setting your account to auto-follow but also vet followers, TweetLater will hold your new followers for 72 hours for your review to either follow, ignore, or block.

If you spend many tweets posting links, give HootSuite a spin. Not only does HootSuite provide custom short-urls, but each url is statistically tracked. HootSuite also gives the option to schedule tweets, and has a nice interface for tweeting instantly or seeing all tweets.

Twitter Terminology

Here’s a short list of the most popular terms I’ve seen, thanks to the Twitter Wiki:

Failwhale- the whale held up by birds and string that shows that Twitter has crashed. In danger of extinction, but still seen from time to time.
Hash Tag - the “#” sign which allows Twitters users to group their tweet with a particular event or conversation. The hash tag makes it easier to search that particular conversation on TwitterSearch. The hash tag is used like this: #pbwiki
Twittcrastination – avoiding action while Twittering, procrastination enabled by Twitter use
Tweeple – Twitter people, Twitter members, Twitter users
Tweeps – Twitterites that follow each other from one social media/network to another.
Tweeter – A user of Twitter (compare: Twitterer).
TweetIn – When a group of twitterers agree to get together at a set time to twitter
TweetUp – When twitterers meet in person in one’s home nest.
Twitterati – The glamorous A-List twitterer’s everyone wants to follow.
Twitterrific – a really good Twitter thing
Twoogle – Twitter as the human Google. Pose a question, get near-instantaneous results.
Tword – Words formed by appending “Tw” to the original word

Linking in Tweets

Due to the nature of the 140 character limit, don’t even try to copy/paste a full link! Instead, see this list of 20 URL shorteners. The one’s I’ve seen used most are:

TinyURL – has bookmarklet for quick shortening!
owl.ly – is part of previously mentioned HootSuite and includes stats and bookmarklet
bit.ly – has bookmarklet
tr.im – bookmarklet and stats
is.gd - bookmarklet via instructions page