Twitter for Dummies - Laura Fitton [106]
If you retweet, try to credit the original poster. Sometimes when retweeting, the 140-character limit means that you have to take out names or letters to make the message fit. Always make sure that you leave the name of the twitterer you are retweeting to acknowledge your source.
Gathering your journalistic tools
You can use these tools to prepare for your Twitter-inspired citizen-journalist moment:
A mobile phone that has a camera and/or video camera: Most cellphones have at least the former these days. And make sure that you have a cellular data plan so you can send your photos.
Qik: A free Web application (www.qik.com) that lets you record short, live videos and broadcast them for free online. It posts a link to Twitter so that your followers can view the stream live, and even chat, and the video posts to YouTube, as well as to the Qik site. Two different videos of pro-Tibet protests made it to the world from the 2008 China Olympics because of Qik, even though both videographers were detained.
Utterli: A free program (www.utterli.com) that lets you record short, live audio and video files and then posts them to the Web, similar to a live audio podcast. It posts to Twitter, as well, and you can attach still photos and other articles to each audio or video file.
A Flip video camera: A nice, affordable way to grab live video of an event while it happens, then post it to the Web. Pure Digital Technologies manufactures this video camera, but several other electronics companies (such as Kodak) make similar, pocket-sized video cameras.
An account on a free photo-sharing service: These services include TwitPic and Flickr, which accept mobile uploads for sharing your still photos.
If you ever take live video or pictures of people, it should be common sense to get their permission or, if circumstances don’t require permission, to at least warn them that you plan to broadcast the images or post them online. Depending on where you are, it may be illegal to post those images without the subjects’ permission. If you intend to capture video or pictures for distribution online with regularity, consult a legal professional.
Part V
The Part of Tens
In This Part . . .
Like every For Dummies book, we include the Part of Tens in Twitter For Dummies. In this part, we highlight neat tools, services, and uses for Twitter that you may want to check out while you’re tweeting away.
Chapter 14
Ten Twitter Tools
In This Chapter
Organizing your Twitter world with the right applications
Getting down to business with the help of Twitter tools
Connecting your Twitter account to your other online accounts
You need the right tools to get the most out of Twitter. New tools, services, Web sites, and applications are created for Twitter users every day, so the list of tools that you can choose from is always growing. To help get you started, we want to tell you about a few of our favorite examples, which give you a fun sampling that will give you some sense of different ways you can use Twitter.
Each time we tried to come up with a list of the top ten tools, we realized it’s just not possible — too many great innovations are being built on Twitter’s “platform.” What is the best tool for you really depends on your needs, and, of course, popular new tools emerge all the time. Literally, because of this problem, Laura is working on a startup, www.oneforty.com, that will make it easy for anyone to find, use, and share the best Twitter-related applications and services. Stay tuned to that site for help making the most of your Twitter experience.
TweetDeck: Connecting with Many
www.tweetdeck.com
Type: Desktop client
TweetDeck is an Adobe Air application that gives you the tools you need to keep track of large numbers of people in your Twitter stream. (For more on Adobe Air, see Chapter 9.) It allows you to put people in groups, keep