• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 570 0

tweets are forever. On one hand, this indexing is good for your visibility online. Because Google and other search engines index your tweets, those search engines can bring more people to your Twitter profile, which can then possibly bring those people to your Web site. On the other hand, you need to be cautious: Don’t say anything on Twitter that you wouldn’t want your mom, your boss, or your child to stumble across later on the Internet while searching for something else. Also take great care with names, as tweets about a person may actually show up closer to the top of search results than mentions of her name on other types of Web sites.

If you imagine that someone whose opinion you value is looking at what you write, you can avoid getting in any trouble. Twitter is so easy to use that it’s equally easy to slip up, and because of its conversational nature, you can sometimes forget that it isn’t a private room, and that it isn’t an “inner monologue.” A Ketchum PR executive famously upset his client — FedEx — when he tweeted a snide remark about Memphis on landing there for his meeting with them. Ooops! Remember the context you’re tweeting in (he was on a client visit) and also remember that people may assume that you’re talking about them when you’re not. You also may not be thinking today about what may be findable weeks, months, and years from now.

Figure 3-8: Twitter Search (formerly known as Summize) results.

Chapter 4

Using Twitter Wherever You Think Best

In This Chapter

Getting with the Twitter program

Considering third-party interfaces

Using Twitter everywhere

Twitter’s a great tool for providing friends, family, and followers with updates on what’s going on in your life. But, as you’ve probably noticed, life occurs in a lot of places, not just on the computer. Don’t worry, though, because Twitter’s got you covered. The folks at Twitter have designed their application so that you can use it in multiple ways.

In this chapter, we go over all the ways that you, as an individual, may want to use Twitter, and we also give you some pointers for maximizing the application, based on your needs.

The User Multi-Face: Interacting with Twitter Every Which Way

If you want to get the most out of Twitter, you need to figure out how you prefer to access the service. Some people use the Twitter Web site or the Twitter Mobile Web site, text messaging, or any number of third-party services built by using Twitter’s application program interface (API). You can use widgets, gadgets, browser plug-ins, and in short, a huge array of ways to interact with Twitter at your convenience and on your terms. This is a big reason for Twitter’s popularity.

Like most users, you probably started by logging into Twitter.com and using the basic Web interface, shown in Figure 4-1, to manage your Twitter stream and communicate with your contacts. It’s simple, no-frills, and convenient: Most of what you need is right there in the sidebar or in the top toolbar, and roughly half of all twitterers (probably more now with Twitter’s extraordinary recent growth) use Twitter.com to access the service. But what happens if you need more functionality, mobility, versatility, or you just want more bells and whistles?

Figure 4-1: The Web interface, which is just one of the ways you can use Twitter.

Some Twitter users prefer not to access the service through a browser window, need a few more organizational options than the Web page affords, or just want to share Twitter on an external Web site or blog. You can find plenty of options out there for doing all this and more.

Text messages (SMS delivery)

You can fairly simply opt into receiving Twitter via text messages (SMS delivery). First, you have to set up a mobile device so that Twitter knows where to send your tweets:

1. Click the Settings link at the top-right of your Twitter Home screen.

The Settings page opens.

2. Click the Devices tab.

3. Enter your mobile phone number in the text field, check the box granting Twitter permission to send you a text message, and click the