How I use Twitter at home and at the Cafe: TweetDeck
Ok,
I use Twitter a bunch of different ways. The main factor deciding how I use Twitter is where I'm at when I use it.
TweetDeck:
If I'm at home, or at a place that has Wi-Fi than I use an amazing little application called TweetDeck. I like this method of using Twitter the best and if I could use it this way all the time I would. Here are some of the reasons that I like TweetDeck so much.
a. TweetDeck lets me view Twitter the way that I want to, by giving me control of how the Tweets of people I follow are displayed. If you take a look at the picture below you will see what I mean.
On the left hand side of TweetDeck I see the Tweets of everyone that I follow.
Next to that (the middle of TweetDeck) I see all the @neilgorman replies that I get.
On the right hand side of the TweekDeck I see a tag cloud that gets pulled from TwitScoop, so I can see at a glance what people are talking about.
(The default settings have all a users DM's on the right hand side of TweetDeck. I find the tag could is more useful to me. I do keep the DM section open, I just have to scroll over to see them)
Also, if you don't like this view you can turn TweetDeck into a one column as well.
b. In addition to this TweekDeck also lets a user set up something called groups. What this means is I can create a new new column that is a group. This column will only display Tweets from people in that group.
This is a really useful feature if the end user follows a lot of people (i.e. if you follow everyone who follows you) because it lets you set up a section where you can see the updates of the people who live near your, or are at the same conference that your at, etc. It is a great feature and IMHO it is the best thing that TweetDeck does.
One of the only problems with this feature is that if the user (i.e. me) hits the small X button in the upper right hand section of the coulmn the group will close, and if you will need to rebuild it if you want it back.
This is not a big deal if the user remembers to not close their groups, but I think that some users believe that if they close it they will be able to reopen the group with out needing to rebuild it. This is not the case.
c. TweetDeck is a great ap to have open in the background as I work, because I can just as new Tweets, @neilgorman message, and DMs come in it pops up a little box in the upper right hand section of my screen showing me how many much Tweeting I'm missing.
There are a few draw backs to TweetDeck.
1. There is not a way to add Tweets that I like to my favorites (so I have to also open the web page often.)
To TweetDeck's credit, I know that the developer is working on this issue, and that a future version of TweetDeck will have this function built in.
2. There is no built in ability to post to other Tiwtter like services such as identi.ca.
And again, this is something that is being worked on.
In the end: There are many problems with TweetDeck, but they are also all being addressed. If your a user of TweetDeck and you want to let the developers know what they should add , or what they should be working on fixing, than you should go here and tell them.
You can follow the developer of @TweetDeck on twitter.
