My Favorite Twitter Apps

Twitter, for those of you who may not know or care, is basically microblogging -- that is, the writing of short, 140-character editorials, advertisements, announcements, jokes, expressions, and so forth. If you can think it, you can twitter it. Your audience is called your “followers,” and they receive all of your published work, called your “tweets.” Then you also follow others and receive their tweets.

There are countless uses for Twitter. The most common use is brand marketing -- that is, getting your product, service or message to as many followers as possible. Media organizations like CNN and scientific organizations like NASA also use Twitter to have interactive, real time discussions with their followers, who can be both members of their own organizations and the general public. Then there are those of us, like myself, who use Twitter for a variety of reasons, with “just for fun” being at the top of the list. I don’t play video games so Twitter is one of the things I do for entertainment. I am in the process of using this web page to post things for Twitter, including maybe trying to sell stuff now stored in the garage.

Professional marketers, public relations pros and educators may have their favorite Twitter apps to keep track of their usage statistics, but novices like myself like to keep things simple. Here is a list of my favorite Twitter apps:

Tweetdeck - This Twitter follow interface is customizable into columns. Mine are All Friends, National News, Regional News, Local News, Bloggers, Family, Replies, DMs, and Facebook. You can automatically shorten urls and send updates right from Tweetdeck.

Tweetchat - This is a great way to participate in #hashtag chats. You can customize the app to feature the chat leaders and block the griefers. You can also change the refresh speed and pause the feed. This is the best chat app I have found. Try the beta.

Twitterberry - This Blackberry mobile app will keep you twittering on the go. Follow the public timeline, all friends, replies, DMs, and your timeline. You send updates from a separate screen, which gives you a handy live character count. No search capability though.

Ubertwitter - This app, now in beta, has a location feature, search, retweet, and it is customizable in a number of ways, including type and icon size. You can click on the tweet and get user info and find out who is tweeting in your geographic area. I just downloaded this app and so far so good.

Mr. Tweet - Just follow Mr. Tweet and get personalized follow recommendations and useful Twitter stats. Not really an app, but I use it like one.

Widgets - Display your timeline on other social networking sites like myspace and blogspot. Choose from flash or text displays.