Ultimate guide to Twitter tools and resources for journalists
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Finally thinking of testing out Twitter ? Online Journalism Blog posts why journalists should use Twitter , and I think new new media reporters could use a resource list. So grab your Twitter posse and start checking out these Twitter tools and resources:
What is Twitter!?!?!
Twitter is a micro-blogging service for messages of up to 140 characters that can be updated via SMS, Email, Web, Browsers, Desktop clients and whatever else. It can be used for telling the world what you’re doing, sharing insight, communicating with friends and associates and getting answers to your questions.
To truly understand Twitter, you have to use it. But to start, watch the video!
Get an Account
- Twitter Home : It’s easy to set up an account and customize your page. Make sure you link back to your blog in your "about me" options.
Twitter Clients
- Twhirl : By far the best Twitter client I have ever used. Looks slick and can dual post to Pownce. SWEET!
- TwitBin : Put a Twitter client in your Firefox sidebar
- TwitBox : former favorite Twitter desktop client. It even has experimental hashtags tracking (free).
- Twitterlicious : First desktop client I used. Turned my Twitter universe upside down (also free).
- Twitterific : Mac client. Mac’s also have dashboard Twitter widgets.
- Twitter Flashlite : Mobile client
- Tweetr : Mac/PC Client allows users to upload and share files and photos
Find Twitterers!
- TwitDir : Find everything from most-followed users, to top posters to top 100 followers - I wonder who that is?
- Twubble : Find popular twitterers that your friends are following
- Twitterwhere? : Nice new app that let’s you find twitterers within 50 miles of you.
- Twitterlocal : Annother web app to find local twitterers.
- Twitslikeme : Find other Twitterers with your similar interests
- Twitterwho ?: Find Twitterers by email address
- TwitterAdder : Type in your account and randomly add 20 follows
- TwitterSearch : Type in the term your looking for and find out who is tweeting about it!
- TwitterMap : Find users in your area who are tweeting
- TwitterVision : Worldwide tracking of Tweets in real time. You can even make this your desktop wallpaper background !
Tracking Memes
- Summize : The most powerful twitter conversation tracker I’ve seen. Search for terms by user, language, attitude, tag, to and from user
- Twist : Compare terms and get graphs showing how much that term was tweeted
- Quotably : Type in any username and follow conversations in a threaded format
- Tweet Scan : Find out who’s saying what, search for replies, words, whatever by user
- Tweetmeme : Find out "what’s hot" on Twitter (Think Techmeme in Twitterland). Updates in real-time and looks spiffy!
- Twitter Troll : Find popular terms used on Twitter in real time
- #hashtags : Real-time tracking of tagged tweets organized though hashtags (example: #twittertools)
- Twitigg : Twitter, Digg style
- Politweets : Tracking tweets that reference presidential candidates (via OJB )
Twitter Metrics and tracking
- TweetStats : Track your tweets per hour and month and your Tweet timeline
- Twitter Quotient : Find out if you’re a Twitter hero or zero
- TweetVolume : Compare the popularity of terms used in Tweets.
- Tweetburner : URL shortener that tracks what happens with the links you post
Post Multimedia, Photos, Files
- TwitPic : Post photos to your tweets - also integrated in latest version of Twhirl
- Twiddeo : Post videos to your tweets
- Mobypicture : Post photos to your Twitter and Flickr account from your mobile phone
Polling
- PollDaddy Twitter tool : Probably the best polling Twitter integration. Would love to see this become a part of Twhirl with Google Docs capabilities.
- Twittpoll : Opinion channel for Twitterers
- Twitter Census : Surveys for Twitterers -1) Post a question 2) Get replies 3) See results
Join a Community
- ReporTwitters : Twitter network for reporters to connect, share ideas and research stories.
- Twittown : Unofficial Twitter community - get news and more
- Michigan Twitter Network : All the Tweeters in Michigan
RSS and Tweet syndication
- TwitterFeed : I’ve used this one several times and works like a charm. Must have an OpenID . Check out my screencast on how to set up your own auto-update twitter using twitterfeed .
- LoudTwitter : Ship your tweets to your blog
Twitterers to Follow
- Shawn Smith on Twitter : That’s me! What’s wrong with a little self promotion?
- Mich Sineath : Blogger and think tanker at AEJMC and his blog . I really like the way he uses Twitter to ask questions and interact with people.
- Ryan Sholin : Innovative thinker and web worker for GateHouse Media. Also the co-creator of Wired Journalists .
- Jack Lail : Smart guy doing some really cool things for Knox News.
- Steve Buttry : Score some thoughts on training journalists for the new media revolution from Steve
- Digi Dave : If you don’t know Dave, you better ask somebody. He’s got the moves for your social media habits
- Popurls : Always something interesting, often cool items before they go bigg on Digg
- Ann Marie Cox : Washington Bureau editor of Time online. Formerly of Wonkette. Has funny insights. (via BuzzMachine )
- Breaking News On : Great Twitter feed of latest top news items.
Embedding Twitter Feeds - Twitter Badges
- Editing Flash Badges
- Twitter’s Official Badges
- More Editable Flash Badges
- Korelab badge : Customizable image badge
- Twitter Status badge
Fun Stuff
- Twitsig : Make your Tweets into an image that can be embedded in forums or wherever HTML is allowed
- TwittyTunes : Browser Add On that allows you to easily share what you’re listening to - integrates with Foxytunes Firefox add on
More Resources!!!
- Twitter Fan Wiki : Get the lowdown on everything Twitter, including clients, mobile apps, email apps, Greasemonkey scripts and other web services! Many resources there found here
- Franticindustries : More Twitter mashup listings than you can Tweet at. Many resources here found there
- ReTweetMe : Get reminder messages via Twitter
- Twitterholic : Top 100 users and their friends!
- Twitter Etiquette guide and explainer : Just what it says - More in-depth explanation
- Twitter News Radar : Aggregation of everything Twitter in the world!
Twitter commands - via Koka Sexton (see great Twitter comics here too)
@username + message - A message directed at a specific user - be careful, everyone can see this!
D username + message - A direct message to a specific user that no one else can see!
WHOIS username - get profile info from any public Twitter user
GET username - see latest tweet of the specified user
NUDGE username - remind a twitter user to update their tweets!
FAV username - "marks a person’s last twitter as a favorite. (hint: reply to any update with FAV to mark it as a favorite if you’re receiving it in real time)"
STATS - returns your number of followers, how many people you’re following, and which words you’re tracking
Did I leave anything out that you really like? Let me know and I’ll add it to the list!
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January 18th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Shawn, I’ve recently started using Twhirl, a free third-party desktop client for Twitter. Really like its features, esp. highlighted replies & DMs showing up directly in my tweetstream. Thanks for this handy resource list — now bookmarked on my del.icio.us page.
January 18th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
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New Ning network Tweets oriented to web widgets and OpenSocial applications for Twitter
January 18th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Sorry, no url in previous post : http://tweets.ning.com/ .
Thanks for information! Already following your suggested persons.
Jevs
January 19th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
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January 28th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
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January 28th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
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January 28th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
I watched the returns of the South Carolina primary. You can find plenty of help getting started, including I found Nico Luchsinger’s “Why Journalist’s Should Use Twitter” and Shawn Smith’s“Ultimate Guide to Twitter Resources and Tools for Journalists.”Journalists have reported getting news tips from sources and even help with interviews. I even see some potential for investigative pieces, watching it unfold in small increments as the reporter digs deeper into the story.
January 30th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
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February 21st, 2008 at 5:57 pm
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March 21st, 2008 at 4:13 pm
It would be churlish of me to try and create a twitter resource without making reference to others who have done a far better job than I might have done: Let’s start with this ‘how to’ guide fromNew Media Bytes. It tells you all you need to know to get twittering in the shortest amount of time. I should mention that it was intended for journalists, but bloggers and just about anyone else will find it very useful too.
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May 13th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Two more twitter tools for you:
Twitter Answers with TweetAnswers - Ask questions and get answers! Simple to use: “@tweetanswers #topic Your question”
LiveTwitting for conference and event coverage through twittering. Records all your coverage, includes speaker and topic organization through simple commands.
May 22nd, 2008 at 2:06 am
[...] both incentive and inspiration to compose short, efficient messages on that channel from Day One. Journalists have begun to embrace the medium as a source of information as well as a backchannel for discussing [...]
May 26th, 2008 at 1:27 am
[...] You can update your Twitter message and track others from the Twitter web site, or by using a third party application you can select from a rapidly growing list. Got a Google Talk account? Perfect, configure your Twitter account to send new tweets [...]
May 30th, 2008 at 1:30 am
[...] Media Bytes has published a very comprehensive list of Twitter resources which is broken down into various categories. I haven’t looked too far, but I can’t [...]
July 4th, 2008 at 8:04 am
————————————————
Dave Winer, father of RSS says “Twitter, as it was conceived, was never meant to live.”
“It’s very possible with better engineering its architecture might have gone on for a few more years, but eventually it would have hit this wall, where there were too many people posting too many twits to too many followers. The scale of the system as conceived rises exponentially.”
So is the end of Twitter getting near? I hope not. Twitter I hope that you are listening and you better start taking things more seriously.
———————————————–
Here’s my two cents.
For instance there are about 100m users of yahoo messenger and usually 2-3 of them talk at a time that means scalability of 300m conversations. On the other hand with 100m twitter users who usually send messages to 100-10,000 other users the scalability required is 10,000m to 10^6m I have never known any current architecture based on webservers to handle such a scale. So according to me Twitter was never meant to live. It is like a concept car that will never see production. Users of twitter don’t understand this and they don’t care.
They don’t know whats happening when the website is down. The sad part is that the best analysts claim that Twitter is a billion dollar company in one year of operations. There is an old saying before the days of when people understood permutation combinations. One peasant asked a king to give him rice equal to the total amount gotten by placing double the number of rice grains on a chess square than the previous square, starting with one rice grain. There are 8×8=64 squares. We seriously need to visit grade 7 mathematics.
I know of only one News/Messaging system that supports around 1 billion users sending messages to all 1 billion users each. Thats a scalability of 10^12m. It is not Web based but rather on a massively scalable serverless P2P architecture based. The team is soft spoken and when I last talked to them I was told that they don’t care about money or hype or fame but rather for just the passion of next generation global systems that will stand the test of worldwide use. Its called Mermaid News Mermaid
They have other softwares too but this post is about Twitter and Messaging. Once everyone comprehends basic mathematics that goes behind scalable algorithms they would go past the flashy screen and hype to actually want a system they can trust. To the analysts I would say it is easy to create a business plan, create a hype and raise $20m funding it is far more difficult to create something of use.
July 5th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
One of the best resources for Twitter I have seen. Good work.
July 10th, 2008 at 8:35 am
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July 19th, 2008 at 3:46 am
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August 2nd, 2008 at 7:28 pm
TwitterSplit turns the links in your twitter posts into “lasso-like” links returning your traffic back to your site and helping you promote anything you like. Increase FollwMe conversions too.
http://twittersplit.com/
August 2nd, 2008 at 7:38 pm
I agreed with you
August 27th, 2008 at 2:37 am
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October 16th, 2008 at 10:41 am
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