5 Twitter resources you're ignoring

There are lots of great ways to improve your Twitter experience. Unfortunately, lots of folks don't know they exist. So, today, let me share with you five Twitter resources you may be missing out on:

RSS Feed for Search
Did you know you can set up an RSS feed for keywords mentioned in tweets?
Go to Twitter's search page and put your search word or phrase into the box. This brings you to a page with all your query results. On the right nav bar there is an RSS icon that says "Feed for this query". Click it and then add that search to your My Yahoo! page. 

BONUS: You can also set up a search on Twitter directly. Go to the search box that's at the top of your profile or home page, and type in your keyword(s) and then hit search. Once your results are brought up, you can click the "Save this Search" on the top middle of the page. Going forward, you can see all your saved searches by going to the homepage > searches > and then selecting the appropriate search topic from the drop down box.

Using search is a great way to effectively monitor conversations about you or your product, or other news that's of interest to you!

For more on using search on Twitter, click HERE


Hope 140
Hope 140 is Twitter's effort to support philanthropy and nonprofits. It's a great way to promote causes and increase exposure for a charity that you work for or support. Learn more about it by clicking HERE


Blocking Yucky Lists
Most people think Twitter's block feature is merely to prevent creepy people from interacting you. However, there is a very handy and lesser known benefit to blocking.

If you find yourself put on a Twitter list you don't like and, for whatever reason, don't want to ask to be taken off it, you can block the person who created the list and you will be take off it. Then, if you choose, you can just refollow the person. And, no following the person again will not put you back on the list. Handy, huh?


Shortcuts
Twitter has some great shortcuts and, for some reason, lots of folks don't know about this useful little feature. To find out shortcuts that will allow you to tweet, check messages, reply, etc, here's all you need to do.

Go to the Twitter homepage and on the right nav bar (at the bottom, right after your followers, trends, etc.), you'll see a dozen or so links in a very small font. Look for the one that says "shortcuts" and click it. A box will then pop up (as pictured below) that shows you all the Twitter shortcuts.

Fewer clicks to do what you want to do is always aces in my book!

Widgets and Buttons
Twitter has a variety of resources to help you promote your content through Twitter. First off, the site has its own tweet button that you can add to your website or blog. This is a great tool that allows your audience to share your content more easily (Notice that I have a tweet button on this post so you can tweet it to your followers if you like it! Hint, hint...). To get the tweet button, click HERE and follow the prompts.

BONUS: The Twitter Resources page also has Follow Me buttons, widgets to embed your Twitter feed onto your website/blog or publish it onto your Facebook wall, and Twitter logos and icons.
As you may already know, Twitter is my favorite social media platform. Therefore, it's my personal quest to share information with you to make your Twitter experience even more enjoyable! 

Any neat Twitter resources I missed? Chime in below and share them!

18 comments:

  1. Some great tips - thank you! I often find interesting blogs through tweets from others - do you think it's best to retweet directly from the blog or go back to the original tweet & retweet from there? I've been doing the second option as it acknowledges the input of the original tweeter. (umm... have I confused you yet??)

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  2. Thanks for the comment, Judy! I'm not confused at all. I see what you're saying ;-)

    As a matter of proper etiquette, I think it's always nice to retweet the person who offered up the information initially. Giving credit is always best.

    The tweet button, in my opinion, is for those other instances when someone reads something directly on blog (because they subscribe) or when they get there via another social networking site.

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  3. RT: 5 Twitter resources you're ignoring http://bit.ly/h9gUct | @wordsdonewrite Have been playing with search twitter ever since I read your blog today. Search to RSS gave me a lot more info than I have been getting on twitter for mac alone. Fun and sometimes useful to play with the different platforms - dare I say my i google, my yahoo and mac for twitter are CLOSE to playing nicely withone another? Thanks for the tips

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  4. Oh, so you want me to RT this?...........

    How can I stalk anybody if you tell them how to get off my lists; you are making twitter harder for me now.

    Thanks for sharing; like you, anything I can utilize to be more efficient in this arena is a good thing.

    Hope your weekend is going well.

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  5. Great advice! I'm relatively new to Twitter so this is very helpful; Thanks!

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  6. You're very welcome, Susan!

    There are also advanced settings (found here: http://search.twitter.com/advanced) that allow you to filter the information even more. Very handy way to make your search even more targeted!

    Thanks so much for reading, commenting, and trying out search!

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  7. I guess you can always stalk people through private lists, Bill. :-)

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  8. That's wonderful to hear! Welcome to Twitter, Kathy! And thanks for chiming in on the discussion ;-)

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  9. Hey Amber...I don't think you missed anything but I wanted to share one way in which I use one of these tools...just because I love it.

    I post adoptable @NYCACC (NYC Animal Care & Control) dogs for the person who helped me adopt Suede. I post them all to Twitter but I also wanted a more "permanent" place to keep them posted...hence my blog. One of the challenges though, was how to post them on my blog without having to continually write code & code & code....ugh....I am not so proficient in that so it takes me time. I then realized that what I really wanted was some way of getting a Twitter Feed on my blog of ONLY my adoptables....well, I included a feed that reads only a specified set of hashtags...it has worked like a charm (except for the few that went out just after Tweetdeck started with Deckly).

    The Deckly issue only became an issue because I used to put the hashtags at the end, so when someone would RT the post, the hashtags got lost in the extended tweet and therefore not recognized...so I started putting the hashtags at the beginning...problem solved!

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  10. Yes! Thank you for mentioning that, Rachel!

    Customizing the tweets that show in your embedded feed is a great feature! I'm so glad you brought it up! I've actually embedded my favorites into the Twitter feed on my Buzz tab on this blog.

    Sounds like you're doing all you can to help the animals. That's fantastic! Adoption is so important. Thanks for all you do!

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  11. Hi Amber, some great tips. I also like Co-Tweet for managing multiple accounts. (I know other apps have similar capabilities, but I like the UI.) BTW, thanks for including me on your commenters list! (And not a yucky one!)

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  12. I haven't spent much time with Co-Tweet, but maybe I'll have to rethink that ;-)

    Happy to add you to the list! Thanks for being a great commenter, Mitch!

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  13. I'm fairly new to Twitter; still stmbling around feeling for the doors, so I appreciate articles like this. Thanks for the tips. Especially the search tips, that will be very helpful.

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  14. I'm so glad you found it of use, Allan!

    Kudos to you for stumbling along (and I mean that!). Too many people get immediately discouraged and give up. Stumbling around feeling for the doors is the best way to learn. Persistence is the key and I have no doubt your Twitter future is bright ;-)

    Thanks for the comment, Allan!

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  15. Glad I read this, I really liked it! Thanks Amber, I'll be sure to pass it along to some people who are new to Twitter and need exposure while creating a name for themselves!

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  16. Hi as new to twitter as new born is to the world, was really looking for some articles and posts to make my way on twitter and this blog has really shown me some of the back door entries.

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  17. Yay! That makes me so happy to hear that! Thanks so much for reading and for taking the time to leave such a kind comment!

    Good luck on your new Twitter journey! ;-)

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