How Do You Have Twitter Configured?

Filed Under (internet) by djByron on 04-20-2008

Tagged Under : , , ,

If you’re a seasoned Twitterer this probably won’t come as anything new, but after a couple months of experimenting I wanted to share what I finally settled on with regards to my current configuration.

FIrst of all, what app do I use? Currently I bounce back and forth between two apps, Twitterific and Twhirl. Twhirl is a little more feature laden probably due to the fact that it’s built on Adobe’s multi OS AIR platform. This allows Twhirl to be installed on both Mac and PC and also means it is probably in development more than Twitterific. Twitterific on the other hand is a Mac only app and is nice due to the fact that it has a really small GUI footprint (can be docked in menu bar vs main dock) and it has Growl support which means pop up notifications of new tweets. Unfortunately these minor but very useful options are not available in Twhirl due to current Adobe AIR limitations.

So what does my Twtter “configuration” look like? As of today I follow over 130 and I can break those I follow into two different categories.

  1. Regular “Friends”:
    Tweets from this group are streamed in via Twhirl or Twitterific. Each program is configurable to automatically get new tweets at specified interval (I have mine set to get new tweets ever 4 minutes).
  2. Local / close “Friends”:
    I have a few local and close friends that I want to follow 24/7 so I follow them via “device” updates, in my case I have these updates sent via SMS to my cell phone. You can also set up your IM to get these device updates as well.
  3. BUT WAIT!!!
    What about tweets that are directed to me ( @djbyron ) or include me in the body, but were sent from someone who I do NOT follow with device updates (see number one above). These are tweets I will might want to respond to right away. This is where Twitter’s “track” feature comes into play. I simply send the phrase “track djbyron” from my device (cell phone or IM) and now i won’t miss a tweet that contains my username. Below is a screenshot of sending the command via IM but you can do the same thing using SMS/Text Messaging. (You would obviously substitute “djbyron” with your own username.)

Oh did I mention that I LOVE Skitch! Makes doing screenshots like this so easy.

Comments
Read More