Twitter Tips, Tricks, and Tweets, 2nd Edition
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More About This Title Twitter Tips, Tricks, and Tweets, 2nd Edition

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Maximize your fun and boost your productivity with this updated, full-color guide to tantalizing Twitter tips!

The popularity of Twitter continues to soar, and is fast becoming the most popular social networking site online. Whether you're looking to learn how to set up an account for the first time or are on the prowl for some cool third-party Twitter apps, this full-color guide will boost your entire Twitter experience.

Allowing you to communicate with fellow Twitters within a 140-character limit, this fun and fascinating social networking tool is easier than maintaining a blog and quicker than sending an e-mail or text. With these tips, tricks, and tweets, you'll stay in the know and up to date on anything and everything you find interesting.

Explores the newest Twitter features, including the new re-tweet feature, which adds a re-tweet button to each tweet on a person's timeline, much like the sites current "reply" buttonDiscusses Twitter's new search widget, which is more sophisticated and preciseShows how to use the just-announced Geolocation API, which adds location-based information to tweetsExplains how to tweet from mobile devicesShows how to add Twitter to a blog or to other social networking sites such as FacebookOffers ideas for using Twitter in business as well as for personal contactsCovers Twitter terminology and provides helpful tips and tricks for expanding Twitter's usefulness through third-party applications

Explore the possibilities of Twitter and discover what the buzz is all about with this tremendously terrific guide to Twitter!

English

paul_mcfedries (@paulmcf) is a technical writer and programmer. He has written more than 70 books that have sold more than 3 million copies worldwide.

English

Acknowledgments xi

Foreword xii

Introduction xxii

Chapter 1: How Do I Get Started with Twitter? 2

Setting Up Your Very Own Twitter Account 4

Signing In to Your Twitter Account 6

Viewing Twitter’s Current Status 7

Changing Your Twitter Password 10

Resetting Your Twitter Password 11

Deleting Your Twitter Account 12

Chapter 2: What Can I Do to Customize My Twitter Profile? 14

Filling In Your Profile Details 16

Setting Your Twitter Picture 18

Applying a Theme to Your Profile 19

Selecting a Background Image 20

Using a solid-color background 21

Selecting a custom background image 22

Background photo challenges 23

Using a background image to tell people more about yourself 27

Overcoming background problems with tiling images 29

Choosing Your Profile’s Colors 29

Stopping Twitter from Sending New Follower Messages 31

Chapter 3: How Do I Send Tweets? 32

Sending a Tweet 34

Sending a tweet using the Twitter site 35

Tips for managing the 140-character limit 36

Typing nonstandard characters in Twitter 37

Notes on tweet etiquette 38

Adding hashtags to create a tweet topic 39

Working with Your Tweets 40

Deleting a tweet 40

Adding a tweet to your favorites 42

Making your tweets private 43

Downloading All Your Tweets 44

Working with Mentions and Direct Messages Sent to You 47

Viewing tweets that mention you 47

Viewing direct messages sent to you 48

Getting an e-mail when you receive a direct message 49

Chapter 4: How Do I Follow Other Twitter Users? 50

Finding People 52

Finding people with Twitter accounts 52

Finding someone on another network 52

Inviting someone to join Twitter 54

Tracking FollowFriday recommendations 55

Following People 56

Following someone on Twitter 56

Following Twitter’s suggested users 57

Understanding verified accounts 58

Following a person’s updates via RSS 59

Following people who follow you 60

Following someone who is following you 60

Automatically following someone who follows you 61

Downloading your friends’ tweets 62

Stop following someone on Twitter 63

Replying, Retweeting, and Direct Messaging 63

Replying to a tweet 64

Sending a reply to all your followers 65

Retweeting an update 66

Viewing your retweets 69

Sending a direct message to someone 70

Configuring direct message e-mails 71

Working with the People You Follow 72

Checking out a person’s updates 72

Preventing a person’s retweets from appearing in your timeline 72

Viewing your friends’ retweets 73

Viewing your tweets that have been retweeted 75

Blocking a tweeter 75

Taking Advantage of Twitter Lists 76

Following a list 77

Creating a list 78

Working with Twitter Bots 80

Receiving a reminder message 80

Querying the Internet Movie Database 81

Getting a map 82

Translating text into another language 82

Getting a weather forecast 83

Returning Amazon data 83

Keeping up with the bots 84

Chapter 5: Can I Use Twitter on My Mobile Phone? 86

Understanding Twitter’s Mobile Phone Feature 88

Considering text message fees 88

Non-SMS Twitter alternatives 89

Twitter’s phone numbers 90

Activating Your Mobile Phone 91

Sending an Update from Your Mobile Phone 92

Sending an update from your mobile phone as text 93

Sending an update using Twitter’s mobile Web site 94

Sending an update from your mobile phone as e-mail 95

Sending a reply from your mobile phone 98

Sending a direct message from your mobile phone 99

Protecting your updates with a PIN number 100

Following Twitterers on Your Mobile Phone 101

Following a person from your mobile phone 101

Receiving a person’s tweets on your mobile phone 102

Marking an update as a favorite from your mobile phone 103

Retrieving a profile on your mobile phone 104

Stopping a person’s updates on your mobile phone 105

Receiving only direct messages on your mobile phone 105

Stopping all updates on your mobile phone 106

Sending a Twitter invitation from your mobile phone 107

Getting your Twitter stats on your mobile phone 108

A Summary of Twitter’s Text Commands 108

Tools for Managing Twitter from Your Mobile Phone 109

Mobile phone applications for Twitter 110

Twitter for iPhone 110

TweetDeck 110

Twitter for Blackberry 112

TinyTwitter 113

More mobile 115

Mobile phone Web sites for Twitter 116

Dabr 116

Hahlo 117

More mobile phone sites for Twitter 118

Chapter 6: How Do I Find Stuff in Twitter? 120

Running a Basic Search 122

Real-time search results 123

Performing Advanced Searches 124

Performing an advanced word search 125

Searching for tweets that include a phrase 126

Searching for tweets that include multiple words 127

Searching for tweets that include one word or another 127

Searching for tweets that exclude a word 128

Running an advanced people search 129

Searching for tweets from a person 129

Searching for replies to a person 130

Searching for tweets that mention a person 131

Filtering tweets by hashtag 132

Searching for tweets by location 133

Finding tweets by date 134

Locating tweets that contain links 136

Adding Twitter Search to Your Web Browser 137

Adding Twitter Search to Internet Explorer 137

Adding Twitter Search to Firefox 139

Working with Search Results 140

Using a feed to monitor search results 141

Sending your search results as a tweet 142

Twitter Search Engines and Tools 142

Bing 143

Google 144

Tweet Scan 147

Twitterfall 148

TweetGrid 148

Monitter 150

TweetBeep 150

Twemes 151

AskTwitR 152

BackTweets 154

TweetVolume 154

Chapter 7: Where Can I Display My Twitter Feed? 156

Adding Twitter Bling to Your Web Site 158

Adding a Twitter link to your Web site 158

Creating a text link 158

Creating a Twitter badge link 158

Displaying a badge that shows your total followers 160

Adding a “Tweet This” link to your Web site 162

Adding the Twitter Application to Your Facebook Profile 165

Inserting the Twitter Flash Widget on Your MySpace Page 168

Displaying Your Twitter Updates on Your Blogger Site 172

Including Your Tweets on Your TypePad Blog 175

Adding the Twitter widget automatically 175

Adding the Twitter widget by hand 177

Adding a Twitter Widget to Your Site 178

Adding Twitter’s Flash widget to your site 179

Adding Twitter’s HTML widget to your site 180

Adding Twitter’s Profile, Search, Faves, or List widget to your site 182

Chapter 8: How Can I Take Twitter to the Next Level? 184

Twittering on the Desktop: Twitter Clients 186

Raising your Twitter game with TweetDeck 186

Getting started with TweetDeck 187

Configuring the TweetDeck window 190

Filtering tweets 192

Monitoring a search 193

Controlling Twitter with Seesmic Desktop 194

Giving Seesmic Desktop a whirl 195

Setting up your Twitter accounts 195

Working with tweets 196

Posting a tweet 197

Navigating Seesmic Desktop 198

Twittering on the Web: Twitter Web Sites 199

Seesmic Web 199

Brizzly 200

iTweet 201

Tweetree 203

Tweetvisor 205

Working with Twitter Gadgets and Widgets 206

Adding a Twitter gadget to your Windows Sidebar or Desktop 206

Adding a Twitter widget to your Mac Dashboard 208

Adding a Twitter gadget to your iGoogle page 209

Displaying tweets in Firefox 210

Chapter 9: What Tools Can I Use to Extend Twitter? 214

Shortening URLs 216

Sharing Photos, Videos, and Music 219

Sharing photos 220

Using TwitPic 220

Other photo-sharing services 222

Sharing videos 223

Sharing music 224

Posting to Multiple Social Networks 226

Getting started with Ping.fm 227

Getting your Ping.fm application key 228

Configuring twhirl to use Ping.fm 229

Posting with Ping.fm 229

You Are There: Geotagging Your Tweets 230

Enabling geotagging in your Twitter profile 231

Playing with some geotagging tools 232

Deleting your location data 235

Connecting to Third-Party Twitter Applications 235

Connecting using OAuth 236

Revoking access 237

More Twitter Tools to Play With 238

Scheduling tweets 238

Following Twitter trends 240

Tracking tweets by location 241

Getting your Twitter account ranking 242

Displaying your latest tweet on a photo 243

Tweeting events to your Google calendar 244

Integrating your Twitter account with LinkedIn 245

Using LinkedIn to track tweets about your company 245

Adding a link to your Twitter account on your LinkedIn profile 245

Send your blog feed to Twitter 246

Glossary 248

Index 253

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