Twitter Tools and News

First of all, I’d like to give a huge shout-out the Grabill Library Branch of the ACPL who were featured in a talk that Jessamyn West  gave on 11/8/07 called What Works: More My Library, Less MySpace. If you look on slide #32, you will see a screen capture of their Grabill Branch Library blog, that shows how they successfully use the Twitter stream to promote their branch.  Way to go!

Also, thanks to David Lee King for writing about The Big Juicy Twitter Guide by Caroline Middlebrook.  This is a great online guide about everything Twitter, with an emphasis on how it can be used to market your product or services.  Which is exactly how Grabill Branch of the ACPL is using it!  Here is a brief overview: “I have tried to present a complete picture of Twitter and show techniques / tools / guidelines for Twitter usage for all kinds of people”.

And last, but not least, here is an email newsletter that I received from Biz Stone and the Twitter Team that I thought I would share since it has lots of great Twitter info.

Hello Twitter-ers,

There have been raging wildfires and rumbling earthquakes
inspiring avalanches of Twitter updates over the last few weeks
out here on the West Coast of the US. In Tumultuous times, people
turn to Twitter. In fact, there’s been a steep increase in the
number of SMS and IM devices activated recently. This is probably
due to the Track feature which allows folks to follow keywords or
phrases in real time. Is your phone activated?

Activate: http://twitter.com/devices

Do You Owe Someone A Beer?

Foamee.com is a fun IOU system built on Twitter that helps you
track who you owe beers to (and vice versa). All you have to do is
follow the account “ioubeer” and then send it @replies. So, say
you owe me a beer for helping you change a flat tire, this is what
you’d send to Twitter:

@ioubeer @biz for helping me change that flat tire

Then, your IOU will show up on the front page at foamee.com.
There’s even a way to tell it when that beer has been redeemed.
I think a root beer version is in the works. Maybe even a latte
version? Those are foamy too. Dan Cederholm of SimpleBits design
is the mastermind behind this fanciful creation. We think it’s
really cool. Thanks Dan, we owe you a frosty one!

Visit: http://foamee.com
Follow: http://twitter.com/ioubeer
More: http://simplebits.com

Other Cool Stuff

Foamee is part of a growing list of interesting applications that
interact with Twitter. Jott, for example, has created a way to
send a Twitter update by speaking into your phone–your voice gets
converted to text and sent out to all your followers. This is a
much safer solution for people who insist on updating Twitter when
their attention is required elsewhere–like driving!

Twitter by Voice: http://jott.com
More Twitter Apps: http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Apps

Featured Twitter-ers

We have a sidebar on the Twitter public timeline page where we
occasionally mention accounts you might want to follow. For
example, during the San Diego wildfires, KPBS News, LAFD, and the
LA Times had important live updates. The following accounts are
less of an emergency situation but interesting, nevertheless.

SkinnyJeans is wondering if Twitter can help her lose 10 pounds.
http://twitter.com/skinnyjeans

Jamie Kennedy is experimenting with Twitter.
http://twitter.com/jamiekennedy

Maureen is serving up a steady stream of tiny recipes.
http://twitter.com/cookbook

Sara Bareilles is sharing the details of her budding career.
http://twitter.com/SaraBareilles

On the subject of emergencies, that earthquake we had recently in
Northern California was highly Twittered. This blogger captured a
lot of the action: http://tinyurl.com/2xv5el Also, if you’re a
Bay Area resident you might want to follow the updates of this
profile http://twitter.com/SFSurfrider regarding the recent oil
spill in San Francisco Bay.

Twitter on the Mobile Web

In case you didn’t know, Twitter has a mobile web site that you
can access from your phone’s web browser at m.twitter.com. Twitter
developer Britt Selvitelle has been quietly improving the site
recently. It’s a great way to check out what people are up to when
you’re waiting for a bus or taking the subway home from work.
Britt’s Twitter profile is http://twitter.com/bs in case you want
to @ioubeer @bs for making the mobile site!

Happy Twittering!
-Biz Stone and the Twitter Team
http://twitter.com/biz

~Susan Mellott