Twitter Tools
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I have to admit I’m a little behind the times when it comes to blogging . . . and well fashion and hairstyles, but I digress. I just came back from the BlogWorldExpo and I’m convinced I’m the only blogger on the planet who doesn’t own a laptop. However, I learned from a few of my fellow Sparkplugging writers, I’m not the only one who seems to be missing the boat on Twitter. (No, Jessica! I absolutely do not mean you . . . you Twitter phenom! You really do know something I need to know!)
That said I’ve researched a few tools to help me on Twitter.
Tools? You mean like a Blackberry?
No, I don’t have one of those either. I am thinking of investing in a cell phone though.
Just kidding! I’m not completely in the dark ages.
What I mean is that I need help keeping up with Twitter. It overwhelms me. There’s just so many tweets! My head starts to spin when I try and keep track of who is talking to whom. So like anything I do, I need to get organized. That’s why I was happy to discover TweetDeck and Crowdstatus. (While these tools may be old news to some of you, I suspect some of my fellow newbies haven’t heard of them.)
With both Tweetdeck and Crowdstatus, you can organize the people you follow into groups. That way it’s more manageable to keep up with the conversation. For example, I created a group in Tweetdeck of all the people who write for Sparkplugging.com. Not only does this group help me keep up with the conversation, it makes me more inclined to join the conversation. Which, you know, IS THE WHOLE POINT OF TWITTER! Thus my problem to date. I’ve been sitting on the sidelines. Watching from afar. Lurking. It’s not that I haven’t tried jumping in, but like a Sparkplugging friend shared, when I did and got no response it felt like the entire table of cool kids in the cafeteria stopped talking and got up and left! Clearly, I have issues from high school!
Speaking of high school, I also found a site that tells you what grade you have on Twitter. Not that you can flunk out of Twitter! But TwitterGrader.com can tell you how you’re doing with it. Specifically, it reviews your profile, who’s following you, how often you update and calculates a grade and a ranking for you. Considering my ignorance with Twitter, I was pleasantly surprised I received a passing grade! Well, barely. I received a grade of 69 and a ranking of 9,621 out of 32,777. Could be worse! But now that I’ve created small discussion groups for myself, I’m sure I’ll get a B in Twitter 101 in no time!
If there are more Twitter tools, please share them with me! I need all the help I can get.
Shannon Hutton draws on her experience working full-time, part-time and from home with three kids to blog about the universal challenge of achieving work-life balance. She also uses her Master's in Education and professional experience as a School Counselor to address parenting and school issues in her weekly 
Shannon, you rock. I’m not the only person who learned a thing or two at BlogWorld. I didn’t know about these tools but I’m checking them out now.
Had a Twitter revelation today: I feel like I’ve had the mute button on Twitter for months. Talking but no one can hear me. Now I turned the button off and wow! People respond!
Susan Payton, The Marketing Eggsperts last blog post..BlogWorld 08 Was Amazing. Flat Out.
Shannon - As a fellow Twitter noob, I’d love it if you would let us know about more tools like this. Anything that makes social media less overwhelming would be awesome in my book!
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