Twitter Shortcuts

There is no way around it, so let’s face it: Twitter is one of the top social media in the world! If you don’t have a clue what tweeps or hashtags are, then this article is NOT for you. However, if you have been using Twitter for a while and you want to improve your way of working with its interface, you’ll find several Twitter Shortcuts right here!

The Genius Shortcut to remember them all is “?”. When you have logged yourself into Twitter, regardless of on which page you are, just press ? See what happens…you will get the overview I am providing you below 🙂

To be honest, I am not using this interface myself, because I was not a fan of the Twitter interface before. A lot has changed in the last 12 months and I might reconsider if I hadn’t discovered HootSuite. If you want to know more about HootSuite, read this. Back to Twitter now. A lot of people have been asking me to tell them these Twitter Shortcuts, so time to share the Twitter Shortcuts with you. There are 3 categories : Actions, Navigation and Timelines. Of course, I’ll share a couple of extra hidden Twitter Shortcuts too 🙂

Actions
f : favorite
r : reply
t : retweet
m : direct message
n : new Tweet
enter : toggle details pane

Navigation
? : overview of the Twitter Shortcuts
j : next Tweet
k : previous Tweet
space : page down
/ : search
. : refresh Tweets and back to top

Timelines
g h : home
g r : replies / mentions
g p : profile
g f : favorites
g m : messages
g u : go to user

Hidden (= not mentioned on the overview)

Enter : to drill down into or close a selected tweet
Escape : to cancel a compose window, dismiss the help window
Shift+Space : to page up
. : to go to the top of the page

Have fun with Twitter! And if you need another hand, just find me and dare to ask : @bertverdonck

HootSuite.com

You are desperately looking for a tool that helps you manage multiple Twitter accounts? Or you want to add another layer on Ping.fm? Or you want to follow up the feed of your friends or colleagues? Or you might be interested in following certain keywords or hashtags on Twitter?

Then, HootSuite is the perfect Twitter tool for you! I’ve using this tool now for more than 1 year and I can honestly say : Wow! Hootsuite rocks! Of course, we all know Tweetdeck and the like, but I tell you, HootSuite has some particular additional assets that might suit you as well!

Like what?

1. Handling multiple Twitter accounts. I personally am using 4.
2. Direct integration with Facebook, Facebook Page, MySpace, LinkedIn, Foursquare and WordPress!
3. Integration with Ping.fm (therefor with a wide variety of social media . Read more about Ping.fm!)
4. URLshortener ow.ly : Instead of posting your long web addresses, it provides you a build in URL shortener.
5. Easy to track the number of clicks and get statistical overviews of how people are using your Twitter-account
6. Ability to schedule tweets. I stopped using Tweetlater/Socialoomph.
7. Link up to 5 RSS feeds to your HootSuite account
8. You can have multiple people managing your HootSuite accounts. Very interesting for business accounts! Oh, assigning tasks included!
9. There’s an iPhone and Android version available too
10. Did I mention it is a FREE tool? Of course, I invite you be generous and donate to the developers.

You see, 10 great reasons for using HootSuite. Even if only 1 or 2 fit your situation, it’s probably more effective than your current way of working (if you are doing everything manually!).

So, after Ping.fm and now this HootSuite, there are no more excuses left for not updating your status on any Social Media! And keep me posted too 🙂

Have fun, always,

Bert

Ping.fm

Are you spending too much time on updating all your Social Media? Are you also finding it really ridiculous to update your Facebook, Twitter, Plaxo, MySpace and LinkedIn status one at a time?

There must be a shortcut, right? Ping.fm is the Genius Shortcut you are looking for! Ping.fm is active in the social network aggregation space and lets you update your status on several sites at once.

I sometimes get remarks from friends that I am so active on Facebook while it has been nearly 2 weeks since I went there…but because my status is updated regularly, most people think I am present and following up in (nearly) realtime. So, now you know that I am using tools on top of those platforms to stay up-to-date and of course I an saving heaps of time!

So, how does Ping.fm actually work? Easy, let me explain in 3 steps:

1. Go to Ping.fm and sing up for an account.

2. Login and add the various Social Media or platforms you want your status to be updated. This is also called “syndication” of your status. You can actually choose from more than 30 sites, including WordPress, Blogger, Typepad, Yammer, Posterous, Flickr and Delicious!

3. Start broadcasting your updates!

Of course, I need to give you a disadvantage as well : Ping.fm was created with the idea that people want to get their updates out. It is not a tool to follow up on the conversation that happens afterwards. There are other tools perfectly suitable for that (one of the next blogs 🙂 )!

I am aware that several tools are providing similar services as Ping.fm. Hellotxt.com and AOL Lifestream to name a few.

So, what are you waiting for to update all your Social Networks at once?

Twitter Search Tips

Twitter is a wonderful tool and platform to share your message. We all know that! What most people don’t know is that Twitter has a magnificent search engine. Almost everyone (including me) is using Google, but if you want the latest trends or events, you’d better use Twitter. Why? Twitter is a real time search engine, while Google indexes everything and that takes time, sometimes up to 6 weeks before a site is included in Google. So, if you are looking for live input on a certain event, Twitter is more likely to find it.

In order to help you find stuff quicker, I am sharing a number of Twitter Search Tips with you. How does it work?
You first go to http://search.twitter.com. Of course, if you just want to use the regular search, you can type in your keywords and find anything right-away! Now, it becomes even more interesting if you would use the advanced search. Here is an overview if you want to use advanced search operators:

Operator	Finds tweets…
Genius Shortcut	containing both “Genius” and “Shortcut”. This is the default operator.
“happy hour“	containing the exact phrase “happy hour”.
black OR white	containing either “black” or “white” (or both).
Belgian –beer	containing “Belgian” but not “beer”.
#ff	containing the hashtag “ff” (followfriday, interesting people to follow as indicated by others).
from:bertverdonck	sent from person “bertverdonck”.
to:bertverdonck	sent to person “bertverdonck”.
@bertverdonck	referencing person “bertverdonck”.
“happy hour” near:“London”	containing the exact phrase “happy hour” and sent near “London”.
near:London within:15mi	sent within 15 miles of “London”.
lifehack since:2010-03-26	containing “lifehack” and sent since date “2010-03-26” (year-month-day).
lifehack until:2010-03-26	containing “lifehack” and sent up to date “2010-03-26”.
movie -twilight 🙂	containing “movie”, but not “twilight”, and with a positive attitude.
movie 😦	containing “movie” and with a negative attitude.
fun ?	containing “fun” and asking a question.
fun filter:links	containing “fun” and linking to URLs.
news source:twitterfeed	containing “news” and entered via TwitterFeed

Additional easy Twitter Search Tips:

1. Click on the Advanced Search link and save yourself from typing the operators!
2. If you want to search in a different language, use the language switch in the advanced search : “Written in:” and choose your language in the dropdownbox.
3. If you specifically want to search for retweets or you don’t mind that retweets are shown in the search results, then check the box: Include Retweets.

If you want extra Twitter Search Tips, you know where to find me 🙂

PackageTrack

Ok, I admit, a lot of new applications are created every day. Also for Twitter. Instead of flooding you with another Top 10 or Top 100 or whatever, I decided to share this Genius Shortcut with you. PackageTrack is a very practical (business) application using Twitter. Track your UPS, FedEx, and USPS packages via Twitter! How cool is that?

How does it work?

1.  Follow PackageTrack on Twitter (@packagetrack), within a few minutes PackageTrack will begin following you.
2. You can now “Direct Message” PackageTrack with the nickname and tracking code, separated by a “:”, eg. “Amazon Books: 23345631243” of a package you would like to track.

Currently PackageTrack only tracks UPS, FedEx, and USPS packages (also internationally), but they will be adding more carriers shortly. Also they have integreated with Google Maps to provide route mapping for packages. Now you’ll see a friendly little map link as part of your package’s status messages. Currently, the map only displays the packages history for as long as it has been in the system. Excellent!

Any other interesting business apps via Twitter you like? Let us know!

Twitter Time

Twitter is truly going global these days. If we look at the rate they are growing. Amazing! What’s happening?

Many startups, like StockTwits, are basing their entire company on Twitter’s infrastructure. StockTwits is an open, community-powered investment idea and information service. Just eavesdrop on what other traders and investors are talking about in real time.

Recently Twitter grew at an incredible rate. As the graph of comScore shows, Twitter increased 95 percent in the month of March from 9.8 million to 19.1 million.

You also probably heard of Ashton Kutcher’s stunt on getting 1 million followers on Twitter? If you want to follow him too, he’s now at 1.3 million followers 🙂 By the way, mrs Kutcher (Demi Moore) is attracting people herself with 750K followers! Also a must read is Simon Dumenco’s article. He’s putting things in the right perspective.

What probably made the biggest difference is the appearance of Oprah (@Oprah) on Twitter (16th April). Read Heather Hopkins’ article on the Oprah Effect on Hitwise. Or is it coincidence that Twitter made it in the Top 40 most visited websites by Australians, according to Alan Long.

And then there is the Cisco Fatty or how to ruin a “Fatty Cisco Job” with 1 tweet. You must of heard of it by now, right?

Anyway, let’s share a great comic byNitrozac & Snaggy (Joyof Tech)

Oh, if you were still wondering where to find me, I am also on Twitter : http://twitter.com/bertverdonck

I know, I don’t have Ashton’s number of followers (yet), but fun in progress 🙂

Enjoy your weekend,

Bert Verdonck
Lifehacker & Life Coach

Is Gawkk “Twitter for Videos”?

We all know Twitter, right? Twitter is a micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users’ updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length. Just to make sure you know 🙂 Oh, by the way, you can also follow me on Twitter via http://twitter.com/bertverdonck if you like.

Twitter has its limitations, because it’s text only. Gawkk seems to become the  “Twitter for Videos”. It was launched by Gary Culliss and Thomas Mango.

What is it? Gawkk.com is like a “Twitter for videos” where you can discover, share and discuss videos from around the web with your friends and followers by answering one simple question: What are you watching?

To start a conversation, Gawkk incorporates video from thousands of media sources across the Internet, but you also can add a video from any website and then share and discuss it with your friends and followers on Gawkk.  By combining a powerful video discovery engine with a social messaging platform, Gawkk provides a simple and effective resource for finding and discussing the most interesting videos from around the web.

So, Gawkk seems like the video shortcut you’ve been waiting for 🙂 Gone are the days of scrolling, searching videos on all those platforms like YouTube.

I hope you like it too and let me know what you are watching, ok? 🙂

Have fun, always,

Bert Verdonck
Lifehacker & Life Coach