Twitter is not the latest in blogging but until recently I didn’t gave it much thought , but after seing the potential of Twitter in the Thirty Day Challenge I think I’m going to put some effort into building a following in Twitter. Twitter is a tricky thing , if not used properly it has the potential to be a huge time waster. But luckily there are Twitter Tools out there that makes tweeting more efficient and productive thing. Before going on to talk about Twitter Tools I have to mention that following 400-500 people in the hope that they will follow you back is not the way to go. People are not foolish and when they see that you are following 400-500 people they will realise that you are following them not out of genuine interest but just so that you will follow them back. So follow people you are really interested in following. Now to Twitter Tools that save your time.
Twhirl
The below image better explains the functionality available in Twhirl.
Twhirl in action
As you can see Tweets , directe messages and replies are different colors so you can find them easily. Also there are buttons at the bottom so you can easily navigate between them. And once you move the mouse over the picture you get options to send a direct message , favorite the tweet , reply or retweet. Also every time you get a new update a small notification message appears so you can tend to the urgent tweets quickly. And there’s url shortening button as well ,a great way to keep in touch with your fellow Tweeters without refreshing the browser all day 
. Download Twhirl .
TweetMyBlog
A Wordpress plug-in that adds a Tweet every time you add a new post in your blog with a link to the blog post.It takes care of shortening the url and you can specify the text that should be displayed with the Tweet. Although its alright to accompany a text message like “check out my latest post” every time you adds a new blog post it want increase the click through rate. If you have time its always better to say “check out my post about Adsense” or “check out my thoughts about Yahoo Buzz etc.” Download TweetMyBlog or find out more about TweetMyBlog.
At the moment these are the only Twitter tools I’m using and they are saving me a lot of time. If you are using some other tool and you think that has more functionality feel free to share them in the comments section. Now that you have the tools follow me on Twitter .
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People need to stop thinking of Twitter as a “micro-blogging” service, and start looking at it like a platform, or operating system. I have blogged a ton about Twitter lately on my blog. Everyday, I think of (and learn of) new ways to use Twitter (I just posted about some NEW ways that businesses can use Twitter)
VOIP? Phweep
Find out about a Start-up (funding…founder,etc) send a Tweet to @cbbot . Want to cheat at scrabble? @ wordbot
Just today, Mozilla announced Ubiquity that will work with Twitter. There are already a few hundred applications that are utilizing the Twitter app. Everone, and every business can benifit from Twitter. Take your blog as an example … By simply using twitterfeed, anyone in Twitterville can automatically learn of your new posts (It posts the URL and a brief summation as a Tweet).
http://www.afpr.com
http://www.twitter.com/A_F