Four things You Probably Don't Know About Twitter
10
on April 28, 2010
Here are four things I found out about Twitter that aren’t immediately obvious, so hopefully they may be of use to you too.
1) Link stats
Because of the 140 character limit, URLs you post on Twitter are usually shortened. The default URL shortener in Tweetdeck is bit.ly. So the short URL for my last post is http://bit.ly/ac4GWn.
Here’s where it gets interesting. Add a + to the end of the URL so it becomes http://bit.ly/ac4GWn+ and you get a page with click statistics as well as info on who re-tweeted it.
2) Eat less spam
If you follow a lot of people, you’ll get a lot of spammy direct messages (DMs). You can actually massively reduce these spam DMs.
A lot of them come via the SocialOomph platform and they kindly allow you to opt out. Instructions here.
I’ve read lots about the other big “offender”, SocialToo offering a way to opt out from their platform too, but it all seems to be out of date and I can’t find a way to opt out from them.
3) You haven’t been hacked
When a Twitter account is compromised and you find your account is sending spam DM’s and tweets you didn’t write, people tend to assume someone has somehow got their password.
This isn’t usually the case and changing your password will have no effect. The actual culprit is usually rogue third-party applications that you’ve authorised to access your account. If you try lots of different Twitter tools that are out there then you’re more likely to fall foul of this.
All you need to do is go to twitter.com and log in to your account. then click “Settings” in the menu at the top-right and go to the “Connections” tab. You’ll see a list of applications that are authorised to access your account. Revoke access for any you don’t use any more.
4) I know you’re looking for a new job
When you add a tweet to your favourites, every one can see it. Your list of favourite tweets is exposed to the world so be careful what you add there.
For instance, a journalist I follow “favourited” a tweet advertising a job. If I were his employer I’d be raising an eyebrow!
Are any of the above new to you? If so click the “Tweet this” button below and spread the knowledge.
Got any thing to add to the list? Use the comments section below.
10 Responses to Four things You Probably Don't Know About Twitter
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Informative post Duane. May I add a comment about Bit.ly and Tweetdeck? You are best to sign up for a bit.ly account and click on “Account” and pick up for API key to put into your Tweetdeck settings. You can then collate all your bit.ly links together in one spot, share and Tweet directly from bit.ly if the mood takes you! :) There is also a handy bit.ly sidbar tool for you to add as well. Emma
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I like the third party tool Hootsuite which allows you to schedule twitter messages for future times.
I was constantly running into issues where I’d send a barrage of tweets when I was not in a meeting then my feed would go silent the rest of the day.
Now I schedule them throughout the day – and Hootsuite has tracking built into their URL shortener as well so that I can see which are most popular.
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I like the bitly sidebar, very informative follow up and good preview of your posts to Twitter, but not how it handles a facebook post, I use the Bookmarklet “Share on FB” for that, bc it captures and shares images related to the post. I did try tweetdeck way back when but found it too inflexible for what i wanted to achieve.
Have just started my Hootsuite yesterday so will see how it goes!
Have you tried Cadmus for sorting and tracking the peeps you follow, with individualized trending etc.? It has limitations too but it has been fun exploring!
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Simple and great pointers Duane.
Thanks for sharing
Glad to retweet for you~
@AlFerretti
http://twitterwatchdog.com -
Daniel Sitek
I just want to say for point 3.
Unfortunately, there are some third-party applications which don’t work like you said. Some applications usually for money making use your own name and pass for sending messages.
So if you joint there and setup your name and pass, you will not be able to abort it from twitter settings.Well one time i told myself to try some of these tool becauce what if it can work, lol, that wad my idiocy :-D
so beware of it. :-) -
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Really good points, remember seeing this last year and not thinking much about it, but prolific Twitter use changes your thoughts (and to a certain extent scrambles your brain and hurts your eyes!).
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See what all the fuss is about
One thing I find really useful is the ability to turn off certain people’s retweets. Go to your prolific retweeter’s profile page, and click the little green retweet button just under their name (toggles their retweets on and off).
There’s a few more interesting Twitter tips on my blog at http://www.fiftydigital.com/blog/2010/03/10-twitter-dos-and-donts which your readers might find useful.