I have been using Facebook and LinkedIn for several years now. I recently started trying to use Twitter. I could not get into using Twitter because had to open another webpage just to tweet. I stated seeing others update their status via TweetDeck, so I thought I would check it out.
I really like it!
What is TweetDeck
The website states, “TweetDeck is your personal real-time browser, connecting you with your contacts across Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Google Buzz and more.”
Basically it is a consolidation tool to view and update all your social networks from one place. Awesome!
TweetDeck is available for iPhone and iPad or for a Mac, Linux or PC Desktop. Since I do not have an iPhone or iPad (read lots of tears), I am using the Desktop version on a PC.
Viewing Social Updates on TweetDeck
TweetDeck creates a column for each social network that I want to display. I can choose wide or narrow columns depending on how much I want to see at one time.
I display my Full News feed from Facebook, my Network Updates from LinkedIn and my All Friends feeds from my two Twitter accounts. There are a lot more options but this is all I need for now.
The the updates are displayed cleanly and are easy to read. I find it much easier to follow what is happening in real time now.
You can also view friend profiles just by clicking on their name in an update. You can set an option to view profiles inside a new column in TweetDeck or outside in your default browser. It will also display pictures in a window when a friend uploads pictures. This is cool!
Updating My Status on TweetDeck
TweetDeck allows me to easily set my status on all of my networks at once or I can choose to set them individually. This is smartly done by clicking on or off each network that you want to update. This is very easy and probably my favorite part.
It knows to limit Twitter tweets to 140 characters but if I want to update just Facebook it does not limit me by characters.
TweetDeck will automatically shorten links for me. It uses Bit.ly by default but it has several other options. It allows input of my Bit.ly API key so I can track my shortened links – very nice!
TweetDeck says it allows upload of pictures and video but I have not tried this yet.
My New Favorite Social Network Tool
TweetDeck is now my new favorite social network tool. Instead of opening Facebook first thing in the morning, I open TweetDeck. I am now a full-fledged tweeter and micro-blogger, thanks to TweetDeck.
The version of TweetDeck I am using at post time is v0.34.3 which means it is still in Beta testing. I can’t wait to see what improvements come in the full release.
If you are frustrated with trying to keep up with all the social networks, I recommend checking TweetDeck out.
Happy tweeting!
Hey – Let me know if you have any other social networking tool recommendations!
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