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Printer Tweet 10: Finding Some Local Friends

Now you’re on Twitter and tweeting like the pros, but how do you develop a following. This involves a little reaching out. Granted people will find you without you having to go find them, but finding them first speeds up the process.

The first thing I tell anyone to do that is looking for more followers is to follow some local twitterers. You would be suprised how many people are using Twitter in your area. Following local people is great because it gives you something to talk about and connects you to a local channel of communicatio0n you never knew existed.

How can I find local people on Twitter? 

The answer lies in a website called TwitterLocal.

First thing you are going to do is put in your zip code. You can enter a zip code or a City/State combo however I would reccomend the zipcode to keep things simple.

TwitterLocal will then provide you with three different links; “View the latest tweets right now”, “RSS” or and “XML feed”. For the purposes of finding people and friending them we are going to click on “View the latest tweets right now”.

On the left handside you will see a list of the “Top Tweeters Here”. You should proceed to check out each local twitter profile and friend them if you are satisified with their profile. I prefer an “open in new tab” strategy for mass friending.

This is something you need only do once and maybe check to see if there is anyone new every once and awhile. I chose to friend everyone within a permiter of my office as well as my home. Connecting with your local section of Twitterville is an important step in “plugging in”. So if you’re in the Amesbury area why not send us a tweet and we’ll do lunch.

This post is part of the Magicomm series “Printer Tweet Tips“. To keep up to date on other posts in this series, don’t forget to subscribe to the blog feed.

Printer Tweet 9: Automating Your Tweets

Twitter’s API allows for information to be sent to your Twitter account without ever logging in. This is handy when using other status update type sites that you would also like posted on twitter. Here are a few examples of the more popular sites being used.

BrightKite

BrightKite is a location-based version of Twitter that supports images uploads. It’s a great way to find out who’s tweeting nearby. You can set up BrightKite so that it will send links to your BrightKite posts in real time. One thing you might want to change in your setting is to only update your Twitter when making a status update or image. The default sends an update to Twitter every time you update your location which can get repetitive.

12Seconds.tv

If you get bored with posting your text and image updates, why not move on to video. 12Seconds.tv is the video equivalent of Twitter with a great community. There are even third party applications that display 12 seconds videos found in the Twitter stream.

Ping.fm

Ping.fm lets you post everywhere. There was a point in time where I used this to update all of my status services at the same time; Plurk, identica, Twitter.

TwitterFeed

TwitterFeed is an easy way to Tweet your newest blog posts without having to remember how to be personal. Don’t get me wrong, I think this is a great service, but it is definitely abused. If you do decide to hook up your blog, remember, people are looking to connect to YOU … not your blog.

This post is part of the Magicomm series “Printer Tweet Tips“. To keep up to date on other posts in this series, don’t forget to subscribe to the blog feed.

Printer Tweet 8: Hash Tags

Hash tags are a means of organizing conversations around events, holidays, ideas, webinars and the list goes on. Anything you would like to have an organized conversation about could have it’s own hash tag.

Anyone can create their own hash tag by simply placing a # before their tag. For example, during Graph Expo, Rick Littrell started the hash tag #graphexpo. This allowed other people on Twitter at Graph Expo to find each other as well as everyone who was not at the expo to follow what was going on.

There are several sites available to help track conversations with hash tags. HashTags.org is a site specifically designed to organize and display conversations with hash tags. I personally use Twitter Search or Twemes as they sometimes seem faster.

This post is part of the Magicomm series “Printer Tweet Tips“. To keep up to date on other posts in this series, don’t forget to subscribe to the blog feed.