Why I’m in Love with TweetDeck!

I have to admit it. I have a new love. Please don’t tell my husband–although I think he suspects it. He has noticed my flirtations and even complained a bit. The new love of my life is my favorite Twitter app, TweetDeck. You may recall that when I first got started with Twitter many months ago, I was not even in love with Twitter. I thought it was just a playground for stalkers. 🙂 But after a while I returned and discovered that people were actually using Twitter for more than just to ask people what they had for lunch. They were using it to share information and to expand their personal learning networks. So Twitter and I became pals again. And then I started discovering all the fab Twitter applications that make Twitter even more fun to use and make sharing information even easier. My favorite? TweetDeck! All you have to do is go to the TweetDeck website, download TweetDeck (and simultaneously download Adobe Air) to your desktop, and then you can use it to tweet away. TweetDeck installs an icon on your desktop and your taskbar and notifies you with a pleasant little chirp and a visual notification when you have an incoming tweet. OK, maybe it’s an annoying little chirp, but you know how to turn the sound down, right? TweetDeck splits your tweets into group-specific columns so that you can see, for example, all of your tweets, your replies, and your direct messages separately. Want to respond to a tweet? All you have to do is click on the tweeter’s tiny little head and a “menu” pops up. You can reply to the tweeter, send her a direct message, retweet her tweet (it was brilliant!), or favorite her tweet (it was super-brilliant!). When you’re posting your own tweets, TweetDeck makes it easy to post a link to your own website or blog, or to someone else’s. You just click on the little button at the top that looks like a conversation bubble to post a tweet, and two boxes open. You insert your tweet in one box, and your link in the other. Then hit the button to shorten the URL, and TweetDeck shortens it using snipurl or some other URL shortening service. You can use other buttons to create groups, search for words or phrases within your tweets, or perform other tasks. Even though TweetDeck says it’s for Windows, Mac, and Linux, it works just fine with Firefox. Marry me, TweetDeck and we’ll live happily ever after!