Mas Geek

How I'm Using Tweetdeck

What is TweetDeck?

TweetDeck is a desktop application that lets you interact with the Twitter service in ways that are not available through Twitter’s website interface. It provides a column for each feature that is available on Twitter.com, which, for example, allows you to move back and forth between multiple saved searches and your friend list.

Until recently I have been an “entry-level” Twitter user. I followed friends who were on Twitter and a few celebrities. I posted updates every now and then and only rarely interacted with others. I’ve been using the service a lot more lately and have started to discover the many things it can do. Much of this has been spurred by my job hunt and a few articles I came across that showed how to use Twitter to find a job. Although I’m still nowhere near being a power user I have found that using TweetDeck lets me get much more functionality out of Twitter with minimal effort.

How am I using it?

Groups: TD allows you to separate the people you follow into various groups. I have groups for real life friends, job hunt related folks, brands/software (so I’m updated about new releases), and other sources of information (CNN, tech blogs, etc).This makes it easier to find certain types of information and can help reduce distraction if I’m trying to do something specific in Twitter.

Facebook: I’m one of those people who can’t ignore a friend request from someone I actually know, even if we only went to high school together and weren’t even friends then. As a result my full news feed is filled with Mafia Wars and Farmville updates from people I haven’t spoken to in over 10 years. The latest version of TD integrates very nicely with FB and allows you to do, among other things, set up a FB group. Now I only see updates from people I want to follow.

Saved searches: One of the more powerful and least understood features of Twitter is real-time search. With TD you can not only set up saved searches but they are always open and updating in real-time alongside your other groups and searches. I mainly use this feature for my job search but have also started to use it to connect with people in my area. But according to some pundits real-time search and news is where the future of Twitter lies.

Are you using TweetDeck (or another Twitter client)? What features are you utilizing? Let me know in the comments or you can find me on Twitter.

Learning to Love Information Overload

I’ve been on the Internet long enough to remember a time when you could easily visit and read every single website available about a given topic.  Or at least it seemed that way to my 12 year old self.   Back then, if I became interested in a topic I could do some research on the Internet and after a few 4am nights in my basement I could feel like I knew all I needed to know.  Those were the days when search engines like Yahoo! were set up more like directories and you would click through topics and sub-topics until you reached a page listing the sites that were out there.

Those days are obviously long gone and I am not coping well.  I’ve accepted that there is far more information out there than I could even imagine let alone consume.  But within the set of websites I have selected as my sources of information I cannot stand the idea that I have missed something.
I use Google Reader to manage my RSS feeds and keep track of the sites I like to follow but I have to keep my subscription count pretty low so that I have time to at least glance at the headline.  I worry that if I miss a posting somewhere that it will be the one that is going to inspire some kind of genius in me and without it I just can’t proceed with my day/career/life.

I’m trying to get better though.  Merlin Mann’s post that I keep coming back to has helped me realize that this is just another of my self-made roadblocks to getting started with my own thing.  I’ve also come across a few people who advocate subscribing to hundreds of feeds and just giving in to the idea that you will just have to look out for the good stuff when you can and accept that you won’t see everything.  And that’s OK.  Well, I’m not quite there but I’m learning to be.  Part of that process involved learning how to use Google Reader for more than passive reading, as described here and here.

I saved a bunch of items in feedly yesterday but they were somehow deleted and after a few minutes of panic I realized how silly I was being.  I would be challenged to name five posts I read yesterday, let alone last week, so why am I worrying so much about missing out on a few today?  The chances of missing out on a post that informs me Texas has finally seceded from the Union and if I want out I have to leave today are pretty low.  And anyway, now that I’ve started getting more involved on Twitter and FriendFeed I end up seeing the same posts I’ve starred being recommended several times over.

And so I’m diving in.  I’ve increased my subscription count from 40+ to 60+ and I plan to keep on adding.  I’m going to feel like I’m drowning for awhile but I think eventually the feeling of all that information flowing over me will be refreshing. And make me feel like a robot.  I can’t wait.

Here’s my shared feed on Google Reader.

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