Twitter Favorites - Tips to Archive & Search Equals Value

One of the great perks of social media is the wealth of information that is always being shared.  There is always an ongoing stream of quick valuable insights, tips, reviews and just great conversation.  The caveat of that is capturing, managing and putting to use the wealth of information that is being relayed.

There comes a time when the amount of information is more than just a couple of posts.  It then becomes necessary to evaluate how that information is being effectively captured and managed.  Ask yourself, three quick questions:

• What is the best solution to capture and archive information?
• How quickly can the information be accessed?
• Is it easily searchable?

One of my favorite social media sites that provides a wide variety of information is Twitter.  The flow is frequent, albeit at times, overwhelming.  The variety is as wide of a net that can be cast into the information stream based on who and what you follow.  The flip side though is that you can’t always be focused on what is being discussed at that given moment.

When a topic of conversation comes into your Twitter stream that is of interest but not what you are currently focusing on, with just a couple of clicks the information is garnered as a Favorite for later digestion.  Over time, you accumulate another long list of Favorites, but what do you do with them?

Here’s a simple procedure to harness that information for later use when you have time to focus.  Add your Twitter Favorites to a feed aggregator such as Google Reader.

From your Twitter Home page - go to your Favorites

Using Firefox - the process is automated:

Capture your Twitter RSS Feed

• Right click on the page
• View Page Information
• Select Feeds
• Scroll to Your Twitter Favorites
• Click Subscribe
• Add to your reader as normal

Using Internet Explorer :

• Capture your Twitter RSS Feed
• Right click on the page
• Select View Source
• Find the link for the feed (i.e. http://twitter.com/favorites/12345678.rss)
• Add subscription manually to your reader

Now your favorite bites of information is at your fingertips - ready to be search and archived.  Later, when you vaguely recall a post that would help complete a project, just search your feed reader and voila - information found and time saved.

The Point

It’s great to have a wealth of information but if you can’t put it to use then there is no value.  By putting in place simple and semi-automated procedure that captures and archives information until it can be utilized, you’re increasing the value on not only the information gathered but more importantly on your time.

TweetLater - Follow the leader, but which leader .… or just simply lead?

Recently there has been much to do about the use of Twitter add-ons and extras such as TweetLater that can be set-up to welcome new followers via public reply or direct message; automatically follow new followers; and set-up scheduled tweets. See my post How Do You Say It’s a Pleasure to Meet You! Too much of a to-do about well, not much. It’s so easy to get swept up into the roar of crowd about what is considered proper etiquette, acceptable and deemed appropriate.

Since I am a newbie of sorts in the social networking scene, I have fond myself jumping this way and that way. All the while wanting to do what is considered socially correct in the business networking circles; aka - the majority in Twitterville. After switching the Outllook rules that forward notices to TweetLater on and off several times over as many weeks, I think I’ve had enough. Actually, I know I’ve had enough.

I use TweetLater to acknowledge new followers. I don’t spam them with a link to my website. My website is in my profile so there isn’t a need. I simply want a timely tweet to let my new followers know that I appreciate their interest. You can’t be hooked to Twitter 24/7. I can’t – between building my Virtual Assistant practice and raising a family that involves keeping up with an active 2 year old – their ain’t no way, Joe!

The Point

As the adage goes - you can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time. So I’m pleasing myself and taking the lead. TweetLater helps me manage those that follow me. I can then go back as time allows and view a new follower’s site, see if I want to follow them (9 out 10 times I do) and send a more personal reply commenting on one of their blog posts or their website.

Photo by martellobrasile

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