Twitter is whatever you want it to be. It may be your personal log of the number of tacos you eat or your personal branding platform. All uses are acceptable, but with Twitter’s recent mainstream growth and hat tips from big media, tweeting can be stressful even at 140 characters.

If you are finding yourself getting worked up about your Twitter account, questioning how you are using it and lost in the noise of social media experts telling you this or that, you may need to step back and rediscover why you became addicted to tweeting in the first place.

Here are my steps on how to get back to the fundamentals that will have you falling in love with Twitter again:

Trim your following list

Cut out all the noise and trim your following list down to the people that really matter to you. One of the basic rules I use is if I don’t recognize your name or know why I followed you in the first place you are gone. Think of it this way, if you never see their tweets, are you really following them anyways?

Trim your following list and next time you log on you will be relieved by not having to go back ten plus pages to make sure you didn’t miss out on something.

Tweet with your BFFs

Twitter doesn’t just have to be for work or finding the latest news on the internet. Chances are your friends or family are on Twitter and there is a good chance you got them started, so let them know what you are up to in a tweet.

Forget your follower count

Follower count was the gold rush of 2008, though many are starting to wake up and realize it was closer to fool’s gold. If you are checking your follower count and changing your behavior because of it, you are probably introducing unneeded stress to your Twittering. Turn off your unfollow notifications, stop checking your follower count and just let the numbers happen organically.

Take a personal branding vacation

For a few days forget what the personal branding experts are saying and throw out those rules you have built around your Twittering habits. Give yourself a week off and just use Twitter. It will help make things easier and hopefully you will find out the world doesn’t blow up when you stop doing what the experts tell you to do.

Meet your Twitter friends in real life

Take your Twitter network to the streets and starting meeting people face to face. If you haven’t attended a tweetup before, make an effort to attend the next one. If your community hasn’t organized one before be the person who gets it started. In Des Moines, the first tweetup started with just six people but over the last year they have grown to be self organizing gatherings of 80-100+ tweeps.

Not ready for a tweetup? Not a problem. Next time you are getting ready to head out for coffee or lunch tweet it and invite others to join you.

Trust the community

If there is big news or something you shouldn’t miss out on it will get retweeted. Trust the community to bubble up news to you.

There is no wrong way to tweet, but with all of the hype and talk about Twitter it can be easy to burn out. Instead of throwing in the towel, try getting back to the fundamentals of what made Twitter fun in the first place.

Most importantly, Twitter became famous by breaking all of the rules, so don’t fall into the trap of making rules for yourself (or others) on how to use it.

I’m a huge fan of being able to do things quickly with keyboard shortcuts because it takes less time and less energy than moving your hand to your mouse. If you’re using Firefox, there’s a quick and easy way to query Twitter Search directly from “the awesome bar” using a keyword search.

We’re going to leverage what’s called a Keyword Search in Firefox. The first thing you need to do is head to search.twitter.com. Once you get there, right click in the input box and select “Add a Keyword for this Search”.

In the dialog that comes up, fill it out as shown below. You can change your keyword to whatever you want, I just chose “ts” because it’s short.

That’s all there is for setup. Once you have your bookmark added you can access it directly from the address bar by typing your keyword followed by a query.

Hit enter just like you were typing in a URL and blamo! Instant search.

This wasn’t one of our 10 Firefox Addons for Twitter but it’s definitely a viable alternative to using the search bar option.

Like thousands of other people, I got an iPod Touch for Christmas this year. The first few days was a flurry of finding and loading apps that I’ve come across while writing articles here. One application that I’ve always wanted to use more frequently is Brightkite. After doing the location-based microblogging article I realized how awesome Brightkite is. Much to my dismay, it doesn’t always work too well on the iPod Touch.

The service itself works just fine except for one critical problem, the location guessing for unregistered WAPs (Wireless Access Points) can be pretty terrible. I tried multiple access points at the university library, at home, and in public places to no avail. That was the breaking point for me, so I emailed Brightkite support to ask what the problem was.

The response I received made sense:

It’s possible that the nearby WiFi hotspots the app is using to locate you are registered in the wrong place. You can try registering the hotspots you use most here: http://www.skyhookwireless.com/howitworks/submit_ap.php

Once those get updated it should help in locating you more accurately.

This is where I finally started making headway. Once I hit the page I was sent to, I just had to find my location on a Google Map, give it the MAC address of the WAP I was connected to, and my email address.

Getting the MAC

This is the trickiest part of the whole operation, especially if you don’t have admin access to the WAP you want to submit. Luckily, there are some good free utilities out there to help you find the WAP’s MAC address.

• For Windows, there’s NetStumbler
• For Mac users, there’s iStumbler
• For Linux users, try Kismet (even though I never have)
• If you want to try this on your iPod – which I don’t recommend – grab WiFiChecker from the App Store

After I submitted those details, I just had to wait a week or so and the Brightkite app started picking up my location.

End Result

I can’t remember exactly how long it took to start working, but the next time I came back to it, it worked. Somewhere along the line I must have screwed up the mapping because now my home MAC also resolves to my work location. When I was at work, my location was never found until I submitted the WAP I was on (as seen below).

If you have a friend that you’re following on Twitter and on Facebook, you’ll sometimes see their status updates coincide. It’s not voodoo magic, it’s a Facebook application created by the fine folks at Twitter. It’s meant to bridge the gap between the two services and allow you to update both in one fell swoop. Today, I’d like to show you how you can set that up with your own accounts.

Step 1: Log in to Facebook

Step 2: Locate the search box in the upper right corner and type in “twitter” – hit enter or click “Search Facebook”

Step 3: The top result should be the official Twitter application – you can tell because the developer is Twitter. Click “View Application” or “Twitter“.

Step 4: You may or may not be taken directly to the following screen. If you aren’t, click “Go to Application” and you’ll be back with us. Now, go ahead and click “Allow” to authorize the Twitter app to be added to your Facebook account.

Step 5: Authenticate yourself to the app

Step 6: Once authenticated, you’ll see your timeline embedded into Facebook. You can update your status from here, but if you’re reading this blog chances are you’re going to be doing things the other way around (eg Twitter to Facebook). The thing we’re looking for here is the button labeled “Allow Twitter to Update Your Facebook Status“.

Step 7: This screen confirms your choice, so click “Allow Status Updates”

At this point, the app has been added and the bridge should be live. If you have no intentions of updating Twitter from Facebook, skip to step 11. Otherwise, forge on.

Step 8: You’re going to want a quick way to update Twitter, so repeat Step 1 – but this time you’ll see a result. Click the result labeled “Twitter”

Step 9: Once you’re at your Twitter page, look into the applications toolbar and you’ll see an option for bookmarking Twitter. Click it.

Step 10: Depending on how many apps you have, Twitter might not show up in the toolbar. If it doesn’t, click the Applications box in the toolbar and drag Twitter into the section labeled “Bookmarks”

Step 11: Update your Twitter status, then come back to your Facebook account (either Home or Profile works) and make sure it updated. If all went well, it will have.

(that’s a Photo Booth effect, not my real face)

A Few Notes

• Don’t worry about replies being sent to Facebook, because they don’t get sent. If you start out an update with “@username”, it won’t show up. If you deviate at all from that (space after @, @name later) it gets sent.
• Mike claims stopping the app from updating your Facebook status is as easy as removing the application, but I’ve heard from multiple people that they can’t get it to stop. If you remove the app and it doesn’t stop, please contact us.

One of the many sweet new features in Windows 7 is called Federated Search. This new type of searching is the simultaneous search of multiple online databases or web resources and is referred to as a portal. In layman’s terms, it’s a way of searching the Internet right from your desktop. There’s already a Twitter search connector up and running for your uses.

The Twitter Search Connector calls out to Twitter Search and returns a list of tweets matching the criteria you’ve searched. It comes in the form of an .osdx file and plugs right in to Windows Explorer. To generate your own connector, hit the link above.

Double-click the .osdx file to install the connector. This will drop it into C:\Users\[User]\Searches. You can have multiple connectors for Twitter if you want to. To avoid naming collisions, there’s also a ShortName tag in the XML that controls the connector’s name. If you’re really good, you can modify the XML in the connector to return whatever you want (do this before installing the connector).

Over the last few weeks we’ve been asked about Digsby, a multi-protocol/do-it-all IM client for Windows. Using Digsby, you can interface with your Twitter account. Since Twitter has decided to axe IM functionality, many users were left in the dust. But, if you use Pidgin, you’re in luck.

The following instructions are for Windows users. There’s also a solution for Linux users, but not much in the way of Mac support. You can find more here.

1. Download the Windows binaries and extract the archive
2. Put the .dll file in your plugins directory, which is probably at C:\Program Files\Pidgin\plugins
3. Right click the Pidgin system tray icon and choose plugins. Check the box next to Pidgin-twitter. Click Configure plugin
4. Enter your Twitter login information and check the box next to “enable get/post status updates via API.”
5. Add twitter@twitter.com as a new buddy to Pidgin using gtalk as the protocol. Your buddy will be offline, so click Buddies -> Show -> Offline Buddies. If you don’t want to see them all, right click Twitter and select “Show when offline” and redo the previous step to hide offline buddies.
6. Double click the buddy you just added to open a conversation window. You’ll see a flood of updates initially, then they’ll auto-update every 60 seconds.

When the plugin updates, you’ll see avatars to the left of each line. The formatting isn’t great due to the fact that it’s in a conversation window, but it’s still a pretty slick plugin.

Engaging your followers is a simple way to add value to your Twitter account. Part of the beauty of Twitter is asking questions and getting answers. The ugly part of getting answers is compiling them. This is where twtpoll takes over and makes your life much easier. It lets you ask a question and throw in some possible responses, which will eventually turn into a poll. You can share that poll on Twitter or Facebook, and it even comes with a shortened URL and your poll title.

Head over to twtpoll and enter your username, the question, and some possible responses. When you submit the form, you’ll be given direct links to tweet it or update your Facebook status (you just have to be logged in). There’s no handing over your password or anything else shady. The only thing that’s missing is the ability to add a response on the go in case a user feels the list of responses isn’t sufficient. If you need a quick way to create a poll – with some cool Flash effects in the results – give twtpoll a try.

Please take our poll regarding your ability to microblog at work (and then view the results).

Accounts to Follow

@felipecoimbra (developer), @twtpoll

The topic of Twitter-squatting has arisen many times in both the Twittersphere and the blogosphere. It used to be a problem you only had to worry about with domains, which spawned the process of registering domain name misspellings and grabbing every TLD available.

Now, with microblogging continuing to rise in popularity amongst consumers and more businesses bringing their brands into the mix, we’ve seen an entire new fight begin with users racing to register accounts in the names of popular people and companies.

In a Get Satisfaction post by Crystal (@crystal), a support rep at Twitter, she outlines the latest improvement to the process for reclaiming registered, unused or inactive Twitter accounts:

Since inactive username requests are such a popular thing, they now have their own address. If you want to acquire an inactive username, please send a request [via email] to: username@twitter.com

The process is said to take 3-5 days to complete, “since inactive username requests come behind problem requests and bug reports in terms of priority.” This is actually an improvement over past efforts, which some users reported as taking months to process. Also, Crystal mentions that “someone [will be] looking at these daily.”

Information Needed to Process a Request

• The username you want
• Your existing username, if you have one
• Whether you want to change your username, or start a new account with the username you’re requesting

Please note: Twitter Support will change your username for you at the time of responding to the request so that the username doesn’t get taken by someone else. They will notify you by email when this happens.

Criteria for Reclaiming a Username on Twitter

While the process appears to have been improved, the same criteria allowing someone to gain access to a name seems to remain.

We generally have a 9 month rule; if a profile has been inactive for more than 9 months, we release the user name. In cases where the account has never been updated, Twitter can write the owner of the username about releasing it, but results vary.

Avoid Reclaiming by Being Proactive

The easiest way to gain access to a username is to be active in securing it. Due to the popularity of reclaiming requests, Twitter has developed a specific policy to deal with it. Other websites might not be so ready to deal with situations like this.

To save yourself the trouble of going through this process, use a site like Username Check to find out where your desired username has been registered, and then plan accordingly.

If Nothing Else Works, Seek Legal Counsel

If for some reason the process of reclaiming a Twitter username doesn’t work or you have difficulty securing a username on another website, consult with your legal counsel about acquiring the name. Brett J. Trout, P.C. (@bretttrout), has a great post about social media accountjacking that discusses what courses of action you have and important questions to consider before putting gears into motion.

Twitter refreshed their web interface in September, but the only new feature they added in the release was an enhanced profile customizer. The customizer is great for changing your color scheme and background image, but none of the features the community has been pleading for were addressed. Most power users use some sort of desktop app, but with the power of Firefox and five Greasemonkey scripts, the Twitter web interface can become just as powerful as almost any app.

Greasemonkey is a Firefox extension that allows users to install a variety of scripts into their browser ranging from changing the way a page is displayed to adding content from other sites to a page. The scripts are often written in JavaScript and a large collection of Twitter specific scripts are available for download.

Rather than you having to download and try out each script, here are a few of our favorite (most useful) scripts. Give them a try and you may just find yourself making Twitter.com your preferred client again.

1. Twitter Search Box (link) – adds Twitter Search to the right sidebar
2. Twitter Hashtags (link) – turns hashtags into clickable links that direct to the hashtag page at hashtags.org
3. Scarecrow (link) – stops Magpie posts from showing up on any Twitter page. Warning: this eliminates all posts with the hashtag #magpie even if it isn’t a true Magpie ad
4. Twitter Sidebar Replies (link) – on any user’s page, it adds the most recent replies to them to the right sidebar of their Twitter page
5. Shadow (link) – follow anyone on Twitter without having to actually “follow” them. With this script Rafe Needleman can start following Britney Spears again without having her show up in his following list. Also, this script is extra shady because it allows you to follow people who have blocked you (unless their profile is private)

Greasemonkey is a powerful tool and with these scripts it brings a new level of usefulness to Twitter’s web interface. Install the extension, start exploring the new possibilities and let us know what scripts you find to be the most useful.

For a list of additional scripts to play around with check out the Twitter Fan Wiki at http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Greasemonkey.

There’s been a lot of buzz recently surrounding the Twitter Gadget that integrates with Gmail and iGoogle. It’s a relatively simple installation, providing you’ve got some instructions. Google Apps for Your Domain users will have to take a few extra steps that the Gmail users don’t have to.

Google Apps for Your Domain Users

Google’s Labs features aren’t enabled by default. If you’re administering your domain, follow these instructions to enable Labs support. Otherwise, have your administrator do them.

1. Go to https://www.google.com/a/your_domain (replace your_domain with your domain)
2. Sign in as the administrator of your domain.
3. Click the Domain Settings tab in the tab bar at the top of the screen
4. In the New Services and Features section, check the boxes next to Automatically add new Google services and Turn on new features
5. Click Save changes at the bottom
6. Wait about 24 hours for the changes to take effect. When the Labs features are enabled, you will see the Labs tab in the Settings page.

Gmail and GAFYD Users

1. In Settings, click on the Labs tab. Scroll to the bottom of the page where you’ll find the option to Add any gadget by URL. Select the radio button next to Enable, then click Save Changes.
2. Go back to the Settings page, but click Gadgets this time. Enter http://www.twittergadget.com/gadget_gmail.xml into the text box and click Add.
3. Enter your credentials and start twittering.
   

If for whatever reason you want to remove the gadget, go back to Settings -> Gadgets and click the Remove button for the Twitter Gadget.