How TweetDeck Can Calm the Storm of Tweets and Status Updates

Managing your Twitter account can be overwhelming. The more Tweeple you follow, the more overwhelming it can be to keep up. And some tweeps really love to tweet, which can overwhelm your stream. Let alone having to keep up with your friends on Facebook and Myspace too.

When I discovered TweetDeck I was a bit turned off that it was a program you download because the last thing I wanted to do was download another program into my poor memory starved computer. Soon the daily tweets kept building up and my need for something to calm them became great. I gave in and downloaded TweetDeck figuring it wouldn't hurt to try.

I soon found that TweetDeck is an all-in-one social networking organizer. You can keep track of your Twitter account(s), Facebook and MySpace accounts. They neatly get organized in columns on your TweetDeck. You can organize the columns to suit you and your priorities.And it doesn't hog too much memory on your computer. Though you may feel just a bit if your computer is already running on empty.

You can also add other columns outside of your normal tweeps you follow. You can add a column for specific hashtags you wish to get notified about or you can add group columns with whatever you want. Retweeting, viewing profiles and Facebook or Myspace status changes are simple and done right from the deck without ever going to a website.

It can also automatically shorten links for you, in your tweets, and you can designate the link shortener of your choice, if you would like. Say you like to use bit.ly as a way to track the clicks on your links, just assign bit.ly as your shortener in TweetDeck. It will then use bit.ly to shorten your links and you can track all your links sent with bit.ly or which ever shortener you choose.

The biggest benefit to TweetDeck is its visual notifications. Whenever you receive a tweet or status change whether from someone you are following or a group you assigned, a small box pops up at the corner of your computer screen, along with a brief notification sound. The small window that pops up not only tells you you have a tweet (mention,new follower, Facebook friend status update or Myspace update,etc.) but it shows you the tweet and who it is from. So all you have to do is glance up read it and continue working without moving a finger or interrupting your work flow. If it is something interesting you feel you have to get to right away, go ahead click on it. If not, don't worry the notification window slowly fades away until the next tweet or update comes in and will be waiting for you on your deck if you want to see it again later. You also have to option to turn the notifications off or modify them to fit your needs.

You don't need to be on an internet browser to receive the notifications. In fact I have received and read several tweet notifications as I have been writing this on a word processing program. The notifications give you plenty of time to see who the tweet is from and read it before it fades from view. If you need more time all you do is place your mouse over the window and it will stay as long as you need it and fade when you remove your mouse. If you have more than one tweet it will tell you how many and you can easily arrow between them, all without leaving the program you are working on.

TweetDeck can seem a little overwhelming in it self, with all it can do, but with a little poking around you will be surprise at how keeping up with everyone on all your social networking sites can be less overwhelming than you thought. You may even wonder how you kept up gone so long without it.