Day Job | Spreading Joy

My Favorite Twitter Helps….for you

Anyone that truly knows me, knows I love twitter. I love the reach it has given me, I love the friends that I’ve made (yes, I said friends and yes…I do love them) and I love the encouragement that I receive there daily. I love it.

I am on all the other Social Networks and you can use those buttons over on the sidebar to hit me up there, but if you really want to interact with me online, it will be better via twitter. If you Tweet me, I’ll always reply….at some point.

So, what does a Non-Techy gal use to get the most from Twitter? I’m glad you asked. I’ll share with you my favorite Twitter Helps. These are in random order with the exception of the first one!

By the way, when you are experimenting with various Twitter helps, may I suggest that you try them for a few weeks and not just for a few days. Tweet out questions about what you are using if you are just not getting the hang of it. There are many people that will help you by answering your questions.

By Far the best thing for Twitter

TweetDeck – This is a Twitter must! You can have your @’s your dm’s and several columns all on ONE screen. No flipping back and forth! When you are starting out, this is an easy way to categorize people into groups that appeal to you. You can shorten links right from this page, send pictures, videos and even send posts Facebook, LinkedIn and others.

You can RT and even see the RT’s done from the web. I hope that one day Twitter will fix that…but for now, TweetDeck allows me to tell those people that RT from the web thank you. If I were to only use the web, I would never know they Re-Tweeted one of my posts.

You need to check out the various things TweetDeck can do. I have it on my itouch and I also use it on Google Chrome. The real time update is amazing (no refreshing screens) when I’m participating in various Twitter chats or my absolute favorite… the Online LIVE Worship Service on Twitter… #Tworship. (Click the link to see how to participate with us each week night.) I love the automation feature – I can schedule the songs and Invite people to JOYn us. You can setup your lists to be individual columns and move them around as you see fit. The larger your twitter account gets, you’ll appreciate this easy way to keep up with your friends.

The only negative thing for me with TweetDeck is that the larger my following gets, the more it will slow things down as it pulls the tweets for my columns. It is actually better than it use to be, so I can tell improvements are being made. If I were limited to one way to participate on Twitter only…it would be with TweetDeck. ~~Also, I can’t seem to get it to schedule to my facebook, but will keep working at that~~. Problem solved! It seems to be working. One of my favorite IT Heroes says “You have a PICNIC problem – Problem In Chair, Not In Computer” and usually, he is correct. Tweetdeck is the way to go.

UberSocial – I have a Blackberry and this is the best app I’ve seen. This makes Tweeting on the go super easy peasy. I need that. I love that I can follow people, block people, RT and add in my own comments. I can DM and even Reply All if I’m tweeted in a group. I love the Uberbar! I have several people that are “Tabs” at the top that I can easily pull up their Tweets for the day and RT out what I love. There are so many more functions to UberSocial! Check it out for yourself! I’m glad to see there is an UberSocial for the iPhone and Droid!
HootSuite – I love that I can schedule my #nuggetsofJOY to my Twitter account as well as my Facebook and LinkedIn accounts. It has a shortner and is very easy to use.
SocialOomph – Many features that I love like scheduling, replying and you can tie your blog here. I don’t, but you can. It is very user friendly.
iTwitter – I don’t know if that is the proper name or not, but I love using this one on my iTouch. It’s from iTunes, easy to navigate, reply, RT. Love all the features.

Everything that I’ve mentioned so far is FREE for you to download and try.

Many have asked me how I’ve grown my Twitter account. I’ll tell you. Every day, I would spend about 15 minutes following the people that I was on lists with. If you listed me on a list, I would assume that the others you listed were in some way “like” me, so it made sense to follow them too. People would follow back. I did this for 2 years! Saturday mornings, when I had more time, I’d spend a little more time and grew my account up to 19,000 followers. I never would have imagined that I could be spreading joy to a thousand people, much less 19k. This year, a wonderful friend of mine that just loves super squishy hugs, gave me an awesome gift.

Tweet Adder. Many people are skeptical of purchasing this but I have to tell you, it is worth the one time fee of $55.00 for One Profile. You can have up to 5 Profiles for $74.00, 10 Profiles for $110.00 and Unlimited Profiles for $188.00. (Many businesses use the multiple profiles.) This has been the best gift ever.

Tweet Adder will let you follow those that follow a certain person, or by lists, or hashtags or even key words in their profile. If you wanted to follow all of the coffee lovers in the world, you can do so. If you want to follow everyone in your city, you can do that too. If people decided not to follow me back, I simply have my tweet adder scheduled to unfollow in 3 days. Easy Peasy. I can spend my time chatting, instead of spending my time following the lists I was added to & unfollowing those that don’t want to follow back. It does so much more than this! I want my followers to see certain articles so, I use the RSS Feed to Tweet their articles. I just copied & pasted their RSS URL and now their new blog posts will tweet automatically.

Use the link I provided and check them out. While it looks like it takes you back to a regular tweetadder site – TRUST me, it IS tracking my affiliate number and credit will be given back. If you just go to tweetadder on your own, no credit will be given…sooo, click below KNOWING you are helping Spreading Joy

http://www.tweetadder.com/idevaffiliate/idevaffiliate.php?id=12447

If you decide to purchase this, Spreading Joy is an affiliate and they will give us back 50% of whichever package you purchase. You’ll be easily making a difference by doing so. You may also like being an affiliate for them because once you get 2 others to sign up, you’ll have gotten tweet adder for free. Only being able to give back to others when people give to us….I know that every little bit makes a HUGE difference! Using Tweet Adder, I can focus on doing what I do best – and that is Spreading Joy and encouraging those that need it.

May I caution you though?

If you simply “grow” your account using Tweet Adder but never interact with those that you follow, you’ll miss out on some amazing friendships, wonderful laughs and some good times. Think about it. People like Oprah and others “stars” that only follow 20 people are missing out on some pretty cool friendships from all over the world. I noticed that early on and wrote an article about it a few years back. Even though it is a few years old, it still holds true today. Click here to Read about the friendships I made early on.

Lastly, here are some other Twitter Apps You may Enjoy! All Free!

Seesmic - Much Like TweetDeck
Twello – yellow pages of Twitter
Twitter Counter – lets you see your growth at a glance & some cool buttons
Nutshell Mail – Cool way to track groups, lists & is delivered to your inbox on your schedule
TweetReach – To see the impact of your tweet OR if you use the web, see who has RT’d you and say thank you
paper.li – This is an amazing app that collects “links” through the day and puts in a News Paper Format. I have 3 of them and I subscribe to them all so that I can go back and read at my leisure each night. The Spreading Joy Daily, The Praying Peeps Daily and the Praying Peeps2 Daily. The SJ daily collects links from those I follow and usually has about 200 articles or ore. The PP daily collects links from ONLY those on my 2 lists. Awesome stuff!!

This is just a drop in the bucket compared to the things that you can find on Google or Goodsearch. Remember, when you Goodsearch – good search for spreading joy and they will make a donation to us!

To save you some time, here are a few links to a few pages that have hundreds of Twitter helps.

Ministry and Social Media working together? You betcha! and it works well. The gals over at @StickyJesus will help you – stickyJesus.com exists to equip you, the Christ follower, to confidently live out your faith in the digital world. We’re here to infuse biblical perspective and daily inspiration into your online time. We’ll help you grow your technical know-how so you can share the sticky love of Jesus Christ with others. We’re teaching, listening, and collaborating with a fired-up community of digital scribes about culture, social media, and the kind of relationship building that will outlive cyberspace. Are you in?

Here is the best introduction to twitter that I’ve seen in a while! - Intro to Twitter Thanks @partyaficionado

Over 275 items here - http://www.squidoo.com/twitterapps

99 items here - http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/03/17/99-essential-twitter-tools-and-applications/

Here are some CUTE & FREE Twitter “Follow Me” Icon Buttons

Also – Do you know Twitter has limits? Yes, they do. Check them out here.

I do have an extra account on twitter, just incase anything were to happen – feel free to follow over there too. @jailedJOY I don’t use it much – but sometimes it’s necessary and sometimes, I just “play” there.

One last thing and probably the most important of all!!!

HAVE FUN…plain and simple.

What do you think?

What are your favorite Twitter Apps?

Talk to me….I want to know!

***I’m hoping for an iPhone for Christmas and would love to know what your favorite twitter app is***

The Gorgeous Inside of St. Luke's

A few weeks ago, I took some travel size toiletries by to St. Luke’s Episcopal Church for the Hesed House of Hope, our local homeless shelter. To help the homeless in our area, I left a huge box of shampoos, soaps, lotions, toothbrushes and toothpaste on the back porch of this huge, gorgeous home that is a wonderful part of our small town history. No one came to the door, so I left my Spreading Joy business card in the box and left.

This prompted a phone call from Father Miles. I didn’t leave a note or anything as to what it was for and for all he knew it could have been someone sending him a “hint.” (He said it, I didn’t)

We chatted for a moment about the box of goodies and I filled him in on my day job that allows me to travel each week and I just save those items, bring them home and when I get a box of them, I’ll donate it the homeless shelter. This lead to more questions about Spreading Joy and a meeting over coffee. I love coffee. I love meeting new people…such JOY!

We met and in our discussion he came up with the idea of giving up some negative things for Lent and replacing them with positive, JOYful things.

Thanks Father Miles for the Opportunity to talk about JOY

He graciously invited me to come and share my heart for finding joy. Joy is there…always. But sometimes we are so focused on the problems we deal with day that we miss it completely. While we can’t change our circumstances, we can certainly choose how we respond to those situations. We can choose to focus on the positive things that are all about us and slowly start to move forward and out from under the cloud of despair. Am I saying that we should never get angry? Never whine, cry, pout or pitch a fit? Noooo, not hardly. I do all of these things and sometimes, even more than I want to or should. I’m simply saying that we do not have to “STAY” in this place, that we can move beyond the clouds….if we choose to. It’s our choice.

When I concluded, he challenged us to give up the concept that we don’t matter, because we do; to give up the notion that we can’t make a difference, because we can; to give up idea that it just isn’t going to get better, because it will.

I’ve really enjoyed my visits at St. Luke’s and the members have always welcomed me and my family with open arms.

I’m thankful for the new friends I’ve found there and for any opportunity that I can be a blessing to them and to leadership in the