Just noticed @loic’s Angry Birds Twitter avatar. Pure win!!!
This message was approved by the #avatarpolice đ
Want.
This is via Archie McPhee’s http://geyserofawesome.com blog. Hat tip to @jenboydsd for introducing me to this. The site is, indeed, a geyser of awesome.
My Twitter inbox is full of Auto DMs. Why do I keep them? To remind me to unfollow those people later when I have more time. I really dislike auto DMs and hats off to @augieray for surveying the Twittersphere about this practice. The results of his study are clear: By a margin of 40 to 1 among people who actually had an opinion about this, auto DMs are decidedly unwelcome.
If you auto DMing your followers or new followers – please reconsider your practice. Don’t believe me? Check out Augie Ray’s full write-up about Twitter Auto DMs on the Forrester blog.
Leaping Lime Chiffon! – did you KNOW that Strawberry Shortcake just celebrated her 30th birthday?! As a kid, I ADORED Strawberry and her pals – the squatty, Pippi-Longstocking clothed figures took residence in a dollhouse my dad and brother built for me – the dollhouse was better sized for glamorous Amazonian-like Barbie and Ken doll set, but I was faithful to the crew from the berry patch. Heck, I even remember performing a Strawberry Shortcake rap with my friend Suzanne to the entire school in 4th grade.
Anyhow I got an email from Josh, a dad of two who developed a new Strawberry Shortcake app for iPhone and iPod touch asking if I’d like to try the app. I don’t usually do reviews but given my affinity for Strawberry (and quite frankly, my sons’ obsession with my iPod), I decided to give it a try.
The objective of the game is to sort fruit into bins as they tumble into a bowl – kind of like Tetris for the under 6 set. After all the fruit is sorted, you’re taken to a screen where you watch the the fruit turn into smoothies. (I yelled “Oooh… smoothies!” the first time we got to this screen… and now we do it every time.) If you made a sorting “mistake” you will see that the smoothie process, as your smoothie will be multi-colored instead of all one flavor.
Couple of notes for parents:
The game is easy to learn, fun to play and both of my kids – aged 5 and 2 – are big fans. It keeps their interest, offers the right challenge (levels get harder and they throw sour berries into the mix that you must discard), and is fun all the way around. Have to say, this mom is a fan too. đ The game is .99 in the App Store. Hope they consider an Android platform but for now, the game will reside on my iPod.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary code for the app (total value $.99) which enabled me to download and evaluate the app. The company didn’t ask me to post a review but wanted me to let them know if I did – so here it is! The opinions expressed in this post and on this blog are my own and my disclosure policy is here.
Another app review for kids games I did is on my site in case you’re interested in this topic.
Awesome! The Mashable a party for BWE10 is on Friday night. On their web site you can win a free pass to BlogWorld by checking the site and answering a question before Monday, Sept 6. Last year’s BlogWorld Expo was a great event – I learned so much. My ticket was sponsored by Mashable for answering a question about “what is the future of blogging.” Click the link to see my thoughts a year ago… still waiting for this vision to be realized in some future kick-ass social platform.
What does this photo of 4 people taking a dunk in a stranger’s pool have to do with the phrase “In People We Trust” and social / location-based services? Check out Aaron Strout’s post on his blog… and also discover the identity of the 4 crazy pool-bombers (yes, one of them is me).
I love it when folks turn to crowdsourcing for fresh, great ideas. And Guy Kawasaki is doing just that for his next book cover on Crowdspring. Check out the full brief here where it explains what he wants, as well as the deadline — August 13. The prize is $1000 and, of course, the claim to fame for designing such a well-known author’s book! Cool deal if you ask me…
Highlights:
Vector EPS
This is a vending machine. Not only that, this is my favorite vending machine at work (also a 4sq venue of which I am the mayor) that dispenses my favorite caffeinated beverage, Diet Coke. On a normal day, slots E4 and E5 are MINE – fully stocked with Diet Coke. But today, if you look closely, all the Diet Cokes are gone, forcibly removed. Not a happy day!
Enjoyed this post – hat tip to @jpunishill for sending this on. I had done a comparison awhile back but it needs to be updated now that NUMEROUS friends tell me the new HootSuite 4 is where it’s at.
From Dragon Blogger:
Dennis Edell had been calling out to see if any bloggers were writing or have written a direct comparison between Hootsuite and Tweetdeck which are two very popular twitter clients. I have decided to answer the call by posting a detailed point by point list on the advantages and disadvantages the two clients have over each other. Keep in mind that Tweetdeck is an Adobe Air application that installs on your desktop while Hootsuite is a completely web based application that doesnât need to install so this leads to some difference from how the applications work.
So without further chatter, I present to you the pros and cons of both Hootsuite and Tweetdeck and you can decide which works best for your needs.
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TweetDeck Advantages:
- Can clear columns so you only see new tweets as they arrive (particularly useful for seeing new mentions and DMâs come in or list updates)
- Faster update refresh and overall responsiveness (any thick client will generally perform faster than a web based client)
- Easier to use (HootSuite can have so many tabs, columns and options that it can be daunting to casual users).
- Autoshorten URL as you type is easier than having to cut and paste URL into Hootsuite URL compress bar separately.
- Supports both types of Twitter Retweets (original with the RT @Username, and the newer RT which does Twitter official retweet
TweetDeck Disadvantages:
- Application that installs on your PC and then requires upgrades and downloads (2x since many times you have to upgrade Adobe Air, and Tweetdeck separately)
- Profile and columns are only on the PC you installed it on, if you work from multiple computers you have to customize completely different TweetDeck installs
- Integrates with Twitter, FaceBook and LinkedIn, but not Ping.FM like HootSuite which connects to 40+ Social Networks and is much better than doing direct integrations for each social media client.
- Bit.ly is the default URL compression (Bit.ly is great, but I recently learned that if you try to tweet a URL encrypted by Bit.ly like Ow.ly, Is.gd, then Bit.ly gives you a potential malicious site error). I still like bit.ly for better click tracking and easier way to get analytics, but this is something to watch out for if you use other url compression services and people retweet your stuff from Tweetdeck.
- Does not support Ow.ly as a URL compression as a selectable option
- When using multiple twitter accounts it keeps the last account you use selected (this is good, but also bad as I have tweeted things numerously from account other than the account I wanted to as a result). Hootsuite will require you to select account(s) for each tweet instead of defaulting to the last one used or specific one. (Except for Retweets which automatically retweets as the account the original tweet was sent to).
- You can add columns, lists from any twitter account but they are all in one static line and sliding them left or right requires many clicks if you have 10-12 columns
- Tweetdeck allows you to schedule tweets but you canât manually type in the date/time and its slower and more cumbersome than HootSuite to schedule tweets.
Hootsuite Advantages:
- Manage multiple twitter profiles
- Integrates with Ping.FM which broadcasts your tweet to 40+ social networks.
- Does not default to one profile when you tweet (can be a con too)
- Allows you to schedule tweets to post at later dates times. This allows you to set tweets that post in the future / set it and forget it. Each scheduled tweet must be set manually though.
- Has Ow.Ly URL shrink inside app and provides Tweet analytics like click tracking right from within application. Tweetdeck does not have its own URL compression and canât show Bit.ly stats from within application.
- Has columns + tabs to sort twitter account columns and lists. This allows you to put accounts all on one tab or separate tab and is very flexible.
- Moving columns around is drag and drop, simple and easy.
- Web based application means you can sign in from anywhere and see same setup.
- Ability to designate other email accounts to manage your social media profiles. This allows for companies to have multiple people use service and manage the same social media profiles. Tweetdeck has nothing like this.
HootSuite Disadvantages:
- Canât clear columns so you donât have to see tweets you have already read and seen.
- Canât do searches as easily as Tweetdeck which instantly builds column on new search.
- Posting tweets slower that Tweetdeck because you have to click a profile and preshrink your URL instead of autoshrink and default profile selection of Tweetdeck.
- So many options, tabs and settings it can be cumbersome to some casual twitter users (note this is a plus too)
- Doesnât auto sync avatar profile picture changes, you have to resync manually when you change your profile pic.
- Doesnât support the newer official Twitter retweet, only the old style that prepends tweets with RT @user.
- Canât select reply to multiple people and build a tweet that includes all people you click reply to. Like reply @user1 @user2. Tweetdeck if you hit reply on an tweet it will keep adding other users when you click reply for more than one user.
- Doesnât show the difference between a retweet that was sent new Twitter style, you canât tell which were retweets done by newer retweet or if they were even retweets.
- Doesnât show number of twitter followers inside each tweet next to avatar pic. I like that Tweetdeck has option to show how many followers a user has in every tweet.
Summary:
As you can see they both clearly have their strengths and a few features that the other service lacks, this is why I wind up using both programs every single day when managing my Twitter profiles. I canât just use HootSuite or Tweetdeck because neither has 100% of the features that I need, but combined they make my Twitter management a whole lot easier. If HootSuite could clear columns and support both styles of Retweet, then I probably would not need to use Tweetdeck anymore.
Secondly, though not mentioned here, there is a Twitter tool called âTwaitterâ which allows you to set recurring tweets that can kick off daily, weekly, monthlyâŚetc. This tool is the 3rd tool that I use since neither Twitter nor Tweetdeck support ârecurring tweetsâ to be created, Hootsuite is still very manual to create and manually schedule tweets for the future as pending tweets. Both HootSuite and Tweetdeck allow you to track Twitter conversations which makes it easy to follow a reply chain with other users. I had also done a video demonstration on how to use Tweetdeck previously that you could check out.
If I missed any features that you particularly like and one program has over the other, please let me know and I will update my list. Also, share with me your favorite Twitter management program and what features it has or lacks. If you write your own review of any Twitter management program and compare it to Hootsuite or Tweetdeck I will give you a link back from this post.
-Dragon Blogger
Update: Here are some bloggers who shared their own opinion on which Twitter client they liked best.
The Vaan Clan still prefers Tweetdeck, read their article about why.
TheCDNBoy clearly mentions his preference for Hootsuite and makes some good points.
John Hewitt gives his own excellent pros and cons of HootSuite and Tweetdeck and why he prefers Hootsuite even though the most annoying peeve is not being able to easily include multiple people in the same reply.
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