Use Tweetdeck as a comprehensive real-time industry dashboard 04/07/11

 

The obvious advantage Tweetdeck has over Twitter and other 3rd party Twitter apps is screen real estate.  Being able to have numerous realtime feeds on post related topics is awesome – if not a little overwhelming.

 

 

But the non-obvious advantage is that you don’t have to constantly open, close and refresh tabs like you have to do on twitter.com.  All you have to do is slide the bottom scroll bar to the right to see your columns.  You can track data as efficiently as a Wall Street trader.  I currently have feeds for the lists I created called:
 
- video-editing

- post

- mo-graph / vfx

- workflow

- content-creation

- training

- mac

- hacking

- conference

- tech news

- tech-enthusiast

- design

- photography

 

The people in these feeds are all people I’ve identified with these particular topics.  (Note: For info on how to create Twitter lists, see my hack: The Twitter Filtering hack).

 

To create a column in Tweetdeck, click on the + icon

 

 

A screen will pop up prompting you to type in a key word or phrase. You can also pick from an existing hashtag or saved search.  I selected the saved hashtag #fcp.

 

 

Now I have a new column created from the hash tag #fcp

 

(TIP: You can also block tweets about things you are not interested in.  Suppose you have a feed that follows other editors and people in post-production.  But if  you are an Avid editor exclusively, you may not be interested in tweets talking about Final Cut Pro.  So Tweetdeck’s filter function allows you to block out tweets that contain the keywords fcp and finalcutpro.

 

To do this, click on the settings wrench

 

 

Global Filter at the bottom.

 

 

In the field Containing Words type in fcp and finalcutpro.  Now you will no longer receive any tweets that contain these words. (Note: Since this is a global feature you will not receive any tweets with those words, not just in your editing related feeds).

 

 

Similar to The Twitter Troubleshooting hack you can use Tweetdeck to send pics (or video).
Take a screenshot of a setting you have a question about.

 

 

Then, in Tweetdeck, click on the camera icon:

 

 

Tweetdeck will upload the image and then you will be able tweet your call for help

 

 

The tweet will appear in your followers Twitter stream:

 

 

Tips: There is also Tweetdeck for iPhone and Tweetdeck for iPad which make it even easier to track your feeds on the go.  But the larger the screen the more useful Tweetdeck can be for keeping track of your post related feeds.