Hey, This Twitter Plugin Works Great!

I don’t normally push WordPress plug-ins for the simple reason that they don’t always work as performed or the usefulness of one plug-in v. a similar one shows that there aren’t many differences to warrant noting one at the expense of another.  In addition, I know that plugins can sometimes be quirky, draining precious resources as well as messing with themes if the coding isn’t quite right.

Giving TweetMeme A Try

That being said, I’ve gotten to like one I found recently — TweetMeme — which works with Twitter. Specifically, it allows you to tweet or retweet a blog article by clicking on a Digg like icon you can place at the beginning of your article, at the end of your article or in both places.

You can choose the normal sized widget or select a compact widget, both will immediately retweet the article when clicked on provided you have an account with Twitter (or the person who clicks the widget has one if they do the tweeting).  Moreover, you can display the button on pages as well as posts, even on your feed which can be a great way for your readers to retweet your information.

Play Around With The Settings

You can design the button to float left or right and tweak the settings between a post and the button itself. Finally, you can either use your name as the source for the tweeting or tweet your pages with @tweetmeme as your source. The easy to use control panel makes setting up a breeze, no coding needs to be entered into various php files.

Because this plugin is from TweetMeme, you can also find your tweets featured on their site, by category. Get a boatload of tweets and you could have a front page appearance, much like Digg. TweetMeme, in fact, tracks the most popular tweets on Twitter, updating every five minutes.

Digg Is So Yesterday

Speaking of Digg, I’m so done with that service. Unless your far left radical or conspiracy theorist, your stuff generally won’t get dugg without much cooperation from like-minded people. Twitter on the other hand seems to be visited by people who actually make a living during their waking hours and includes people from a broad spectrum of society. Sure, you can follow whomever you want, but you can also avoid the problem children unlike with Digg.

So if you want to give TweetMeme a try to see how it works, why not retweet this article while you are at it? Or, find something else here to retweet and then download the plugin to see if it suits your needs.

Twitter, StumbleUpon Rank 1-2 In My Book

The verdict is in: Twitter and StumbleUpon (SU) rank as the two most important sites in my social media arsenal, easily outdistancing all other methods combined. Okay, maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration especially given Twitter’s propensity to slow down in the middle of the day, but I can say that I’m more active with Twitter than I am with SU which says a lot given my lengthy and consistent activity with the latter.

Winning With Twitter

Twittering (or should I say tweeting) is an interesting activity, especially if you like to write compelling, pithy headlines and include a URL with what you have to say. That can give an important edge to the professional writer who is used to coming up with killer headlines, but I don’t see Twitter being all that limiting for anyone other than the overt spammer.

It seems to me that all you have to do is share something of semi-value with your followers and, if your devotees are so inclined, they’ll retweet your tweets again and again. Of course, your pool of followers has to be rabidly interested in you and/or your topic, but “pitiful” me with scarcely 400 followers has seen a nice return on just one or two retweets as well.

Winning With StumbleUpon

SU remains a burly beast, an animal that attracts many other social media pros whose names are familiar to you.  Lyndon Antcliff, Chris Garrett, Tim Nash and Shana Albert are just a handful of active people on SU, individuals I long ago “friended” and still share stumbles with. However, to even things out a bit, I’m much more likely of late to visit the “What’s New” tab and find the latest finds, pull those up and leave a stumble.

A key point: I almost always leave a comment as a comment/stumble is better than leaving a stumble alone.  Please consider doing the same for the pages you choose to stumble…it’ll slow down your stumbling, but you’ll build up a reputation for being someone who leaves thoughtful and related comments behind. Trust me on this one, please.

The Rest of the Pack

I’m no longer active with Digg and I’m very careful with Reddit. Both sites seem to have been over run by a cohort of far-left wing devotees which is okay for them, but not so for everyone else.  If you post anything that even hints of opposition to the Digg or Reddit mindset you can expect your work to be buried in no time. They also turn on their own — I’ve read quite a few accounts where even the most ardent digger has been kicked to the curb by fellow diggers or by Digg itself.

Just the other day I had to plead with Reddit to restore my account — seems that my new ‘autotrends’ category offended someone. Gee, what’s so offensive about discussing the auto industry and new cars? Reddit did restore my account, but I’m expecting to be attacked again so I’ll keep my work focused on Twitter and StumbleUpon. That’s right, I quit!

Staying Laser Focused With Social Media

Of course there is a downside to social media and that drawback is spending too much time on it instead of doing actual work that makes money for yourself. Yes, I do tabbed browsing which means I’ll complete some work and then head over to Twitter and SU to see what’s up. I give myself a set amount of time to tweet or stumble, then its back to what I was doing.

Am I always so disciplined? No, but I avoid doing consecutive hours of socializing and with warmer weather here I’m much more inclined to log off, push in my chair and head outside for some refreshing exercise.

Thankfully, I don’t have a Blackberry or iPhone yet, otherwise I might be tempted to take my social media habit with me!

Related Reading: Amusing Myself With Twitter