1. Add a ribbon to your avatar using twibbon.
2. Visit the experience project to tweet a cause
3. Donate with twonate
4. Encourage your blog readers
5. Tweet your followers
6. Visit The Red Cross , Oxfam or Care are just a few of the many relief charities
7. Donate supplies, medicine, fresh water, clothes and food
8. Organize a local event with twitvite
9. Consider donating your time

Those are just a few quick suggestions. Remember to always verify that the site you are on is real – make sure you are donating to a cause before you give them your details.

1. Use it to create a brand image for your name or company
2. Find people with similar interests
3. Find local users
4. Discover great causes in your location
5. Give yourself exposure to people that you might not otherwise have found
6. Look up the experts and get some information
7. Use a directory for research and analysis

There ya go. There are dozens of directories for twitter – twitter list directories, twitter hubs, twitter by location and so on down the line. There really are endless reasons to use a twitter directory. What’s your reason?

A Twibe is a group of Twitter people with a common interest.

The Basics

Twibes is one of the best directories of twitter users with a common interest. If you want to find people to follow with and build community you can seek a Twibe on a very specific interest or start your own. It’s a way to instantly connect with a large group.

What They Say

Twibes makes it easy to participate in the conversations you care about. Tweet more to increase your mentions and followers.

Pros

• very quick way to find followers and community
• large directory

Cons

• wish it was integrated with Twitter, it would save time finding specific followers
• needs a geo tracking solution

What Fred the Toolman Tweets?

Twibes is a robust directory with strong features. Will retweet often.

Visit Twibes to find your community:  http://www.twibes.com/

The Basics

freezly helps you find coupons and giveaways that have been posted on Twitter for the day, saving you valuable time and money.

What They Say

We’ve developed an automated system to identify giveaways, filter out soliciting content, and display the giveaways in a fashionable manner.

Pros

• complete list of freebies, coupons, giveaways and deals
• nicely displayed
• simple to use

Cons

• could use a local feature
• integration with freecycle and other social sites

What Fred the Toolman Tweets?

freezly can help you find real bargains and freebies. Will add it to my list of followers.

Visit freezly to find great communities:  http://freezly.com/

Twitter is a useful tool for productivity, promotion, search and community but with a large user base that’s growing every day, I bet you never thought of a few ways Twitter can help you for Christmas.

Here’s a list of a few simple things you can do. With so many tools and profiles, I’ll let you discover those needles in a haystack and give you a few that I’ve found.

1. find your presents for a deal, perhaps using cheaptweet
2. discover last minute vacation deals
3. find or arrange great events – you can use twitvite for a simple tweetup
4. track santa at Norad
5. discover and find great Christmas recipes
6. stuck for great gift ideas – try a twitter search engine like twazzup and get realtime ideas and answers
7. share and enjoy the spirit
8. promote your favorite charity
9. find organizations in need of a volunteer
10. send a card via twitter, instead of using snail or email

It seems that life is getting more and more easy if you use the tools we are given to your advantage. Give it a try and you can continue to use these ideas for the remainder of the year.

I’d love it if you shares your Christmas twitter use in our comment thread.

A Social Media Dictionary.

The Basics

Twittords – Add words you use in Twitter, IM clients, and SMS! With it’s own lingo, the social media universe has so many words that you just haven’t heard. Now you can look them up, vote on them and add your own. Originally just for Twitter, other social media is included now.

What They Say

Originally we started this for twitter words, there were so many new ones. The Twitterverse has it’s own lingo, find and add your best here.

Pros

• large list of words
• can get a daily word sent to your account
• easy alphabetical lookup
• not just for Twitter

Cons

• if you don’t know what you are looking for – how do you find it

What Fred the Toolman Tweets?

Twittords is a complete Twitter Dictionary. Will re-tweet when I need a definition.

The Basics

Twitdom is a very thorough database of Twitter aps, books and resources. Growing everyday it’’s the most extensive resource I’ve seen.

What They Say

With thousands of applications available, it is but natural to come up with a
database (aka directory) of these applications to ensure that Twitter users can conveniently find the right
application for their needs.

Pros

• very well organized
• complete list, no need to look anywhere else
• nice recap of each resource

Cons

• lots of resources to wade through
• page view style is cumbersome

What Fred the Toolman Tweets?

Twitdom is the most complete Twitter aps database. Will re-tweet this daily and put it in my favs.

Visit Twibs

Browse Twitter Businesses on Twibs

The Basics

Twibs put simply is a Twitter directory exclusively for business. Businesses can search and submit a listing to help network. There is also an area that allows a listing for those that need a physical location.

What They Say

We are big believers in the power of twitter to connect customers with businesses.

Pros

• a fairly large listing
• great listings by location
• great tutorial on how to use effectively

Cons

• need listings by business type

What Fred the Toolman Tweets?

Twibs is a good quality business directory. Will re-tweet when looking to fill business needs.

Visit Twittersheep

This is a wordcloud generated by searching Twitter

The Basics

Twittersheep creates a wordcloud giving you a visual look for the related keywords. This allows you to see popular subtopics on a main topic in a visual manner. Simple tool to look for trends.

What They Say

Enter your twitter username to see a tag cloud from the ‘bios’ of your twitter flock.

Pros

• nice and easy
• good clean look
• great for drilling down a topic

Cons

• cloud words don’t link to a list of tweets

What Fred the Toolman Tweets?

Twittersheep is good to drill down trends and find niche topics. Will re-tweet this to discover detailed trend topics.

Hashtags Create Context

The idea behind #hashtags is to make the search experience more robust. A hashtag is designed to target a topic so you can follow a topic of interest more closely. It also helps you group your tweets to make them more community friendly. You can trace and monitor tweets,  which is an opportunity to improve the quality of your user experience.

One of the main uses for #hashtags is to create and follow events. The most famous one is #followfriday used to help people discover and praise followers that have joined or helped in the Twitter experience.

How To Use #Hashtags

1. Create a hashtag by putting the # hashtag symbol in front of your chosen keyword – for example #wordpress
2. Generally, you should only use one hashtag per tweet. The idea is to add value to your tweet. Multiple tags will only dilute them.
3. It is best to add your #hashtag at the beginning or end of your tweet but if carefully done, you can use it as a word in your sentence.

Look at the effective use of #wordpress at the end of the final tweet. This is a quick way for the user to get help with wordpress, though in this case it is being offer with a link to a tutorial.  The third tweet has a bunch of tags that offer a clutter view – clearly spam with little care for the user needs.

Choose a #Hashtag Name

1. Do a search with one of the various tag applications like #hashtags or tagdef to find an appropriate tag.
2. If you pick a popular topic to follow, it will have greater search power and you will have a larger audience to draw upon.

There are certain users that dislike the #hashtag experience because they want to use Twitter as a pure form of quick communication. One reason to use them sparingly. During events like #followfriday the Twitter stream can get inundated with tags that remove the ability to read the time line effectively.

#Hashtags can be an effective tool that create a better Tweet and track down practical information, events and trends. Learn to use them effectively and you can create a trend of your own with your followers.