TweetDeck is the most useful application for managing Twitter that I’ve found. While many call it “intuitive,” some of my clients are intimidated by it. Perhaps they don’t realize it has tooltip-type hints when you mouse over the various buttons, or maybe the tips don’t explain enough. For those of you who want more than tooltips, here is a basic introduction to TweetDeck.
Organize your screen with these buttons
The following nine buttons function as toggles. That is, click once to open, and click again to close. They are found at the upper left of your screen. (Where appropriate, I’ve linked to some tutorials on another site that explain certain functions in more detail.)
- Click here to type a message (status update). When you click this button, several other buttons become available which I will collectively refer to as the tweetbox. They are explained below.
- This opens or closes a column that shows all updates from everyone you follow. Usually it’s open.
- Click this button to start a new group.
- Click here to set up a search column.
- Click here to start a column that monitors all replies to you. (That is, all messages that have @yourtwittername in them.)
- If you want to have a column of all your direct messages, click here.
- This button sets up a column with all your favorited tweets.
- Twitscoop enables you to see what the hot twitter topics are.
- 12seconds is “the best place online for video status updates.” When you click this button it will ask you for your login.
Using the tweetbox to post a message. (Button 1 above.)
(Click image to enlarge)
Your message is also called a status update. You type it into the tweetbox, the largest blank field in the form (A). As you know, you only have 140 characters at your disposal. Tweetdeck helps you get the most out of them. If you are linking to another page, Tweetdeck will shorten the url using one of several link-shortening services. Paste your link in at (B) and choose the service from (C). (In this case, tinyURL.) Then click the Shorten button (D).
Do you want to share a picture? Type the caption for your picture into the message box, and click the TwitPic button (E). Tweetdeck gets the photo uploaded to TwitPic, and inserts a shortened url to the image. You just have to press enter.
Finally, if your message is just a leetle too long, click (F) to use Tweetshrink to trim it down. It will change you to u, are to r, and the like, in an effort to get your message under the 140 character limit.
Info from an individual status update
Each group that you create is a vertical column of messages, with the newest at the top. Each message, or status update, is designed to provide a wealth of information and utility, but you need to mouse over the picture of the writer of that message to access the tools. Below is a reply I sent to @gardenofwords. You can’t see the cursor, but it is resting over my profile picture so that the four grey icons show up. These are buttons for the basic twitter functions: reply, direct message, retweet, and favorite.
Click on image to enlarge
If you click on the name of the sender of the message or any @twittername, Tweetdeck will open the Profile of that user in a column on the right. You can look over that user’s updates, read their bio and click on any url they’ve provided in their profile, and then, at the bottom of the column, click a button to follow them. If you’re already a follower, you can add or remove them from a group.
Next to the sender’s name is a plus sign (+). Click on that to add the sender to one or more groups (assuming you already follow her). If you click on the datestamp of the message, it will take you to the status permalink. This is the url of that message, which is useful if you want to link to it or bookmark it.
Tweetdeck also shows you the application used to send the message, and links to that application. This is useful for finding new ways to tweet.
After the application name is a link to the message that the current message is replying to. If the sender had clicked on the reply icon for the correct message, when you click on this link you will see the tweet that inspired the reply.This can sometimes be cut off if the user’s twittername is long or if the columns are narrow. When it works, it can be very helpful in putting replies in context.
Other Twitter tutorials
The advantage of a still tutorial such as this one is that you can refer to it as you’re using TweetDeck. But a video tutorial can help give you the big picture. I chose these particular tutorials because they illustrated features of TweetDeck that I haven’t covered in this tutorial. You will find a lot more videos on YouTube about TweetDeck, but most are of poor quality.
- How to Create a Group and Use the Search Function
- Rearranging Columns, Search Function, Change Settings (including colors)
- New features in the latest version 0.21b
Meet Iain Dodsworth
TweetDeck is currently the work of one person, Iain Dodsworth. In this video interview he discusses his plans for TweetDeck’s future. More about TweetDeck Pro. If you would like to help direct that future, vote for your favorite features at the TweetDeck feedback forum.
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Kathy, this was very helpful. thanks for this most excellent post!
Great tips for a great tool. Makes keeping track of Twitter much more manageable. Having discovered it via tweets thanks to @NikkiPilkington, now using it in preference to others I’ve tried.
http://www.twitter.com/clareevans
Thank you, nice and simple and saves me clicking around aimlessly trying to learn TweetDeck fast!
Thanks for this helpful post. I love it!
Tremendously useful post. I love TweetDeck and I have recommended TweetDeck on my blog and will link to this guide.
Thank you for this useful post, Kathy. I just installed Tweetdeck and have learned how to use it based on your instructions. I always wondered what Tweetdeck was. Now I know …
Tweetdeck is incredibly useful. It’s more intuitive than using Twitter’s webpage alone.
I can’t even get TweetDeck to run. But thanks for the post – nice job.
Was a little overwhelmed with TweetDeck at first, thanks very much for this guide and a nod to mediabistro for the head’s up
Short and sweet, great informative post!
Thank you, great and helpful post!
Excellent post – thanks!
Thanks so much for I wondered where to get this info on icons i didn’t understand. Very clear and added to my own blog for my newbie readers.
Very helpful, but anyone know how to get more than last 200 tweets in my stream when I start it in the evening…
I just started using TweetDeck and then Darren Rouse of Problogger.com fame pointed me to this very informative post. Thanks for a great tutorial to lower the learning curve on a great utility.
My favorite TweetDeck functions, so far, the retweets/reply buttons and the shorten url and the TwitPic. Great stuff.
Fabulous post. I just started Twitter in December and Tweetdeck was recommended as a must have. Your lesson is presented in a way it makes it easy to understand. Great job!
I’ve been using Twhirl, which I like. I’m still playing with TweetDeck to see how much I really like it.
How do you read or “mark as seen” individual message? Also, what is the different between “clear seen tweets” and “clear all”?
Woody, I’m sorry I didn’t explain that feature. There is a dot by the name of the writer of the tweet. Click on that dot and it is marked as seen. Clear seen tweets only removes the ones where the dot is no longer there. Clear all takes out every single tweet in the column. I thought the tutorial was getting a bit long, and decided I’d have to do a follow-up for the features I didn’t cover.
I just want to say to everyone who has commented that I am very glad you find the tutorial helpful. There are so many features to TweetDeck that at first I was a bit perplexed as to how to organize the material so it would be easy to follow. And screen shots are not my strong suit, LOL!
The reason so many are overwhelmed to start is that this product breaks major interaction design norms! I looks good but it poorly designed!
Tweetdeck is awesome, however since I first tried it months ago, now the v0.21b still doesn’t open the urls in firefox but in my texteditor… Tried all the tips&tricks out there… most recent AIR …
Please RT – any idea?
Great tutorial for beginning Tweetdeck users. Now if only someone could explain to me how to overcome this API restriction to help me stay current? @tgruber
This is really helpful. I’ve been using Twitterific, which I love, but I’d like to start using Twitter (along with my blogs) for my classes, and I’d like to have a separate group for each class. So I’m exploring other alternatives. It sounds like Tweetdeck would work.
I don’t know why the Tweet Deck developers can’t do something so simple in the form of a “help” button perhaps? Thanks – printed this out to keep on hand.
@Woody:
I find the tools at the bottom of each column useful. Instead of marking each individual tweet as read, you can mark the icon that looks like a pen pointing down and it will mark everything in the current view as read. Once I have read all those, I clear seen tweets (the scissor icon). If any new tweets have come after I marked the others with the pen icon, those won’t be cleared.
If you click the trash icon, then it clears everything in the column, whether they are marked read or not. Hope this helps.
@Kathy
Thanks for this tutorial. When I first downloaded Tweetdeck I was overwhelmed. It seemed to be too much all at once. When I learned all the tools it became more manageable. I just wish it didn’t slow down so much…
Twitter is one of the best online applications I’ve found till date. and there are even better application to help to get to twitter. I’d recently known about tweetdeck. thanks for the explanations on how to get used to tweetdeck. cheers.
Kathy, thank you for a superb tutorial for TweetDeck – (I am the developer btw). If anyone is having any issues with TweetDeck please email me with the details at hello at tweetdeck dot com.
Iain
After a couple failed attempts, I have to admit I’m starting to see the merit of TweetDeck. Big beef though – can’t stand the look of it. Color is just depressing. Feel like I’m in a deep dark server room. Choice would be awesome.
You can change the colors. Click on that wrench in the upper right to access the settings. One of the videos I linked to also demonstrates how to change the colors.
Sensational clarity! Thanks for this. I will definitely check this out!
Monotonous I know, but here comes more praise … absolutely wonderful job illuminating TD. I love your limpid writing, and your generosity of spirit. (Chilis: Give it away, give it away, give it away now!) I have seen other explanations of TD, but none as succinct, spot-on. Also, few other “Explicators” made a point of naming the creator. If there were ever a designed thing in this world where it’s maker needs to be recognized, it’s TD and ID. So good for you. And don’t get me started on him. I could write buckets of praise to the man who has infused an app with a soul, as well as the most soulful of functionalities.
THIS IS AWESOME. I was about to switch back to twirl, and viola found this link via twitter.
Thank you
Thanks for the tutorial, just downloaded TweetDeck after using TwitterFox and twhirl, this one is definitely prettiest!! Do you know if there is a way of expanding the columns? I hate that I can’t see who people are replying to, the “in reply to…” bit of the messages are always cut off. Considering moving back to twhirl because of it, it’s a dealbreaker.
I am new to Twitter and newer to TweetDeck. I noticed today that when I posted an update from the Twitter page, the link I posted wasn’t clickable on TweetDeck. Do I need to do something special to make it “live”?
Thanks for this great tutorial, has been a huge help!
Grace, if you click on that bit of “in reply to” it opens up the tweet in a new window. Then you can read it in its entirety. I’ve never tried to make the columns wider; I have the maximum and need every inch crammed in!
Conservative Pup, I love TweetDeck’s ability to shorten urls so much that I can’t remember the last time I posted a link from the Twitter interface. It sounds like a bug to me; you shouldn’t need to do anything.
If I clear my tweets marked as “seen”, and then I close tweetdeck for the day, when I reopen it, the tweets I marked as seen reappear. Clearing seen tweets only seems to work for the current session. Is this normal?
Muy bueno el tutorial, esta bien detallado, lo unico malo es que aun no puedo instalarlo, debido a que la aplicación adobe AIR esta algo defectuosa en mi Compu, provare instalarlo de nuevo.
Saludos…
Great tutorial – really helpful! Thank you. I’ve been wondering if there’s a setting that allows tweets I mark as seen in one of my groups to be automatically marked as seen in the All Friends column, too. That would make skimming my All Friends stream a lot faster.
Thank you! I thought I knew Tweetdeck (my favorite Twitter app) until I read this awesome tutorial! I appreciater your excellent guide post and most of all, your generosity of spirit! Thank you!!!
Fantastic!!! Thank you so much. Very helpful.
I love tweetdeck, but it’s not working right with tweetburner. Any urls shortened in tweetdeck with twurl do not track on tweetburner. Does anyone have a good twitter analytics app that definitely works with tweetdeck?
Nice job, I’m surprised nobody had put together such a comprehensive post…Tweetdeck allows me to keep up, I’d be buried with tweets otherwise and would lose an effective means of communication.
Great post.
Thanks
A very useful guide. Thank you for the learning! P. :)
Kinda looks like Tweetdeck is an overly convoluted way of doing what the TwitMe plugin does right in Wordpress.
I guess there is always a way to complicate a simple thing without really adding any extra value :)
Great tutorial though!
Great tutorial & links, very helpful, thank you! Have only been using Twitter for a week or so and Tweetdeck for slightly less – now I can make much better use of it.
I’ve been using tweetdeck too, but lately I can’t use it. The status at the bottom says, “twitter status: not authorized” What does it mean and how do I solve this puzzler? I’m using the default twitter website to post my tweets now. Please help.
Kathy,
You did an excellent job with this information. So clear and helpful. I was debating on switching from Twirl to TweetDeck. With your guidance I think the switch should go smoothly.
Great info. Do you know if I can you tweetdeck to update my blog along with facebook and twitter?
Thanks.
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