
If you’re a blogger and haven’t joined Twitter, then you’re missing out on a great opportunity to network, expand your brand and increase blog traffic.
The best way to see what it’s all about is to sign-up and see for yourself. Personally, I would recommend using a desktop air application, rather than the web stream. I use Twhirl. Pick 20-30 users to follow, and start reading and sharing. Feel free to follow me @jnbammer.
Once you get the gist of how it works, then you will quickly see that Twitter has inspired a ton of applications and services to enhance your experience. Most of them are best used strategically or sporadically, as the biggest value comes from tweeting and interacting with fellow users.
Here’s 20 Cool Twitter Apps or Services that I would recommend checking out:
1. Twubble – provides recommendations for people you may want to follow based on who you already follow. Basically, it shows you how many of your friends are following other users. You will need to have 20 – 30 people that you’re following already before this recommendation has much value. Every time your list of followers doubles, then try it again to expand your bubble. Twits Like Me is another option to find new friends.
2. Twit Links – want to know what links the top tech writers are sharing on Twitter, then check out Twit Links. It’s a great way to get the inside scoop on what these early adapters and creators of tech content are reading, writing and sharing.
3. Alpha Twitter – this site displays the top links being shared on Twitter by all users. It ranks links by number of times shared. If you’re looking for what’s hot in the entire Twitter-verse, then this is the site to visit.
4. Tweet Clouds – cool service that lets you make a tag cloud from the words you are currently using on Twitter. Gives you an idea of what you’re focusing on and sharing with others. Another cool feature of this service is that you can tell it to add in your del.icio.us tags as well to see if you’re focusing on the same things on and off of Twitter.
5. Tweet Scan – real-time Twitter search. Not much more to say, other than it helps you find people talking about the same thing you are interested in talking about, and it is a great tool for research.
6. TweetLater – If you have an addictive personality, or you want to have a constant presence on Twitter, this service allows you to schedule Tweets to be transmitted at a later time in the day when you may not be near a computer. Although I haven’t done this yet, I can see value in this for retweeting announcements about new blog posts or other news about your site.
7. TwitDir – a directory for Twitter, which includes Top user – Top 100 Followed; Top 100 Updaters; Top 100 Favouriters (if that’s even a real word); Top 100 Followers; and, a basic search function for all of the Top lists combined.
8. Your Twitter Karma – this is a service that shows you all of the people who are connected to you and vice versus. It displays a user’s profile image, then shows you if he is following you, you are following him or the relationship is mutual. You can then choose to follow or unfollow users.
9. TweetStats – a service for stat freaks. Graph your stats by hour, month or timeline. Pretty self-explanatory.
10. Hashtags – real-time tracking of Twitter hashtags. Hashtags are a way to create groupings on Twitter. It’s a little extra work, but it serves its purpose.
11. Twitter Poster – shows you a graphical view of people’s influence among Twitter world. I don’t really get it, but I guess it’s another way to expand your understanding of reach.
12. Tweeterboard – this is a service that analyzes who is talking to you on Twitter. It also shows you the Top 100 conversationalists.
13. Twitterfeed – service that uses your blog feed to post updates in content on your site to Twitter at a specified time.
14. tweetgift – send your Twitter friends virtual gifts (icons of gifts).
15. tweetmeme – tracks new blog posts, images, videos and audio files shared on Twitter.
16. Twittervision - watch as Tweets pop-up from around the world on a cool interactive map. For a similar experience, check TwittEarth.
17. TwitterLocal – create a feed for users who are tweeting messages within a 1 – 20 mile radius of any zip code.
18. Twitter.Alltop.com – see the 5 most recent posts of top Twitter users. Updated every 10 minutes.
19. Twitterbar – post directly to Twitter from your address bar. Firefox add-on.
20. Twitterholic – tracks stats for top users and sorts them for you. If you are addicted to Twitter and use it constantly, you may be on the list! If not, it is another way to find out what’s hot with the tw-hotties.
Any cool apps or services that I missed? Feel free to share them in the comments. Thanks!

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