OK…so the other day I talked about How to Attend a Twitter party and not that long ago, I wrote a post about How to Tweet…now, I’m going to take things one step further.
HOW TO ATTEND A TWITTER PARTY USING TWEET DECK!
I’ve tried to follow twitter parties from my phone and from regular ol’ twitter…but the thing is, things move way too quickly and with a phone, you have to refresh your screen a lot and then the problem with “regular twitter”…it can sometimes be a little difficult to follow along. Too much information packed into one little screen!
TWEET DECK is the perfect answer!
Prior to every twitter party I attend, I organize myself in Tweet Deck and then pour myself a glass of wine and a bowl of chips…and prepare for a fabulous evening.
So…how do you organize your Tweet Deck and what on earth is it!
TweetDeck is a social media “dashboard”…that helps you manage your Twitter account (or accounts if you have more than one). It works WITH twitter so you can send and receive tweets, view profiles etc… TweetDeck is laid out in customizable columns where you choose what you’re interested in keeping an eye on. As well, TweetDeck is a fabulous place to schedule tweets to be delivered at a later date or time.
Side Note: We’re talking about using TweetDeck for a Twitter Party…however, if you have a company and you’re finding it difficult to remember daily to put out a few tweets…take an hour schedule a whole bunch of things and have them set to appear throughout the week. Scheduling is FANTASTIC.
Anyway…back to our regular programming!
First things first, you need a TweetDeck account. From the tweetdeck.com website, sign up by entering your email address and a password. Next, click on the Add Twitter Account button and if you’re already logged into Twitter on another tab, you’ll just have to Authorize TweetDeck to be able to use your Twitter account.
If you’re not logged into twitter, enter your username and password and click the Authorize app button.
And now…you have TweetDeck!
OK…so, how to use it at the party…
When you first start with TweetDeck, you’ll see four standard columns: Timeline, Notifications, Activity and Message.
The Timeline is your regular twitter steam…showing the updates of all of the people you’re following. Unlike on your phone, you don’t have to “refresh” this list, it’s LIVE…you’ll see things happening and moving and at times…it’s dizzying if you follow a whole lot of people and they’re all in chatty moods!
Notifications show all of the tweets that have your Twitter handle in them…so whenever someone mentions you.
Activity shows all of the people you follow and all of the things they’re doing at the moment such as favouriting other people’s tweets or gaining new followers or adding people to a list.
Messages…those are your personal direct messages.
While these columns are the standard ones, you’ll likely want to change them and for a party…you’ll DEFINITELY want to change them.
So, before a Twitter Party, I remove all of the columns and start from scratch! (Technically…I leave the “Notifications” one as I tend to use it during a party to see who’s talking to me…if you remove it, you can always add it back in later!)
To Remove a Column:
- Click on the little “doo-hickey” button on the top, right-hand side of the column you want to remove. Clicking on it will open a drop-down list of options.
- Click on the X by the Remove option.
Once you have all of your columns removed…then you can add the columns you’ll need for the party…starting with the Party Hashtag!
Adding a Hashtag Column:
There are a few ways to go about this, but I’m just going to show you one way (or this blog post will go on forever!).
In the far left column, you’ll see New Tweet, Search and Add Column (along with some options on the bottom.)
Notice what happens when you click the New Tweet button, it opens a screen where you can write your tweet (if you have multiple accounts (you’ll see in my graphic I have two) you can choose which account you’re Tweeting from.
The big white square is where you type your Tweets!
I usually leave the “New Tweet” column OPEN, but clicking on the button again on the far left (it now looks like a feather pen), will collapse the column.
Anyway…to add the Hashtag column for the Party Hashtag…
Underneath the New Tweet Button you’ll find the Search Option as well as the Add Column Button.
- Click the Add Column option to open the “Choose Column Type” screen. (Here you can choose to add a number of different types of columns…Messages, Users, Favourites, Notifications etc… We want to add a column for the Hashtag, so we’ll need to Search for it to find it.
- Click on the Search option.
- Type in the Hashtag you’re looking for and the information will appear on the screen.
- Choose the Add Column button on the bottom of the displayed column and it will be added to your Tweet Deck!
Yeah, yeah, yeah it’s true…you could have skipped steps 1 and 2 and just clicked the search option under the New Tweet button, HOWEVER, I wanted to show you the LONG WAY so I could show you that “Choose Column Type” screen so you would know how to add all of the other types of columns.
Sheesh…this all reminds me of when I taught computer software for so many years…there was always SOMEONE in the room showing me a “better” way to do something but LITERALLY, there are 10 ways to do everything in these software programs and every now and then…I’d show All Ten just to prove I knew the software! That’s right…I did!
OK…sorry for that.
(Psst…next time you do a search, you can completely skip opening up that “Choose Column Type” screen.)
Adding the Party Sponsor:
OK…so adding in a column for the party sponsor is ALMOST the exact same as adding in the hashtag. Follow steps 1 and 2…for step 3, enter in the name of the company throwing the party. When you find their twitter handle, click on their name and the profile screen for the company you searched for will appear.
From here, click on USER in the lower left corner of the profile screen and THEN it will open up another screen where you can press the Add Column button.
Adding the Party Hosts:
If you have one party host, you can add their user information the exact same way you added the company sponsoring the party. However, if you have more than one host…say three or four of them…you’re now building a whole bunch of columns and things are getting silly!
So…by making a LIST, you can create a column with multiple people in the one column.
- Click Lists from the “Choose Column Type” screen.
- Click on the Create List button.
- Enter a name for your list and choose whether your list is Public or Private (in this case, I named my list “Wicker Emporium Hosts” and chose Private.)
- Click the Save button on the bottom right corner of the “Create List” dialog box.
- To add names to your lists…type the twitter handle of the person/company you wish to add to the list and press Enter.
- Click on the + Button to Add the person to the list…continuing these steps until you’ve added all of the people you’d like in your list.
- Click on the Done button, making sure the Add Column option is checked (next to the Done button)…and a column with your list of people will be added to your TweetDeck.
AND THEN…you’re ready to Party!!!
Oh…one more thing, I usually also have a column of my Notifications so that I can see when people are referencing me in a tweet and would like to have a little chit-chat with me during the party!
So…load up your Tweet Deck with all of the information you need for the party, grab a drink and a bowl of chips…and settle in for a whirlwind hour of fun and entertainment!
In this post, I showed references to the Wicker Emporium party that’s happening TONIGHT at 9PM. If you’d like to RSVP to the party and come play with us…click on the link here.
And please, any time you’re at a party and if you get a little lost and aren’t sure what to do…just ask! I’m happy to help.