Jeremy Tanner Life in Boulder: Every day an adventure.

Twitter for Mac Back in Black

I’ve been enjoying the long overdue Twitter for Mac since the Mac App Store opened on the 6th. Love it. Tweetie was my favorite Mac Twitter client and still in use right up until the 6th. The 2.0 release adds list & retweet support, the only things that were really missing. It has everything I need, nothing that I don’t. I downloaded it on my Mac Mini yesterday and noticed the blue icon… I could have sworn that the app was supposed to have a black icon. Checked the MacBook. Sure enough, the update from 2.0 to 2.0.1 changes the icon blue.

I like the black icon, so I changed it back. To change it back on your machine:

1. Download and unzip these Black Twitter Icons
2. In the Applications folder select the Twitter app and ⌘+I to get info
3. Select the black icon and ⌘+I to open it’s info
4. Click the lock in the lower right corner of Twitter’s info window to allow changes
5. Change the permissions for ‘everyone’ to Read & Write
6. Click the black icon in the icon’s info window’s upper left corner and ⌘+C to copy
7. Click the blue icon in the app’s info window’s upper left corner and ⌘+V to paste
8. Close and relaunch the Twitter app

The Social Network That Beats Twitter AND Facebook

I talked about contact management applications last week with a friend who does Business Development, it seems many people’s communications have shifted to various social tools (Facebook, Twitter et al.) This is fine and many are fully on-board the “Wave of the future.” I’m not convinced. I’ve found an more effective social network than either Twitter or Facebook. The downside, it’s pay to play, costing me upwards of $70 a month. The up side? It’s 10 times larger than Twitter and Facebook combined. It’s the cellular network. Your telephone. Too many underestimate the value of a phone call. You know that your message reached who it needed to and you get instant feedback. It requires nothing more than a handset and service. It has privacy settings (If it’s not a good time, don’t answer!) You can text one or many privately. Recently had to find a source on short notice: colleague sent a Twitter @ message, I picked up the phone. GAME OVER. “Phone calls don’t scale” Perfect! The limited amount of hours in everyone else’s day is what keeps them from being able to talk to the same people I do. Inability to call thousands makes receiving a call / text message somewhat special. I’ve met people I’ve liked immediately, but even then, making friends and building relationships requires putting in time. In romance if you can’t meet face to face, you take it to the phone, why should your other meaningful interactions be any different?

Why aren’t you on the phone?

You Owe Me Nothing (My Twitter Policy)

In the realm of electronic communications, you owe me nothing. Not a follow-back on Twitter, not a response to an @ reply, not an answer to my emails. You don’t even have to pick up the phone when I call. Counterpoint. It goes both ways. Earlier while talking Twitter with a few friends, I realized that I have no published Twitter policy. I’ve recently seen a few disappointments that stemmed from users not setting expectations for communication with them. I do not follow everyone back who follows me on Twitter. When I follow you, it’s because your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter. It’s not a ploy to get you to follow me back, that’d make me a spammer. I follow missrogue, dickc, gruber, badbanana, Armano one-way because they have consistently excellent streams. Not being followed back on Twitter isn’t an indictment of our relationship, I have plenty of dear friends who I don’t follow. Twitter’s not a great place for conversation, for those I’m a bigger fan of friendfeed, facebook and the phone. I can’t take all of Twitter unfiltered and the only filter Twitter allows is Follow/ Don’t follow. “Follow me back on Twitter so we can talk.” Is bordering passive aggressive if there’s multiple other ways to contact me. I make myself available over email, by phone and on facebook.

Note: This works for individuals. If the Twitter account is for business / customer service, it may be better to follow all back and use monitoring tools. That way, all your customers feel listened to and have an additional means of contacting you (direct message), always a good thing. The downside, all those aggregate streams coming in make keeping up with the tiny newsletters that you ARE interested in impossible. That’s the trade.

Who are you on Twitter for?

Hate the Player It’s Not a Game

“Don’t hate the player, hate the game” refers to jealousy over success that’s attained by operating within the rules. People operating outside the rules… Well, hate away. Earlier in the week I was talking with a few friends about Twitter Spam / Blackhatting twitter. (The old “Force follow” trick, grinding / churning accounts, probing for accounts set to auto-follow) I’m all for people using Twitter and other services for whatever purpose they want, so long as they’re honest about it. Sure, build an “Elite Power Account”, but don’t call yourself expert, maven, guru, or coach. Spamming Twitter does not make you a Premier Thought Leader. It makes you an Idiot. A paper millionaire with a fistful of Enron stock. The numbers are impressive, but have no value outside of impressing people who don’t know any better. Sure, being legitimate is slow going, but there’s really not an alternative. When it comes down to it, wouldn’t you prefer an address book full of people that matter rather than a stack of phonebooks full of people who couldn’t care less?