Tweetdeck for organised Twitter

When I encourage colleagues to use Twitter for daily inspiration, a common criticism of the platform is that the feed becomes very full! This is particularly problematic when you follow hundreds of people. With so many tweets on view, it can become trickier to find ones of value. The answer, for me, is Tweetdeck.

What is Tweetdeck?

Tweetdeck is a website by Twitter (also available as a handy Google extension) that organises tweets into specific columns. Users can customise their columns to allow easy access to the people or hashtags that they find most valuable. If users have multiple Twitter accounts, it is also possible to see them all in one place.

The image above shows a screenshot of my Tweetdeck. This view shows how I focus on #pypbookstudy, my notifications, the home feed, and my colleague Dickie (and more to the right). The columns update automatically when new tweets are tweeted. More columns can also be accessed by simply scrolling right.

When is it particularly useful?

Specific people and hashtags:

I follow over a thousand educators on Twitter because I genuinely value what each of them share (if I didn’t, I would unfollow them). Having said that, there are a handful of people who I am particularly interested in. Instead of searching through the whole feed in the hope of finding them, I would previously just search for them and head to their profile. I would also do this for particular hashtags. On Tweetdeck, each person and hashtag can get their own column.

Twitter chats:

I find Twitter chats to be very fiddly on the regular Twitter site. It’s even worse on mobile devices! This is due to the large volume of tweets being sent by the chatters and the large amount of notifications that are received due to replies, mentions, likes and retweets. Now, I only ever chat with Tweetdeck. I can have the chat hashtag column right next to my notifications column. This makes it so much easier to keep track of what’s going on!

Personal and professional accounts (not recommended): 

Tweetdeck will be particularly useful for those who have one account for both personal and professional tweets. I strongly recommend splitting into two different accounts, but in the meantime, use Tweetdeck to separate Sir. Ken Robinson from Harry Styles.

Scheduled tweets:

Using Tweetdeck, it is possible to compose tweets and schedule what time you would like them to be shared. I have only just found out about this feature, so I have no personal experience of using it yet. It sounds very useful though!

How can it be customised?

As the image shows, a column can be added by clicking the ‘+’ icon. Users can then select what type of column they would like (see options above) before finally typing the name of the specific subject. It’s extremely easy and keeps all tweets nice and tidy!

If you would like to be more active on Twitter, but you have previously been put off by it, I strongly recommended trying it through Tweetdeck. You might find that it addresses many of your frustrations. Customise your columns in order to maximise inspiration! Having said that, don’t totally ignore the general feed (add ‘Home’ as another column). The beauty of Twitter is still networking with other educators and learning from a wide range of experiences and expertise.

To go back to basics, here’s the link to my Twitter induction guide.

Do you find Tweetdeck helpful? Do you have any other tips for tweeting teachers? Maybe you still don’t like it! Whatever you’re thinking, I’m really interested to know. Please add a comment below!