TweetDeck is an application developed by Twitter that allows users to decide which information they want readily available to them. Users can streamline that information simultaneously in one convenient location. According to the TweetDeck team, “TweetDeck makes it easier for publishers, marketers, and power users to track the real-time conversations they care about.”
Users can access TweetDeck at www.tweetdeck.com or by downloading the TweetDeck app on their desktop. They sign in using their previously existing Twitter username and password. Upon signing in, users are presented with their own personalized TweetDeck.
The TweetDeck default settings show an uncustomized TweetDeck as a series of four columns: Timeline, Interactions, Messages, and Activity. Timeline shows the current tweets that your followers are posting in real time; Interactions show that other users have mentioned you, retweeted you, or favorited one of your tweets; Messages are your direct messages; and Activity shows who else your followers have been following, retweeting, favoriting, and mentioning.
The TweetDeck team says, “It brings more flexibility and insight to power users through a customizable layout that lets you keep up with people and topics that matter most to you.” Users have the options to add any number of columns to their TweetDeck. Other columns include: Followers, Lists, Tweets, Favorites, Trends, Me, Inbox, and Scheduled. You can also delete whichever columns you feel are unimportant and invaluable to the information collecting process.
The Lists feature on TweetDeck allows users to select which Twitter users’ tweets they want constantly streaming in real time on their TweetDeck. For instance, the One Direction fanatic may create a list titled “1D” that updates live tweets coming from Harry, Louis, Niall, Zayn, and Liam. Someone studying fashion may create a list featuring @CHANEL, @Caradelevingne, and @TimesFashion.
Perhaps the best use of Lists on TweetDeck is for following breaking news stories as they unfold. In recent years, social media has emerged as an advanced and powerful tool when it comes to newsgathering and the spread of information across vast populations. Creating a list featuring the most popular news outlets, either across the nation or the globe, would be an innovative approach to following breaking news. By putting the List column next to the Timeline column on their TweetDecks, users can view how their peers on Twitter are reacting to the news.
The Trends column on TweetDeck is particularly useful for users who like to track what is popular in the Twitter-verse. When users click to add the Trends column, they are presented with a list of what is trending on Twitter worldwide at that moment. These trends can include specific words, phrases, or hashtags that are creating lots of buzz. Choose a trend to add to your TweetDeck, and it will appear as an ever-evolving stream of live tweets about that trending topic. (Disclaimer: Because Twitter trends are constantly changing, adding new Trend columns frequently is important if you want to stay up-to-date.)
So TweetDeck has all of these features that provide unsurpassed flexibility to its users, but is it separate from Twitter itself? Surprisingly, no. Users can post tweets, search Twitter, and retweet and favorite other tweets just as they would on the original app. TweetDeck doesn’t change the content of one’s Twitter capabilities at all. Rather, it changes the structure so that its users can be even more active in the social media world. Like Twitter, but better.