I manage several twitter accounts for different topics (and a few for clients), and as a result generally use them through a central interface called HootSuite. Transparency: I am not affiliated with HootSuite in any way, I just use their product and find it really helpful.
One thing that is really great about it is you can customize he columns you see so that you can “listen” to what is rolling through twitter at any given time on any topic. This is a great free option for those who wish to monitor their brands or particular topics on twitter.
Now comes the fun part. Any column can be embedded in a website or blog. If you can cut and paste a block of html you have a really interesting tool at your disposal. Here is an example of how it looks when embedded into a blog post. This column is a search for tweets about the recent Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the levee failure that followed. The column streams new tweets tagged with the search term #whereiwasfouryearsago, a hashtag being used by New Orleanians to memorialize the disaster four years ago.
There are numerous other advantages, including click through tracking for links shortened within the HootSuite interface and a terrific bookmarklet, that I won’t go into now. It s one of my favorite tools so I could easily go on at length.
As you can see there is a lot of potential here for the creative blogger. If you’re attending a conference you can have a column in your blog sidebar displaying tweets with the conference hashtag. If you’re blogging on a hot topic you can enhance your post by adding a twitter embed like this one geared to search for pertinent keywords.
Let me know what you do out there if you use this tool. Drop me a line and a link or leave one in the comments here. I always love seeing people to creative things with information.
