The End of the World

I don’t have a Twitter account. I don’t feel I need one, or more specifically I don’t feel I have the time to invest in checking one. It’s much simpler for me to just check my fan sites and be done with it. But if there was anything that would draw me to Twittering it’s Asteroids.

That’s right with @AsteroidWatch your Twitter account can go beyond simple celebrity updates to real important news (sort of). The account is just what it sounds like, AsteroidWatch posts updates of Asteroids that are set to come within a certain distance of earth (and miss us hopefully).

If AsteroidWatch tickles your fancy maybe you’ll also appreciate NASA updates from the likes of the Mars Phoenix Rover (@MarsPhoenix) and other bots. Hey, it’s the most interesting thing I’ve heard from Twitter so far.

Tweet Fringe. Tweet Glee.

Fox is really tapping in with  Tweet-peatsthis Thursday and Friday of episodes of Fringe and Glee before the new fall season begins.

Thursday’s Fringe episode will be a re-broadcast of Season One’s “The Road Not Taken” on at 9/8c. During the episode you can log-on to Twitter and follow show stars Joshua Jackson “Peter Bishop” and
John Noble aka “Walter Bishop” - @labdad1

You can also tweet with the show’s producers Jeff Pinkner - @jpfringe and J.H. Wyman - @jwfringe

Glee has a similar showing of its pilot episode on Friday, Sept. 4 with actors tweeting throughout the episode

9pm EST
To tweet them directly at 9pm EST, go to each actor’s personal Twitter page.
Lea Michele, “Rachel Berry” - @msleamichele
Kevin McHale, “Artie Abrams” - @druidDUDE
Mark Salling, “Puck” - @mark_salling

9pm PST
To tweet them directly at 9pm PST, go to each actor’s personal Twitter page.
Cory Monteith, “Finn Hudson” - @frankenteen
Amber Riley, “Mercedes” - @msamberriley
Chris Colfer, “Kurt Hummel - @chriscolfer

You can also just lurk at @FRINGEonFOX and @GLEEonFOX.

Twitter Pro coming

For all of its massive popularity, Twitter has yet to turn a profit. Soon, however, that may change.

Twitter will begin offering PRO accounts for business users that use Twitter for its marketing and public relations.  Now don’t fear–ordinary everyday users won’t have to pay for their accounts under this new business model.  In order to entice business users to sign up for the additional expense, they will get some added features such as statistics and analytics.

Let’s hope Twitter makes it work. I’d hate to see it go away.

New College Job–Twintern

Social networks are changing our lives and they are also changing the jobs we do. Enter the twintern or the intern whose job is to update the company’s Twitter page.

Pizza Hut’s twintern spends the day updating the company’s posts, monitoring comments and keeping an eye out for mentions of the company on other tweets.  Not a bad gig if you can get it.

As someone who used to work in a PR department and who had the job of keeping an eye out for mentions of the company, I know how time consuming these tasks can be. As new outlets for media are formed (from Facebook to Twitter and You Tube) the work multiplies.  Companies are smart to find extra hands to do the work but as one article online wondered, is it a good idea to put an intern in charge of your company’s message in such a popular forum?

Who knows what jobs will be available by the time my children are entering the workforce–Facebook relationship manager, Cloud computing Czar, Twitter analyst . . .  and a million more I can only dream of.

Tweet What You Eat

New site Tweet What You Eat helps you compile a food diary via Twitter to watch your calories and lose weight.

Simply create an account by logging in with your Twitter details and then you can track what you consume, its calories and when you are eating. If you don’t know the calories, or they aren’t available, you can use the CrowdCal feature–the Internet’s first crowd-sourced calorie database”–which uses other users information to fill in the blanks.

There are endless online calorie counting options, but this one looks interesting if you already Tweet.

If you like Tweet What You Eat, check out its sister site Tweet What You Spend.

Found via Hungry Girl

Twitter is a life-saver, literally

Twitter is changing the way people get information.  One big clue was when the first pics from the Hudson River plane crash were posted on Twitter before they hit anywhere else.

Now it’s swine flu! If you want the latest info, don’t wait for news outlets to update stories or the CDC to change its website–go to Twitter.

Whether it’s CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta on the ground in Mexico City or the CDC’s own Twitterstream, you can get faster and more up-to-date info than anywhere else.  Of course, always be sure to check the source but there are lots of reputable ones out there on the topic.

Another timely (although perhaps less trustworthy option) are local message boards like The Mommies Network sites where residents in your community may post information about themselves or those they know before local media has information.

Just something to add to your emergency preparedness plans.

Ping.fm

I knew it had to exist–A way to update all of your social networks via a single site.  I’m sure there have to be others but I found Ping.fm via Geek Sugar.

You can update up to 30 different social network sites like Twitter and Facebook via text or email to the Ping.fm site.  Can you imagine the time-savings if you have multiple accounts?

This might be enough to make me jump into the Twitter-sphere.

The Ultimate in Lazy

So you can’t bring yourself to type 140 characters into Twitter. Now you can phone it in–literally!

Tweetcall lets you leave a message that is converted to text and posted to your Twitter account.  Just call 1-877-TWEETCALL and leave your message. It’s free.

According to the website, your tweets are accuracy-checked by real people lest your message be misinterpreted.

“TweetCall is powered by Quicktate’s highly accurate transcription service, which uses humans to proofread all messages for proper syntax, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation before they are submitted.”

This could be a good option for people who aren’t tech savvy but still want to be in touch or people who can’t type for whatever reason.

Twitter for Twits!

This is a hilarious video from Current TV about the Twittersphere. I’ve only recently become intrigued by Twitter but I just don’t have time to Tweet!

(Caution if watching with kids, there is one mildly offensive word about 3:30 in)

Found via Geeksugar

TweetCongress

I really haven’t gotten into the whole “twitter” thing yet. Honestly, I just don’t have time with blogging and Facebook and that other “life” stuff.

But I did find a really interesting site last week that has me intrigued. It’s called TweetCongress and it is a clearinghouse site for all the members of the U.S. Congress who are on Twitter.  You can even send requests to your Congresspeople to join if they aren’t already on Twitter.

From the site you can view the “tweetstream” for all the Congressmen and women from both sides of the aisle. They often post links to news shows they might be on or blog posts they have written. John McCain was posting a daily countdown of “pork” items in the recent spending bill.

I think what I like most about it is that you really feel like can learn a little about what is going on in our country without the filter of the media. You hear directly from your reps (or their staff likely) but without all the commentary. And they are limited to 140 characters so they can’t go on and on as politicians like to do.