“Pay with a Tweet”, the new payment method that’s becoming popular in the Web

Yes, you read that right. It is more and more common to find websites that offer services or products for a tweet in your personal Twitter page. The reason is that the publicity impact of reaching all the followers of that Twitter user can sometimes be more powerful than a payment. Especially if we consider how popular this microblogging service and its most widely used add-ons and applications (TweetDeck, VoxOx, Emesene, Blu, MadTwitter, byTAGG and Twhirl) have become.

This strategy is backed up by one of the strongest and most popular tools of direct marketing: the famous ‘word-of-mouth marketing’. Statistics show that often the opinion of a friend or forum member is taken into account more than the advertisement in itself. So those website that choose to ‘charge’ one tweet for a product know the impact it will make on that user’s followers, especially if the user is popular, when they see those ‘140-character recommendation post about certain product’.

Web 2.0 experience indicates that this marketing fashion is effective and is, usually, spread like a virus in the Web. Twetter.com has become more user-friendly, especially because of the applications developed for this microblogging client (TweetDeck, VoxOx, Emesene, Blu, MadTwitter, byTAGG and Twhirl), and the users will surely find this kind of ‘tweets’ absolutely natural.

Given the exponential increase in the number of users who enjoy this service and the new applications that are constantly released, it was to be expected that the market would make the most of Twitter’s potential to its advantage. What’s surprising about this is that there is no money transaction, you only allow the company offering a product or service to advertise it in a tweet in your page in order to introduce it to all your ‘followers’.

This original way of interpreting the ‘collaborative’ characteristic, highly praised by young professionals who want to offer their services, is extremely popular nowadays in social networks and appears now as a new payment method: ‘pay with a tweet’. The most important thing is that, beyond its being effective or not as an advertising tool, the one who benefits most with it is the Twitter user.

Connecting to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace with TweetDeck

TweetDeck is an application through which we’ll be able to interact with several social networks at the same time, like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace. To do it, once we access, we need to go to the icon that is located on the top right corner with a tool, which is the one to let us access the configurations. On the emerging window, we click on the right panel on “Accounts”, and then on the menu that opens “Add New Account”. Once we load all of them and connect, we are ready to see them simultaneously.

On that same configuration window, we can also define the appearance of the program, like colors and format of the notifications among other things. To do it we move through the different eyelashes.

Once we are on the main screen to update our status from TweetDeck, we’ll click on the yellow button located on the top left margin opening up a field where we’ll introduce the text to publish. On the right side on top of that field, we’ll find buttons that will let us include pictures on the post. To select from which accounts we want to publish, we indicate them checking their names on the top left part of the field being able to do it from all the ones we have registered at the same time.

On the main window we’ll see that we have a series of columns or panels, with the logo to the right of the service to which they belong. By clicking on the logo, we close the column. To open a new panel we need to click on the button with the “+” sign, located next to the button “Compose Update”. On the window that opens, we’ll indicate what we want to be displayed on it and from which account. As regards Facebook, to filter the contacts that we are only interested in, we click on “Create New Group”, determining right there those from which want to see the news.

An easy way to find what we want to see on a panel is by making a quick filter according to a keyword, being able to do it with a series of buttons on the lower part of each panel. On the field that opens we write the name, date or source and the filter is activated.

To perform tasks like answering a post or writing on somebody’s wall, we put the mouse on the contact’s image, and we’ll see that a series of options will appear according to the service it belongs to. Like that, very easily, we’ll be able to interact with our contacts with a single click.

To disconnect from the different opened accounts, we need to click on the button located on the top right margin of the main window, what will make TweetDeck to close as well.

Applications to improve your experience on Twitter

With the increase of the social networks’ popularity, there have been developed a lot of application that work with them. Twitter couldn’t be the exception, and there are multiple “clients” for this 2.0 web like MadTwitter, byTAGG, Twhirl and Tweetdeck.

In general, these are desktop applications that allow us to access Twitter without the need to be running the explorer, and in some cases provide us with shortcuts, filters and notifications options.

MadTwitter, being one of the simplest applications of this type, offers us from a simple and clear interface to the possibility to view our contacts’ tweets, as well as letting us do our own status updates. Configurable to check tweets up to one minute, MadTwitter will keep us updated regarding the news with just having it activated as it includes a comfortable notifier.

Another application that lets us control Twitter from the desktop is byTAGG. This tool actually counts with more functions, like following blogs through RSS or performing permanent searches on the internet of whatever we indicate. As regards Twitter, it only counts with the basic functions as it probably got privileged the multi-support service. Apart from that, it lets us log in with more than one account at the same time, post from byTAGG window and has a simple filter, but effective.

Maybe the program with the most attractive interface is Blu. With a great care of the its looks, this application offers among other options, the possibility to filter our messages (direct and indirect), see favorites, manually update whenever we want, configure so the notifications for new tweets have sound and shortcut key to update the status.

Twhirl is another application we can use to interact on Twitter. With a not so attractive interface like the previous one, it gives us certain configuration options that allow us to set it up as we like. On the other hand, Twhirl allows us to connect to other 2.0 webs like identi.ca, laconi.ca, Friendfeed y Seesmic as well as to Twitter. Beyond performing the basic functions like seeing our contacts’ status updates and publish, the most interesting about this program is its filter by word, as also the possibility to post images from its window.

Finally, Tweetdeck offers multiple options. To begin with, we can connect to several accounts simultaneously, not only from Twitter, but also from MySpace, Linkedin y Facebook, allowing us to update the status of all of them. Moreover, thanks to its presentation of the information in columns, we can view great amount of information on the screen, being able to put on each of them what we want. Among its main functions includes the quick view of the profiles, contacts, lists and tweets search.

Seeing the variety of options, we can realize that all of them offer the basic functions. Maybe those users who use more than one social network may prefer Twhirl or Tweetdeck, as those who like simplicity may be inclined to choose MadTwitter or Blu. byTAGG offers other type of information and can be a powerful tool to keep us updated. Without a doubt, the election of the client that adapts the most to our needs is essential, as it is with those programs that we’ll be able to optimize our experience as Twitter users.