Twitter Application- Review of Tweetdeck version 0.34.3

As many know, I can be quite the twitter addict at times.  I find myself on many mornings visiting twitter before even looking at my email.  On occasion I have also had the tendency to get caught up in conversations and before realizing it, hours have passed by.  That being said, when it comes to using twitter, I need a Twitter Application that will perform well for me and allow me to sort & categorize things to make sense of it all.

I have been a long time fan of Tweetdeck, ever since my list of friends started to go over 200 followers on twitter.  I love the fact that it allows the setup of columns and filtering of my twitter feed.  When you start having over 2,000 people you follow, that main timeline flies by and you miss so many good things.  But, by being able to filter people into lists of those I want to really focus on I can manage my stream much better. Tweetdeck columns allows you to not only filter your stream but also allows you to add columns for specific terms you wish to track.

Tweetdeck is also one of the Twitter applications that will allow you to use more than one Twitter account at a time.   Since I do some community building for a few companies, I use this regularly as I can add each Twitter account to Tweetdeck & do it all from one place.

What’s New in Tweetdeck 0.34.3?

With the release of Tweetdeck 0.34.3 there have been a few great additions to an already great Desktop Twitter Application.  Here is a brief rundown:

1. Addition of Foursquare & Google Buzz- While I will admit I am not a huge fan of Google Buzz and do not really use it that often, the addition of Buzz & Foursquare added to a Twitter application is pretty cool.  I really enjoy being able to follow where my friends are checking in.  I also have found myself interacting with friends more often by paying attention to this column.  In addition to more engagement, I also have used the Foursquare column to learn about some new great places in town, where the best gas prices are, and also what restaurants have specials at the moment.
2. Update of Facebook Pages- This feature another huge addition.  One of my biggest complaints of previous versions was that I could always update my Facebook status on my profile from within, but there were times I wanted to send something to my Facebook business page and would have to then take the stuff from Tweetdeck, copy it, log into Facebook and then paste it there.  Now I have the pages I manage loaded into my Tweetdeck account and can update from inside this application.
3. Scheduled Updates- Sometimes there are a few things that I might want to schedule to tweet out to my friends.  The reason I would schedule these tweets is because I might be tied up all day with a client but want to remind my friends on Twitter of something important that is applicable to that particular day.  For example, if I have a friend who has a birthday tomorrow and I want to send a special birthday wish, I can now find the funny video on youtube, write my special 140 character message and schedule it to send at midnight so it arrives right as their birthday starts.  I no longer need to sit up waiting to accomplish this same thing.  Not only can you schedule your Twitter updates but also your Facebook & Facebook pages, and all the other services that Tweetdeck supports.

In addition to these three great new updates, Tweetdeck still gives you the ability to update your LinkedIn & Myspace accounts as well.  That means that now from one program that started as a Twitter Application you can now update statuses on 6 different social network platforms.  Obviously as you can tell this is no longer just a standard Twitter application, but a powerful tool for managing your social media plan.

What is still missing from this Twitter Application?

The one major flaw of Tweetdeck that I was hoping this version would fix is the sync function.  I have tried on multple times to sync the Tweetdeck account between the two computers that I use on a regular basis.  I would love nothing more for the Tweetdeck application on my desktop & laptop to have the same filtered columns, searches, applications, and accounts.  But for some reason this sync function which works so well on a few other twitter applications I use does not seem to want to perform properly in Tweetdeck.  If it did, I would probably be more committed to Tweetdeck as my main application for Twitter & other social networks.

Other than this small issue, I think the new additions to Tweetdeck have helped to solidify it’s place as one of the frontrunners for desktop Twitter applications that people will use.  If you have not yet tried version 0.34.3 of Twetdeck, I would suggest giving it a try today.  Also, make sure to connect with me on Twitter, I am @jb140.