OK, I wish that I was about to give you some really cool technology that you can use to follow hundreds or thousands of twitter folk. But I'm not. This is so ridiculously simple that I almost feel silly telling you this, but here goes:
Set up two twitter accounts.
That's it. You set up one account where you follow everybody and their brother. You set up another where you just follow your closest friends and relations. If you're online, you could have one account open in, say, Firefox, and another open in Safari. With a couple of keystrokes you can toggle between the two.
If you're not at your computer, you can use a program like Twittelator Pro that lets you switch accounts from within the program.
This way, you have the best of both worlds. You can turn on the firehose and see what everybody's doing, and check your @ replies. Then you can switch over and see what your smaller circle of friends are doing.
Sorry if I put you in suspense for such a simple idea. But if it works, by all means. If not, just send it right back...
(Disclaimer: Let it be known that I do not endorse breaking Twitter policy. I just looked and couldn't find anything in their FAQ's about whether you're officially allowed to have multiple accounts or not. If it's not allowed, then please ignore this post!)
Of course you know that now everyone is trying to figure out what your secret ID is. Heh heh. But what happens if some non-close friend sees it and figures out it's you? Do you just decline their friend request? I guess you'd have to.
I'm using Pocketwit on my phone. I like it quite a lot!
Posted by: Corrine aka Mama Gomer | November 19, 2008 at 01:59 PM
Ok, so, the secret's out....I even have 2 facebook accounts...one for listeners and one for closest family and friends. Guess who gets to see the most pics of my kids?
Posted by: MelonyMckaye | November 19, 2008 at 12:20 PM
I'm still out on this one. I think it sort of defeats the purpose, but then again, I don't have 1000's of tweets to keep up with either!
Posted by: cathy davis | November 14, 2008 at 12:47 PM
I toyed with the idea of using two Twitter IDs, one for "know outside the Internet" friends/family/Facebook the other effectively for chatting with Gomers. But I have found myself using some of the methods you employ (especially skimming past @replies to people I don't follow) and it's made it manageable. Thanks for posting, Mark!
Posted by: Dan Gross | November 14, 2008 at 12:28 PM
Okay, I confess to a bit of disappointment in you revelation (it's just so flippin' practical). However, after a lot of imagination on my part, I've managed to re-frame your post into something more clandestine ... super spies have multiple identities etc... All kidding aside, GREAT posts on the subject. What an awesome way to connect with people! It's almost like you're doing ministry or something! heh...
Posted by: ultraspy | November 13, 2008 at 08:22 PM
LOL!... Dude You are totally brilliant!. Thanks for the tips Mark!
Posted by: Cindy N. | November 13, 2008 at 06:12 PM
Well, aren't you the sneaky one. I'm still trying to figure out why you've got one of my silly ol' tweets as a favorite. I'm thinking it had to be a misclick 'cause I know it wasn't worthy of the title of fav. :)
Posted by: Lori | November 13, 2008 at 05:33 PM
So - do you hear them??? theCRICKETtoy
LOL -- I don't see any comments yet - thought this was one of thos "cricket" moments!!! Thanks for the info Mark - I knew you'd come up with something simple yet complex!!! ROTFLMHO!!! :)~
Posted by: Nancy Cotto/God's Worshippers | November 13, 2008 at 05:25 PM