With Twitter exploding in popularity in every direction, there are a lot of newbies that will not quite know what’s going on or who to follow. So I decided to write down the 9 things I look at when I determine who to follow on Twitter and who not to follow.

First of all, do not follow everyone who follows you. Some are legit, some are automated, some are spam, and not all of them are worth connecting up with. You get the most out of Twitter if you choose to follow only those who you are really interested in.

There are no shortage of Twitter applications out there. Each client seems to have a slightly different feature set too. I’ve tried a lot of them and below is a list of good Twitter applications that have been built for the Mac.  No Adobe Air suggestions here, and most are available only on the Mac.

Bluebird
Simple and pretty, this app has the ability to be one of the nicest looking Twitter apps.  It also comes with three built in themes which are very nice and supports multiple accounts.  This one is one I haven’t played with much, but am loving it the more I use it.  Only downside so far is no way to distinguish between read and un-read tweets.

Lets face it, some of us are on Twitter more than we are paying attention to most other forms of communication. We can tell you what was recently blogged, but we sometimes have no idea what’s going on outside our window with the weather. Wouldn’t it be nice to get them to come to you, via Twitter? Now you can.

I’ve used a combination of TwitterFeed.com and Weather.gov weather alert feeds to post updates to Twitter. Now when a storm is coming, I can know!

I was walking by Mastercuts in Eden Prairie mall yesterday and I saw the Twitter bird in a window advertisement for Paul Mitchell’s Tea Tree products.

See for yourself.

Tea Tree Body Advertisement

Twitter Logo & Branding

Looks to me like someone has some explaining to do.

[Update]

enSue has pointed out that the bird also shows up in a Wordpress theme by Randa Clay.

Bluebird Wordpress Theme

 
This is leading us to believe that the bird is a stock graphic available for anyone to use.  This also means that there is no Twitter bird, just a bird that shows up on Twitter’s homepage.  

I realized that the code I wrote for SocialAddict on Adobe Air could easily translate into a web application.  So I tossed the files up online and now it’s accessible everywhere.

Check it out: http://twistermc.com/s

What’s cool about this is you can use it in a few different ways.

1 – Use it without Adobe Air.

2 – Load it in Firefox’s sidebar.  Just visit the URL above, bookmark the page and be sure to check the ‘Load in Sidebar’ box.  Now whenever you click on the bookmark, it’ll pop-open.

After my recent success with Plurkit, I decided to take the idea to the next level and add in more social sites.  The outcome is SocialAddict which has 11 social sites within one Adobe Air application.

What SocialAddict does is loads the mobile or iPhone version of each site for easy access.  Again, I didn’t tie into any APIs or do massive re-construction.  These are all previously available applications that have been tied together to make it quick and easy to go from one to the next.

Within SocialAddict you’ll find:

• BrightKite
• Facebook
• FriendFeed To Go

I’ve been playing around with Aptana and Adobe Air to see if I could create a basic application.  What I created was Plurkit; an Adobe Air version of Plurk mobile.

Ok, I’ll be the first to admit, this is not as good as something like Twhirl. However, it is my first attempt at anything in Adobe Air so I’m pretty happy.

I didn’t use the Plurk API and do a lot of crazy coding.  All I did was take the mobile version of Plurk and embed it into an Adobe Air application.  And voila; Plurkit!

Ever want to search Plurk.com for topics or friends?  Well there isn’t a formal search yet, however you can search with Plurk Lurker, a customized Google search just for Plurk.com.

Plurk Lurker makes it quick and simple to find information on Plurk.  It is limited to what Google can see, but it’s better than nothing.  You can find posts or users as long as their information is public.

Granted, it’s pretty basic but it’s better than none; which is what I’ve found otherwise.  I’m sure as soon as an API opens up, someone will create a better Plurk search.

I recently discovered Plurk.  A micro-blogging site much like Twitter, only with more features, a cool layout and that headless thing!

I’m a fan of the interactive and innovative timeline of posts.  However some people feel the timeline is a bit busy and go for the simplified mobile version.  So I decided to take a bit of code and put the mobile version in Firefox’s sidebar for easy access.

The Plurk Mobile Sidebar comes complete with Firefox 2 & 3 support, a headless thing button for your toolbar and a keyboard shortcut.  The actual features of the Plurk sidebar application are under Plurks control.

I’m always looking to connect with more people via Facebook, StumbleUpon, Mixx or whatever social media circle. If you want to be my friend, check out my social media profile page and connect up with me.

The more virtual friends I have, maybe my stories will get Dugg more or my Oregon Trail wagon will survive the trip!