Use Twitter “Favorites” to Rule the World!

This post originally appeared on our sister site, ChurchTweets.com. Check it out for all the latest social media strategies for ministry!

For the longest time, I couldn’t quite figure out how to use the “Favorites” function on Twitter:

Do I mark tweets I find humorous? If so, why? Am I ever going to look at them again? Probably not.
Do I mark tweets of my own that I like? That seems kind of vain. Pass.
Do I mark the tweets of my friends to make sure I don’t miss them? That’s what groups are for on Tweetdeck and Seesmic Desktop.

Then I found my answer: Links. You favorite the links in tweets that you want to read later. Brilliant!

When you’re following a significant amount of people (more than 200), your “tweeps” are bound to post links that sound interesting that you just don’t have the time to look into at the moment. That’s when you click the little star, send them to your “favorites” pile, and read them when you can.

Favorites on Twitter is what Delicious.com is for bookmarks. It’s like a self-selecting RSS feed of all the best links that you yourself have picked out. It makes my use of Twitter much more enjoyable and productive when I don’t have to worry about reading every, single piece of information that comes my way.

Plus, when you uncover a real gem (because you have time to read the interesting ones now), you can retweet with confidence and watch your Twitter stock grow. After all, the best Twitter users are the ones that bring value.

Try it out for yourselves. I think you’ll dig it. (Oh, and don’t forget to follow me while you’re at it!)