10 Examples of Creative Twitter Uses
When you think of Twitter, you probably think of a microblogging tool that helps you connect with friends across the world. But not every Tweeter uses their account just to chat back and forth with their online friends. Some have come up with truly creative ways to use their account.
What follows is a list of the 10 most creative uses of Twitter I’ve seen.
1. Laundryroom- The laundry room Twitter account helps residents at Olin College’s West Hall check on the availability of washing machines at the campus Laundromat. Anytime a washer or dryer is available, a Tweet is automatically sent out to the local residents following the Laundryroom account. Not only is this pretty neat, but it also improves the overall efficiency of the Laundromat.
2. Coffeegroundz Fundraiser- The Coffee Groundz is a Houston-based café that uses Twitter to interact with the local community. However, they recently had a very creative use for their Twitter account when they asked their followers to donate non-perishable food items to the Houston Food Bank. Their Twitter-based fundraiser helped them collect over 260 pounds of food to donate to the Houston Food Bank.
3. Askastripper- Yes, even strip clubs are getting on the social media bandwagon. This Twitter account is linked from a blog of the same name. Essentially, users have the opportunity to ask a stripper anything. Whether you have a question about the intricacies of their job or you just want their opinion on a random topic, the stripper will answer all of your questions.
4. JetBlue- This is another great example of businesses getting the most out of their Twitter account. This airline has different employees man their Twitter account throughout the day. If a customer has any question—whether about potential flight delays or how big their carry-on can be—the JetBlue account will Tweet a quick answer.
5. Missingchildren- But you don’t always have to use Twitter for personal gain. This profile sends out Tweets any time a child goes missing. The Tweet usually includes the child’s name, city, and a link to a picture with more information. They also send updates whenever a lost child is recovered.
6. TvGuide- When’s the last time you actually flipped through a TV Guide? It’s been years for me. This Twitter profile sends a Tweet out each day of all the new shows that will be on that night. You’ll never forget to watch your favorite shows again!
7. Liver4carole- It really is amazing to see all the great causes that people use Twitter for. This account is trying to accomplish exactly what its name implies—to get a liver for Carole. They regularly Tweet links to stores whose proceeds go directly to Carole, as well as updates about Carole herself.
8. GoodCaptain- I must confess, the writer in me is torn on whether this is really cool or a disgrace to literature. Whatever it is, it’s certainly creative. The Good Captain is a book written one Tweet at a time. Simply click back to the beginning, and you can read the entire book, Tweet by Tweet, online.
9. ProjectVino- For the most part, the Project Vino account is just like any other. It’s filled with chats to various friends, and there doesn’t appear to be anything unique about it. However, this social wine site holds wine tastings over Twitter occasionally. They send wine out to various popular Twitter users, and the testers microblog their thoughts live as they taste the wine. Where can I sign up?
10. Amazon- When you first land on the Amazon Twitter page, you might think the account is inactive. It’s not. The point of this profile is for followers to DM a book title or ISBN number, and then, they’ll receive a Tweet with the average price range on Amazon at the moment.
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Have you seen any examples of creative Twitter accounts? Share them with us in the replies!
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When I was in school I would have paid good money for #1 on this list!
What a great idea, and all are a good example of the powerful and creative ways Twitter can be used.
Great article,
Matt
Matt | Small Biz Bee’s last blog post..The Hardest Easy Question to Answer
Wafels and Dinges is a food truck serving up tasty waffles in New York. They use twitter to keep people up to date with probably the most important information they could provide — where they are.
http://twitter.com/waffletruck
simon’s last blog post..Lifetime Television’s Annual ‘Fa La La La Lifetime’ Holiday Movie Festival Reaches 82 Million Total Viewers
Great find! Definitely worthy of being on this list.
Great find! Definitely worthy of being on this list.
Now this is definitely different. Very cool and some quite useful, thanks for the finds!
<abbr>Dennis Edell’s last blog post..UPDATE: Free Permanent BackLinks: Are You A Subscriber Or Following Me On Twitter?</abbr>
I like #1 and #4.
<abbr>John Simpson’s last blog post..Digest for 12/22/08</abbr>
I just thought up another one. You could use it as a password keeper online. If you forget a password, just go to twitter.com/johnspasswords, or something like that, to find the one you are looking for. Security may be a minor issue.
<abbr>John Simpson’s last blog post..Digest for 12/22/08</abbr>
Great picks. Yes, it seems like Twitter is used for just about everything these days… And just yesterday, no one knew what it was. Its sudden popularity is astounding.
Shirley’s last blog post..Free Photos Part 2: Flickr Images for Your Website
I have only been using twitter for a few months and I have found it to be an invaluable networking tool for meeting other like minded people/bloggers.
<abbr>Gerald Weber’s last blog post..Gerald Weber Dancing with the Elves</abbr>
I have only been using twitter for a few months and I have found it to be an invaluable networking tool for meeting other like minded people/bloggers.
<abbr>Gerald Weber’s last blog post..Gerald Weber Dancing with the Elves</abbr>
Yes the laundry is definitely different and I agree the 3rd one is a bit on the naughty side.
Hi all, what an honor to see Carole's (liver4carole) tweets mentioned here. We are working hard to raise the funds and raise the awareness for Carole's blight. A crossing guard of 22 years, and she once saved a child's life! Now it's her turn!
Please visit her blog and see how you can make a small donation directly to:
http://www.transplants.org/
In honor of Carole Stites-Luka
<abbr>Sue’s last blog post..We have a Contest Winner!!!</abbr>
No problem we are always happy to hlep. I notice your following me on Twitter now. I'm about to follow you back. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Great one! Love the laundromat idea & TV Guide.
Thanks
I have two great uses of Twitter.
kogibbq
If you live in LA, you might know about the Kogi BBQ Truck. It travels around LA and serves up Korean BBQ Tacos and Burritos that are absolutely awesome.
MyBestDayEver
Each day at 6:30pm EST it automatically searches twitter for the phrase “best day ever” and then picks a tweet it likes, and re-twitters the tweet as it’s own.
best day ever arose out of my desire to find a twitter feed that always held meaning.
it is a compilation of our happiness
Ohhh, I love the @mybestdayever feed! It’s picking up quite a few ironic uses of it though, are you trying to eliminate those at all? Great concept!
thanks!
I was trying to figure out how people are discovering it, and i guess it’s this website.
I am somewhat trying to eliminate those. It’s kind of a toss up right now. In one sense I like them because they, despite the irony, still hold meaning and in some ways, our worst days can still be our best…. so they might not go away. I think the only ones that have been picked up that frustrated me are the ones that dont seem told hold meaning.
I’d prefer that they all are happy, but I appreciate receiving a solid and emotional post by sms that defines each day, and I feel like even the ironic ones are being successful with that.. I dunno, what do you think?
there are 2 very important ones that this list is missing. One of them is @iknow_lol (unfortunately down at the moment, and @answersonly.
These two helpful and interesting uses of the Twitter API are examples of creative implementation of an otherwise narcissistic web2.0 social networker.
enjoy.
Great article!
I didn't know that so many people were using Twitter in such creative ways. It's inspired me to come up with some new methods myself.
It’s getting more creative all the time. That’s the great thing about twitter.
You may be interested in @Genny_Spencer too * A Twit who doesn't have to follow anyone to gain followers.
This is the real line-a-day diary of a young farmgirl growing up in Illinois in 1937 * Maintained by @griner whose family found a line-a-day diary maintained by his great-aunt from 1937 to 1941.
Entries like 'Mr. Mark Patterson killed himself with a shot-gun. Dad went to town. Vernon Gardin came over this evening.'
I thought it was capturing fragments of Aussie rural life at first * So similar
Ally
Wow that is definitely unique.
On our last webseries, “Gemini Division” (starring Rosario Dawson), we used Twitter as a story extension platform. What that means is, we created Twitter accounts for two characters in the series (@LaReinaDelSass and @El_Presidente_C) and, weeks before they appeared in the series, allowed them to start a Tweet-based dialogue. The dialogue was seeded with keywords which alerted fans who searched Google for blog and forum posts on the show. From there, word got out that a “preview” of upcoming characters and, as it turned out, a pivotal storyline, was unfolding on Twitter. Fans started following the characters – even interacting with them – and when one of those characters died in the story, it created a memorable online moment. A few online media sites reported on this use of Twitter while it was happening, but the great thing is that anyone coming late to the party can still start watching “Gemini Division” and retrace the Twitter storyline to add another compelling layer to the story.
Brent Friedman
Co-Founder, Electric Farm Entertainment
The story one is an interesting concept as it was what we were trying to accomplish in a way when we created Dear IE 6
And if your interested the app behind it is available at twessage!
Not to spam… much
Lee
@NateRitter wrote a program that brings Missing Children's Alerts to twitter, with a link to the child's photograph http://remarkableparents.com/missing-children-ale…
I think that's fabulous!
VickyH
<abbr>VickyH’s last blog post..Free Online Business Classes from HP</abbr>
That’s a great idea. I really like that one myself.
Another great example of customer service via twitter – Polar heart rate monitors….@chrispolarusa I just read an article about Polar/Twitter and actually reached out to them..Awesome response…
I have been twittering over the last week or so of the amazing service from my internet provider, whose twitter team leaves the traditional IT helpdesk in the 20th century. @bigpondteam operates for one of our much disliked phone/internet providers – but their twitter team has turned around my faith in some of the people and I have received fabulous, friendly, and responsive support. Twitter is changing the face of how we can do business and provide support.
I agree. Twitter opens up all kinds of new doors of communication. The future is looking bright.
An excellent and most important use:
@zombiereports
Lots of great uses here.. particularly like the laundry one.
Thought you might be interested to know we use Twitter to alert our followers to the latest local issues that people have reported to the City of Edinburgh council on http://www.fixmystreet.com
Follow us on twitter @greenerleith
Yes we have several local ones like that for Houston as well. It’s a great way to keep up with the local news, weather ect.
Cool idea , so i have to think more before involve deeper on twitter
<abbr>Diyan Yap’s last blog post..Leica D-Lux 4 is Seriously Good</abbr>
Well there certainly are a lot of possibilities with Twitter. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
I've heard it said that the best inventions are those that people look back on and say, "Why didn't I think of that! It's so simple and obvious." If that's the yardstick, then Twitter is truly great. Very simple concept, but tremendous possibilities, as these examples show. The best news is, we're all just getting started.
Thanks for the post; great ideas.
And of course, you can follow me on Twitter too!
I agree with you. Indeed we are just getting started. Twitter is truly amazing. The future hold tremendous possibilities.
Ohhh, I love the @mybestdayever feed! It's picking up quite a few ironic uses of it though, are you trying to eliminate those at all? Great concept!
thanks!
I was trying to figure out how people are discovering it, and i guess it's this website.
I am somewhat trying to eliminate those. It's kind of a toss up right now. In one sense I like them because they, despite the irony, still hold meaning and in some ways, our worst days can still be our best…. so they might not go away. I think the only ones that have been picked up that frustrated me are the ones that dont seem told hold meaning.
I'd prefer that they all are happy, but I appreciate receiving a solid and emotional post by sms that defines each day, and I feel like even the ironic ones are being successful with that.. I dunno, what do you think?
Another creative use is @tweejay – subtitled "silent radio that plays in your head". Every 15 minutes it tweets the name of a song and the artist, and a link to a website where you can play the song or buy it if you want.
It's pretty funny to follow it and realise that it really does pretty much trigger you to hear the songs internally! I unfollowed eventually because a tweet every 15 minutes can get pretty spammy, but it's lots of fun.
<abbr>Ricky Buchanan’s last blog post..Using QuickLook with VoiceOver</abbr>
Wow that does sound pretty cool. I'm following that one now. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Very creative indeed! As a healthy living blogger, one simple thing I started doing on my twitter account @skinnyjeans was to tweet twice daily a hydration reminder: Go drink a glass of water. "Drink more water" is something that most people want to do more of so the quick twit reminders are helpful. This water tweet has also helped increase my Followers# very much.
http://twitter.com/skinnyjeans
Very cool. I'm now following you. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Lazy to login to Twitter or wants to stay anonymous in expressing your present thoughts, just submit it in Annon. Tweet via AAfter.
if you add @username, we will ReTweet [RT].
Although its not really creative to make impersonate someone, @Michael_bay writes some of the most wildly creative tweets out there.
How about @showusyoursite? Mini website reviews – pretty funny.
Patrick Morrow’s last blog post..showusyoursite: They’re free! They’re fun! They may help you lose weight! Get your site review here today!
That is definitely cool and unique. Thanks for letting us know about that one.
The local hackerspace has a motion detector rigged up. If it senses motion and there wasn't motion before, it tweets "HacDC is open," and if there was motion but now there's not "HacDC is closed" on the @hacdcdoorman account. "Open" means "open to the public" since only paying members have keys. If someone's there, though, the rest of us can get in because there are some wires hanging from the second story window that when touched together ring a doorbell in the workshop.
I'm not sure what this one means but I'm sure it's really cool to those who are in the know.
http://twitter.com/sfearthquakes if you live in the bay area (or know someone who does), follow @sfearthquakes. You'll get a tweet everytime an earthquake happens, with the location of the epicenter. Of course, if it's the big one, you won't need anyone to tweet you about it!
Now this one is very cool for those tweeple in cali. Thanks for letting us know about this one.
The Good Captain may be a creative way to use twitter but boy, is it annoying for anyone who really likes to read!
Follow me on twitter: https://twitter.com/JLibbey
Thanks for stopping by and commenting. I'm now following you on Twitter.
I created @SomedayMaybe last week based on the Getting Things Done idea of a Someday/Maybe list.
The intent is that people tweet a goal or idea they’d like to do someday and others listening can reply with hints, references, etc.
As of this posting, it’s in its earliest stages though.
@DougKyle
Thanks for the cool addition to this list. I'm following you and @somedaymaybe now.
I have a recipe site that sends out tweets when someone rates a recipe or adds it to their favorites. My profile for that is http://twitter.com/5sr feel free to add it.
Oh that sounds great nom nom nom recipes. I'm now following you on Twitter. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
I have found Twitter to be an amazing tool for monitoring breaking news from all over the world. There is a "time value" for information and that value declines as it ages. I when I see something that I find of interest, I use Twitter to give a heads up about it to those who follow me. Twitter makes what Matt Drudge does on the DrudgeReport appear "old school". Of course, he will hear about me doing this now, and sooner or later start doing it himself on Twitter.
Like I said there is a time value to information. You can get it while its the hottest from Twitter. (It's a lot like Tweeting that the washing machine in the dorm laundry room is now available…only on a macro scale.)
I agree with you 110%. Twitter is a great platform for breaking news. Also if you are good at tweeting breaking news it's likely to get your more followers and people paying attention to your tweets.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Thanks for the follow Gerald! I just followed you back
No problem. Thanks for taking the time to comment. It means a lot to me. Look forward to sharing tweets with you as well.
I had read about coffeegroundz a while ago! Great ideas, but the laundry room one is the best!
Thanks for this list – very unique what some are doing….
Yeah @coffeegroundz is a really cool one and they are right here in H-Town where I live.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Great post! And very cool uses of Twitter. To this excellent list I would add @JustSixWords – this person twits little sayings and such that are – you guessed it – "just six words."
Another great list of Twitter tips.
Just have to sit down and sort out all these Twitter tips, and get Twitter well integrated with my blogs
Here's a twitter application that we developed for the Columbus Marathon. Automatically tweets your progress while you run:
http://tweetmytime.com/
Fantastic post. Many of these ideas really get my creative juices flowing.
I’m really glad we were able to get your “juices flowing” so to speak.
Hi all, I'm sorry to say that Carole has just passed away. Thanks to this website and to others that help raise money for transplant awarenesss.
I'm very sorry to hear that. You're very welcome.
interesting things people are doing on twitter
Lol, amazing how twitter can be used today
Interesting to se another use of Twitter account than just personal. Really great idea number 5, missingchildren.
to the owner of this site: hey.. you got a very good blog here…
Nice work!!
@Andrew Weismen – you have to download TwitterFox Add On.. Mozilla FF offers it. A small icon will appear at the right bottom part of your browser. Log-in first.. Updates will just pop-up depending on your desired interval..