I use Twitter professionally to learn about useful new tools, blog posts and articles (saving me time, improving quality of the resources I use, and tipping me off to excellent ideas I otherwise would not have known about);  to tap into my network to pose questions and get feedback; and to promote events, opportunities and publications.   Some examples of these uses are below.

One tool that’s widely used by professional Twitter users (”Tweeples”) is TweetDeck.  The blog www.webworkerdaily.com describes it this way:

You can group your followers in a way that makes it easier to consume the information. In my case, I have a group of people that I follow closely. These are people who don’t tweet too frequently and who post updates that I never want to miss. While I follow almost 400 people, this smaller group has just over 100 people. I read this group first, and if I have time, I read the other groups.

TweetDeck also has pop-up smart notifications (assuming that you have configured it to notify you) for @replies, direct messages and dynamic, persistent searches. I configure searches for events I am organizing, companies I’m involved with, and more.

If you manage more than on Twitter account (for example, my personal account and my @DarimOnline account), you might consider using Twirl, which displays multiple columns, one for each account.

One of the most convenient and powerful features of Twitter is its mobility.  By sending a text message from your phone you can “tweet”, and you can choose to receive tweets from some or all of those you follow by txt as well.  Many Twitter tools have mobile versions as well, which are full applications that provide much more functionality than just a text message. On my iphone I use Twitterific, though there are many to choose from.

What Twitter tool do you use?  Why do you like it?  We’d love to hear from you.  Share your experience in the comments!

More Twitter aggregators, descriptions and suggestions are here: www.toprankblog.com

In addition to offering a very simple online donations offering, Causes taps into the viral power of social networking on Facebook.  When a user joins the cause, it is posted in the news feed of their friends, inviting others to become familiar with the cause and also support it.  With vast connections on Facebook (see image to the right),  your message can spread quickly, and far.

Causes has recently added a new feature for birthdays.  Users can pick a favorite cause, and use the application to set their Facebook status on their birthday, and perhaps the days leading up to it, encouraging friends to make a donation in lieu of cards or other gifts. Personally, I have made $10-$25 donations many times for friends’ birthdays, even when I may have not spent the time or money to send them a gift!

And hint:  my birthday is next week!  I’ve recently joined the board of CAJE, and welcome any donations to support their important work in providing professional development for Jewish educators.  Or, if you prefer, you’re always welcome to support Darim (also a non profit organization)!  Come check out Facebook Causes!

Learn more about Facebook Causes and it’s Birthday feature on Beth Kanter’s blog.