After the launch of this blog on Thursday, a number of people asked me how they can get a copy of the Twitter ‘widget’ that I’m currently using. So, here’s the download link, along with a few ideas on how to use it.
A brief look at The Twitter widget
The widget is a free download, which you can get via the main Twitter website. It can be used not only on a blog; but also on your website, facebook or myspace page.
The Twitter widget is also extremely easy to install. You simply choose the options you want from the download page and it will generate a preview for you. Then, if you are happy with the preview, you copy the code it generates for you and paste that code into a text widget. That’s it!
You can change what the feed displays. For example, you can set it to show every time anyone mentions your Twitter user name (as in the image) or when anyone on Twitter mentions a certain word, location or maybe a hash tag that you are interested in.
You can also change the wording on the top of the Twitter widget, to reflect whatever you are following with it. This personalisation is a great idea and makes the widget a lot more useful, as you can explain to readers what it is they are actually looking at. You can also change the colours, so they match the theme of your site, blog or page.
All in all, it’s an easy way to quickly show visitors to your various sites, the kind of things you are interested in following. For a brand new blog like this,with an equally new Twitter account, it’s been a great way to help people discover our new Twitter account.
If you use the Twitter widget, let us know what you do with it and share your ideas!
