Assuming that I was able to convince you on setting up a twitter account, you probably may be actively using Twitter. You’re probably also following many other Twitter users, being followed and putting some of the justifications for Twitter usage from last month’s post to full use. So whats next? How can you continue to use Twitter to its full potential? Well this post will seek to answer these questions by providing a variety of tips to make anyone a Twitter guru.

Practice Twitter etiquette

There are various guidelines that help to make using Twitter a fun experience. Some of these include:

• Use of the @ sign in front of a Twitter user’s name when directing a reply to them. Also, realize when a conversation requires the use of the direct message (DM) feature as sometimes everyone may not want to read certain replies.
• Do not send repeated messages to people. Also, constantly using the direct message (DM) feature and sending links may cause users to think you are a spammer. They could likely unfollow you or worse report you for abuse.
• Do thank users for retweeting or following you. It’s a great conversation starter and may go a long way.
• Yes, Twitter is a public medium and not a medium to vent. Therefore, everyone may read what you wrote at some point.

Integrate Twitter with other mediums

Many of us have other social networking accounts particularly with Facebook and Myspace. There are tools available to link your twitter account with these social networks. Myspace has a status sync tool that allows for Myspace updates to be shown in Twitter. Similarly, Facebook has a twitter application that performs status updates to Twitter.

Use a Desktop client

Although Twitter usage via the web may be sufficient, desktop clients help to unleash features that make Twitter usage more efficient. Some of my recommended Desktop clients include:

• Tweetdeck
• Seesmic Desktop / Seesmic Look
• twhirl

Use a Mobile client

One may opt to have access to Twitter on a mobile device which is possible through any web-enabled mobile device including Blackberry, iPhone and Android. Additionally, mobile clients are available should one prefer not using a mobile web browser. Many recent mobile devices now have Twitter mobile clients pre-installed. However, one can easily download ÜberTwitter, Twidroid or Twitterific to name a few.

Now I’d love to hear about your Twitter experiences. Feel free to share and continue to enjoy Tweeting.

Below are a few PHP components worth mentioning that can be utilized in any application:

• pChart

  pChart is a PHP class oriented framework designed to create aliased charts.
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• FPDF

  FPDF is a PHP class which allows to generate PDF files with pure PHP, that is to say without using the PDFlib library
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• Securimage

  A highly customizable PHP CAPTCHA class for generating CAPTCHA images to prevent programs from filling out your forms.
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• calendar-class-php

  calendar.class.php is an easy to use php class for generating a calendar display. The class outputs semantic and valid XHTML that is ready to style with your custom CSS.
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• Breadcrumbs

  Highly Configurable breadcrumbs script that takes your directory structure and does whatever you want with it.
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• Smart Image Resizer

  Allows you to resize and crop any image on your website without touching the actual image or writing any code.
  Demo | Download