#TwitterTip

Wednesday, 10 November 2010

Tip #367: Learn to pay attention to the filmstrip icon.

Studies have shown that a short break during the day to watch (or share) something entertaining raises dopamine levels in the brain, which leads to clearer thinking and increased productivity. Just the other day, my friend tweeted this message with a fantastic video from RadioLab – watching it provided a much-needed breather in the middle of my busy day.

To quickly find and watch videos others have shared on Twitter.com, simply scan your timeline for Tweets marked with the filmstrip icon. Clicking the icon will open a details pane beside your timeline in which you can watch the video.

Want to share a video and give others an excuse to take a so-called “YouTube” break in their day? Just use YouTube’s sweet and simple link shortener. Grab the video ID (that jumbled set of letters and numbers in the video’s URL on YouTube) and insert it into this little URL: http://youtu.be/[videoID] These types of links will display the video in Twitter’s details pane, and will mark your Tweet with the filmstrip icon.

Wasn’t that fun? Now, back to work!