Three Utmost Important Twitter Tools

I've been using twitter pretty heavily this last few weeks because my company is jumping into this social networking bandwagon, and as a avid users myself, I am getting the privilege to manage it. For this purpose, I've been looking for several twitter tools that could make my twitter experience easier, like managing followers, deleting mass followers, looking at trends, etc. And in this post, I'd like to share with you three tools that I consider are the utmost important.

1. Refollow

I really think this is the most comprehensive twitter tools ever. You can search and filter your followers based on several variables like who haven't tweeted in the last 90 days, those tweeps who do not follow you back, and even those who have no profile picture. You want to do mass follow / unfollow? Piece of cake, just "select all" after you do the filter, and then "delete" or "unfollow" or "block" or whatever your like. So, it is a very fun and helpful application to use, especially if you have more than 1000 followers. For good complementary reading on refollow, click here.

2. Twitter Analyzer

Don't let the word "analyzer" scares you off, it sounds a bit geeky admittedly, but this is a very fun tool to use as well. First, unlike many other twitter tools, this one does not require you to sign up or to follow them on twitter etc, just type in your username and let them do the trick.

One distinct feature that I like from this tool is that it can find who are your closest tweeps, who mention you the most, who you interact the most and, to be fair, who you disregard the most. Thus, you can either keep your friends close or, identify who seems less influenced by your tweet, and start building relationship with them (keep your enemies closer right?). If you are a data-driven type, or wanna still sound smart although what you do is tweeting all day, justify your action and impress them with Twitter Analyzer.

3. @unfollowr
This is not even a twitter tool, but this twitter account really provides solution to the pressing question - who are those people who have the audacity to unfollow me? I used Qwitter before this, which worked pretty good until it started getting drunk and sending inaccurate report.

Nice thing about @unfollowr is you don't have to log in or whatever, just follow the account and it will send you DM whenever someone decides to unfollow you. Yes, it is heart-breaking when someone does that, that's why I need this tool to know whose names I should write-off from my Christmas list.

Visit to Passion Works Studio

Around two months ago, we had an opportunity to visit Passion Works, a social business entrepreneurship located in Athens, OH. Basically, Passion Works is about doing a collaboration between artists with and without disability problems. It is originated from the belief that every humans are innately precious and are capable of doing something valuable to society. Patty Mitchell, its owner and founder, sees beyond their disability, and started to use this opportunity to help them restoring their sense of self-esteem while at the same time building her own company . Thus, you have the term Social Business, a for-profit company with a social vision.

At Passion Works Studio with founder, Patty Mitchell

So, how does the collaboration actually work? Sketch is drawn by disabled people; they are the one who come up with ideas which then being actualized by full time artists. Tons of wonderful ideas and drawings sprung up from their creative mind, one of them is the Passion Flowers which is now being recognized as the official flowers of Athens, OH. The products that they carry range from decorative item to functional items like guitar or even luggage.

It was unfortunate we didn't take more pics

As my eyes observed all the amazing artworks before me, my mind can't help to wonder. It doesn't take a special set of eyes to look at these people and realized that they are uniquely created. It doesn't take a master or Phd degree to acknowledge that they possess certain kind of abilities which often times are being overlooked. Patty sees through that, and I believe we can also see that. However, it takes a tender and courage heart to go beyond what we see or believe or acknowledge and actually turn that into an action. Often times, doing is much harder than believing, because doing is another level of commitment, and that is why people who are actually a doer, are those who are able to bring huge impact to the community. Patty Mitchell did this several years ago; starting with only a strong determination and bold courage, she brought her vision to reality, and thus has become an inspiration for lots of people, including me.

Learn more about Passion Works:
Follow them at Twitter http://twitter.com/PWStudio
Be their fan at Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pwstudio
Click here for video, and here

My Birthday Gift

This post is one month due, but I'm gonna write it anyway because it concerns me and anything concerning me is absolutely essential to be posted. I've written one post about the kind of untypical birthdays greetings that I got for my 23rd birthday, and I think to be fair, I need to write about the gift that I got as well, which is equally untypical. They're unprecedented.

I have received a watch, gift-card, clothes, electronic-stuff or even Gundam as my birthday presents, but this kind of gift, like what I alluded, is unprecedented. I guess it takes a strong urge of determination and mountainous efforts to even set the project in motion, let alone finish it in a meticulous fashion. Thus, hail to my good friends for spending hours creating this scrapbook, and for effortlessly lying to me regarding their whereabout several days before my birthday. I certainly appreciate the thoughts and energy that you guys have put into this book.

Bits and pieces of the scrapbook, displayed nicely before being binded together

One of my favorite pages, I like how the bird hovering over my head.

Road trip to Boston, beaten by the mad crab

My dark and secret desire, massage gift card!! haha. Ecstatic. 

 Thank you guys, really appreciate everything. (setting: at our secret study center, dare to guess??)