One of the first things I noticed after joining Twitter is that my email in-box started getting flooded with notifications about new Twitter followers and DM's (direct messages.) Rather than turn off notification emails altogether, I decided to practice a little Outlook Kung Fu and have Twitter emails automatically sort themselves into a special folder.
I also created a special rule, so that when new Twitter mail arrives, I'm alerted by the cute (and not too distracting) sound of twittering birds. Sweet! (or is that tweet?!)
Here's how I did it (using Microsoft Outlook 2003 on Windows XP)
- Right-click on the subject line of a Twitter email in my in-box preview pane.
- Choose: Create Rule.
- Select: Subject Contains.
- Edit the subject so it just says "Twitter"
- Select: Play a Selected Sound.
- Choose: Browse. It should open your Windows Media folder.
- Choose: Jungle Open
- Press the play (arrow) button to test the sound.
If you don't have Jungle Open, you can try other pre-installed sounds or download a similar sound off the internet and save it in your media folder. - Select: Move email to folder.
- Choose: Select Folder.
- Highlight: In-box, then choose New Folder. Name it Twitter, then choose OK.
- Click OK to save your rule.
If your rule is working properly (and you have your speakers turned on) you'll hear the twittering sound when new Twitter mail arrives, then see unread mail in the Twitter sub-folder in your Outlook in-box. Best of all, your real email won't be cluttered up with notifications and you can get batch your Twitter tasks for a later time!
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/JayaSchillinger
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