Twitter is beginning to turn into something more than a microblogging service. While you cannot send files through the Twitter web site itself, there are new Twitter-related services and applications which do offer file sharing. Here are some to get you started:
Twittershare (http://twittershare.com/): A Mac-centric platform application which allows you to share files up to 10MB is size. There is also a web interface version you can access through their site and a Windows version is suppose to be coming soon.
FileTwit (http://www.filetwt.com/): FileTwit is a web-based service allowing you to send files up to 20MB in size. The FileTwit site itself doesn’t offer much information about its service, and the interface is lacking. Another catch is if you want to download a file sent to through FileTwit, you will have to go a separate site called RapidShare to download it. Still, it is free and it does allow 20MB file transfers.
Tweet A File (http://tweetafile.com/upload): Claiming to be the easiest way to share files on Twitter, Tweet A File is indeed one of the quickest and easiest ways to share files on Twitter. To get started, simply sign in to the Tweet A File site using your Twitter account information. After you do this, you are taken to a page where you can select the file you wish to share using the familiar BROWSE… button to scan your hard drive. Once you select the file, you can then enter either a tweet or a direct message which pertains to the file you are about to share. All that is left to do is click the Upload File button and you are done!
While it is a quick and easy way to share files, there is no specific information offered about the service such as what the maximum file size is. A simple FAQ page would put Tweet A File a couple of steps ahead of the other Twitter-related file sharing services.
TweetCube (http://www.tweetcube.com/): Just like with Tweet A File, you sign in to TweetCube with your Twitter account information, select the file you want to upload on the next page, then enter your tweet on the last page and you are done. The only two differences between TweetCube and Tweet A File is the extra step to sending out your file and tweet, and the option to view past files you uploaded through their service.
HootSuite (http://www.hootsuite.com): I have saved the best for last. My favourite Twitter-related service, HootSuite, offers file sharing but with a major difference: you can track the links to the files with HootSuite’s custom analytics. Say you are giving away a free report and you want to track how many people click on the link to download it. With HootSuite, you are able to send out the tweet with the link to the file to be downloaded which you can then track the number of times that file has been clicked. None of the other services mentioned here offer this feature which is why this is my Twitter file-sharing service of choice.
While you don’t need any of these services in order to share files over Twitter (you can simply include the link to the file to be downloaded in a tweet), they do offer simplicity and in the case of HootSuite, the ability to track the number of times your file’s link was clicked. So what file-sharing services do you use with Twitter? Let me and everyone else know in the Comments below. Thanks!
