“Trending Topics” are sort of like topic related chat rooms within Twitter Search. There are many popular ones you have probably seen such as #Lost, Slumdog Millionaire, Obama, Super Bowl, #tcot, #inaug09 and so on. But… what about some of the hidden ones that never make it to the search home page?  Here are a few you might want to try out if you’re bored…

What’s in the UHaul - #whatsintheuhaul

Twizzlers - #twizzlers

Tantrum Day - #tantrumday

Before I Die - #beforeidie

Want more followers on Twitter?  Promote your Twitter account by clicking the link below to retweet this.  After you retweet this post your Twitter avatar and link to your account will show up here.

It seems for the time being that TinyURL is at least partially down, so if you use them on Twitter, you might want to try another service until things settle down.

Here’s a list of 90+ URL shorterening services to consider from Mashable: URL Toolbox: 90+ URL Shortening Services

Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh (@zappos) shares his thoughts on how Twitter can make you a better and happier person.  I think Zappos is one of the few companies out there that knows how to use Zappos.  A lot of big companies are on board, but use Zappos as a one way broadcasting tool… *cough* like @starbucks.  I’d like to see more companies responding to complaints openly through Twitter… so Starbucks, keep an eye on Zappos and maybe you could learn a thing or two. 

Read full article at: How Twitter Can Make You A Better (and Happier) Person.

@perrybelcher shows how to write killer headlines.

Twitterfall is a cool Twitter trend site that allows you to view the latest ‘tweets’ of upcoming trends on Twitter.  Updates fall from the top of the page in near-realtime.

Unlike other sites, Twitterfall purely does trends (for now). Because of this, we can be efficient - Twitter is queried from the Twitterfall server, and results are pushed to your browser, rather than your browser doing the queries, or your computer polling our server repeatedly.

Visit TwitterFall

Twitter user @astrospace reportedly had a “meltdown” according to Mashable and this screenshot of what went down. The account had about 24,000 followers and now it’s down to a couple hundred. I wouldn’t doubt if an impostor has the account now.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and give @astrospace the benefit of the doubt. These are VERY tough times we’re living in and even if he did have a meltdown who cares? As long as he apologized, I’d forgive him and move on.  And I’m not even an Obama supporter

You can follow him online at Space.gs/subscribe.html

One more note.  This could be a genius move on his part considering how much attention this story is getting.  Personally, I think Twitter is going to die anyway and in about a year all of us will have our own private niche Twitter site.  Kind of like how in the beginning everyone was on Blogger and now they have their own blog.  Perhaps WordPress is working on it right now.  Thoughts on that?

How to Destroy Your Twitter Brand in Minutes

DivVoted is a cool site that lets you vote for your favorite web sites with Twitter.  This is a great way to help spread promote your web site or blog.

To submit your web site for consideration, follow @DivVoted on Twitter.  Then, tweet them with a message like:

“@divvoted http://mysite.com I love this site because it is great!”

If your site is good enough, then it should show up on the home page… and maybe even the Top 10!  Visit: DivVoted

@kevinrose gives an explanation of RT or “retweeting” here:

Kevin Rose - blogg - What is RT (retweeting)?.

I’ve had success with making an animated gif show up as an avatar on Twitter in the past… but not 100% sure if it works any more. In the past, the secret seemed to be to make the image about 200 x 200 pixels. Probably also helps to keep the file size as low as possible.

I think Twitter may have disabled animated gifs by now, but… people that got theirs in around Christmas still seem active. If you’ve got some time to kill, you might give it a try. Here’s a tutorial by @TiffanyDow.

How to Make an Animated Avatar on Twitter | Tiffany Dow’s Internet Marketing Blog.