A better way to use Twitter

The Twitter platform is an excellent way to stay current if you don't use the standard client[1] and feed. There's just too much data coming at you to capture. It can be overwhelming, noisy, and often not even in chronological order.

Say hello to the Twitter list—a way to organize your interests in stand-alone silos of information. Initially, I started by subscribing to existing lists. Finding good ones, however, proved to be challenging. This is what led me to start making my own curated Twitter lists.

Lists are ideal for content consumption; they make it trivial to stay current in various fields. But, more importantly, they provide you with contextual search.

This might also provide you with some insight into how I appear to be omnipresent.

Twitter advanced search operators

You were probably aware of the search feature, but are you using Twitter's advanced search operators[2] to your advantage? This, combined with curated lists, gives you superpowers!

The operators I use daily are list, from, filter, and min_faves. You should check out this handy advanced search operators GitHub repository for a complete list.

Check out these actionable examples I've used personally.

Use-case #1 - Bug bounty

  • Want to know more about SSRFs? Use the following search query list:securibee/bounty ssrf. This looks for the term "ssrf" within my bug bounty list[3].

  • Saw someone mention a shiny new tool but forgot what it was? Seeing that it's a bug bounty tool, it's probably on GitHub, so we can use list:securibee/bounty url:github.com to find it.

Use-case #2 - Web development

  • Don't have much time but want to stay on top of the latest? Let's filter my web developer list and only display "popular" content, list:securibee/devs min_retweets:100 min_faves:100.

  • Want a list of popular articles from the current week? We can use the query list:securibee/devs filter:links within_time:7d min_retweets:50.

TweetDeck

My preferred way of using Twitter is the TweetDeck client. I might not even be using Twitter if it wasn't for this wonderful tool.

The way it works is quite simple; it provides multiple vertical columns you can use as you see fit. As you might be able to tell, this layout offers an unparalleled overview paired with infinite customization options.

Now we're cooking with gas. [4]

My daily setup

My setup consists of eight TweetDeck columns, covering all of my interests.

  1. Unfiltered bug bounty — A constant flow of bug bounty tweets. Unfiltered, but always using the list:securibee/bounty list.

  2. Bug bounty — Another bug bounty column, except we only display popular tweets this time. Great for skimming when you don't have a lot of time, list:securibee/bounty min_faves:30.

  3. Bug bounty platforms — Again, we focus on bug bounty. This time it's the platforms. To keep it digestible, I filter out replies, (from:hacker0x01 OR from:bugcrowd OR from:intigriti) -filter:replies.

  4. Infosec — This column doesn't need much explanation. Popular infosec tweets, list:securibee/security min_faves:30.

  5. Web development — To keep up with web development, I use a similar 'most popular' query list:securibee/devs min_faves:30.

  6. OSINT — Again, we use the same filter, but this time it's for Open Source Intelligence list:securibee/osint min_faves:30.

  7. Doers — For lack of a better name, I named this list "Doers". It consists of people I admire that get things done. list:securibee/doers min_faves:30.

  8. Free Search — I dedicate this column to "free search". I'll use this one when researching a topic or having a question. My last query was from:levelsio min_faves:200 how, as I was curious how Pieter formats his Tweets.

These should give you some ideas on how to set up your own instance of TweetDeck.

If a list query responds with the error message: “Something went wrong.”, you can try using the list param ID directly.

For example my Doers Twitter list, list:securibee/doers, is the same as list:1254152642735026178.

Twitter lists

Caveats

As with anything, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. TweetDeck lacks some of Twitter's features, such as replying with GIFs. But fear not; the BetterTweetDeck browser extension has got you covered. Of course, it does far more than just add that one feature, so I urge you to check it out.

Notes

  1. If you'd like to continue using people you follow as your feed, then you can use this query filter:follows within_time:7dtweeted by Jane.

  2. I initially discovered the Advanced Search Operators, by IgorBrigadir, through a tweet by @notdan back in January.

  3. Jason Haddix, whose bounty list inspired me to start my own.

  4. I heard the term "cooking with gas" on Big Daddy Kane: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert.