1.  Buffer
​Buffer transformed the way I use Twitter. I post on Twitter a lot, although not as much as others! It is Buffer that lets me do this. The simple concept of Buffer is that you can buffer your tweets and then it will tweet them for your throughout the day (and night!). The Chrome extension and Android App means whenever I see some content I want to share I can just add it. Buffer then looks after the scheduling of the posts. Basically Buffer allows you to appears to be on Twitter all the time, even when you are not. Buffer also prevents all your tweets being at the same time and spreads them out so they're seen by more of your followers. When you're at work and not tweeting - Buffer is.

2. TweetDeck
The standard Twitter web client is fine but once you get past a 1000 or so followers you need something a bit more powerful to search out content you want to read. TweetDeck allows you to have multiple columns with searches, lists and notifications and makes order from the chaos of your Twitter feed. TweetDeck can also do post scheduling but isn't as advanced as Buffer.

3. Feedly
I find most of the content I share on Twitter using good old-fashioned RSS feeds managed by Feedly. I was one of many that went to Feedly after Google's RSS reader was retired. Feedly is a really convenient way to browse through feeds and even google alerts. The thing that really makes Feedly useful though is the integration with Buffer on both web and app. It is literally as simple as clicking the Buffer icon, amending the headline and choosing images.

4. ManageFlitter
I actively manage my Twitter followers and ManageFlitter is how I achieve it. The sheer power of the searches and filters mean you have a fantastic view of your followers and potential followers. ManageFlitter helps me to choose who to follow and crucially who to unfollow too.

5. Twitter Audit
There has been some mainstream press attention for fake Twitter followers recently. TwitterAudit is the de facto standard auditing source for Twitter followers. I use it in two ways 1) to keep my own account 'clean' by blocking identified bots 2) to check 'suspicious' accounts. You'd be amazed, if you haven't check recently, how many bots with large 'buy followers' banners follow you on Twitter, TwitterAudit allows you to block them (which basically makes them unfollow).

Image: Maxx-Studio/Shutterstock.com

People often ask me why, as an IT Architect, I have an interest and expertise in co-creation. When I tell them it is because it is a technical subject they are often sceptical. I should say here that I mean co-creation in the business-to-business sense of jointly created solutions. I also work in IT for an IT company so most things I do, including co-creation, are inherently technical. I explained my take on co-creation, and my interest in it here.

When you start to look at any IT solution regardless of the number of parties involved there is, of course, a technical dimension. But this is not what I mean. When you introduce two parties working to co-create a solution you get some situations and technical challenges you don’t see when working within a single organisation. You also get lots of other challenges that can inhibit co-creation like worries about IP ownership, cultural clashes and mis-trust but those are subjects for another post.

Technical challenges occur especially when two IT companies come together with their unique expertise. This is especially true where there are solution elements that are needed to enable the main co-creation offering that either party could provide. Solutioning your way through two IT companies worth of technical enablers is a technical challenge. Patterns can help with this so you can have a jointly held definition of which components are going where but it is still a technical subject.

​Even when only one of the parties is in the IT game it is not simple and there are still technical challenges to overcome. Imagine a co-creation situation where there is a domain-player who has some data that the IT partner is going to enable via APIs and then offer as a service to third-parties. Here again there are IT challenges. How are you going to share the information you need to enable your revenue-sharing? What is the technical solution your support teams are using to collaborate? How do you refresh the data from the domain expert to the IT organisation?

On top of this I also consider the delivery method to develop the co-created solution a technical subject. Working with another party to co-create a solution is different to doing it all in-house. You need to focus more on upfront agreements, you can’t assume everyone knows your solution lexicon and in short you need to adapt you delivery method to include your co-creation partner.

So, yes, I think co-creation is a technical subject.

Images: Nestor Rizhniak/Shutterstock.com and sabrisy/Shutterstock.com