Of all the great Twitter functions, there is one I love most that is often overlooked by other users: Favourites. I can’t help but notice that many people don’t use this handy function that enables you to save a tweet to your favourites page within your Twitter profile (or favourites column if you use a third party application).

Managing Twitter use is a big issue for most users. The favourite function assists the management of your messages by allowing you more control and flexibility with the information you receive. So why don’t more people use it? (You can read more about Twitter management in my previous post). Here’s a quick explanation on how the favourites function works and 5 creative ways to use it.

First off, here’s where you find favourites on your Twitter home page, in case you’re not sure:

To favourite a tweet, hover your mouse to the right of the desired message and click on the little star that appears. When a tweet is favourited, the star is yellow. To unfavourite a tweet, simply click on the star again.

Five Ways to Use the Favourite Function

I most commonly use favourites to store interesting tweets when I’m checking Twitter on the move. I can read the saved messages when I’m back at my desk. All the mobile apps support the favourite function:

Another good use is to save tweets for research that demonstrate a point for a presentation or blog post:

How about keeping tweets to refer back to at a later date that can help solve a problem or issue:

I also like to save tweets that endorse other people or their services. I can look at their profiles to decide whether to follow them or not:

Why not keep endorsements for marketing purposes to use on your website. You could keep your favourites page solely for recommendations others have made about you, your service or product and direct your prospects there, or add the tweet stream to your website to display a constant list of great reviews:

Have you got another way you use Twitter favourites? Are you a favourites fan or never use it? If not, why not? I’d love to know what you think!