Twenty One Tools for Twitter

Here’s a quick rundown of 21 tools to help you more effectively use Twitter.

Aliza Sherman

Digital Marketer

May 28, 2009

5-minute read

Episode #55

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Twenty One Tools for Twitter

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Hi there, The Digital Marketer here, ready to help you put the power of the Internet and technology to work for your business.

I’m going to try something a little different on this podcast. Today, I’m going to run through a list of 21 tools you can use to enhance how you use Twitter. Don’t forget that there will be a list of all of these applications on the Digital Marketer website so no need to take notes, especially if you’re listening to this podcast in your car!

Twenty One Tools for Twitter

Back to Twitter apps to make your tweeting easier, better, stronger and faster. Warning: You must really have an interest in Twitter to listen to this podcast — even if it’s just morbid curiosity. This episode could cause Twitter overload even for the most hearty of Twitterers.

Also, please note that I’m only listing things I’ve either tried or have at least heard good things about from others. For example, I use Twitterfeed often. But I don’t use Twitterberry because I don’t have a Blackberry.

Don’t know what these applications are? Listen on!

Web Apps

I’ll start with Web applications or sites that offer services that are Web-based.

1. TweetLater: I started using this site when it offered scheduling for tweets, and now it has an array of Twitter productivity tools including link click-tracking, managing multiple Twitter accounts, and semi-automating the follower vetting process. They also have a lot of automation tools, but I recommend not automating things on Twitter aside from linking your blog to your Twitter account and post-dating tweets now and then.

2. Twitterfeed: I mentioned this site in a previous show but will mention it again because it is the tool I use to link my blog to my Twitter account. Twitterfeed saves me time.

3. Splitweet: Because I have more than one Twitter account, this site really helps me manage posting to each one of them from a single Web page.

4. Tweetgrid: Not everyone likes the Tweetgrid interface, but I love how you can select any grid configuration to view the results from more than one Twitter search at a time. So I can search for my clients’ names, my company name, and topics of interest to see all the near-realtime search results in one viewable page.

5. Just Tweet It: This is a helpful directory that allows you to find other Twitter users in a particular category, such as publishers, marketers, musicians, and moms.

6. FriendorFollow: Are you trying to figure out who you follow who is not following you back? Use this site to find out.

7. TweetTake: This site retrieves your tweet conversations so you can back them up.

8. TweetVolume: If you want to know how popular various names and keywords are on Twitter, use this site to gauge the volume of related tweets. I tried this with a client’s name and their top three keywords along with other related keywords to better identify the conversations they should be participating in on Twitter.

9. TwitPic: There are many sites that allow you to upload photos and images and tweet them, but TwitPic was one of the first and is still going strong.

10. TweetStats: This site helps you graph your tweeting, including number of tweets per hour or per month, your tweet timeline, your reply statistics, and more.

11. Toply: – This is a brand new search engine driven by tweets. The results you get are not your usual search engine fare but very Twitter-specific.

12. Twitturly: This site gives you a real-time list of the top Twitter links — those links that are most actively tweeted on Twitter. You can also search to see how many links on a particular topic or tweets by a particular person are retweeted.

13. RetweetRadar: A nonsearchable tweet trends site, this resource is useful to see what Twitter’s hottest topics are; and you can look back on archives to see the past hottest topics as well.

14. TweetTree: If you have a hard time following tweets and @ replies that string together as a conversation, this site reconfigures how your Twitter account appears to show those conversations as threaded messages.

15. Tweetchat: If you are trying to follow a conversation happening live on Twitter — which is often done using hashtags, meaning the pound or hash sign (#) followed by a keyword that everyone in the conversation adds to their tweets — you can use Tweetchat to generate a more readable continuous dialogue. I can “enter” a chatroom called #wine, for example, and see what everyone who is using that hashtag is saying about wine on Twitter.

Mobile Apps

If you love your mobile device, here are a few Twitter-related apps for your portable pleasure.

16. Twittelator: I use this app on my iPhone to access tweets on the go.

17. Tweetie: I also use this app on my iPhone. Yes, I have two different apps to do slightly different things with Twitter on my iPhone. I like Tweetie because I can easily toggle between my various Twitter accounts.

18. Twitterberry: Since I don’t have a Blackberry, I don’t need this app, but if you do, people I know who also do say it works well.

Desktop Apps

You can tweet from your Twitter home page on the Web, from your handheld device, and from your desktop with applications including Twitterific, Twhirl, and Tweetdeck. I’ve used all three and have no real preference, although many people like how you can organize your Twitterstreams and friends on Tweetdeck. Personally, I prefer tweeting from the Web or my iPhone, but that’s just me. Wow! That was 21 Twitter tools for you.

Bottom line: There are many tools out there to enhance your Twittering; but don’t forget to make sure you have a solid strategy behind why you’re using Twitter in the first place before you start using these tools. All the shiny tools in the world won’t make up for a lack of purpose.

Contact Me

That’s all we have time for today. Visit the show’s website at digitalmarketer.quickanddirtytips.com for links to all of the sites mentioned in the show – and definitely check those links because not all of them are easy to spell or remember.

The Digital Marketer’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Building Your Business With Web Tools is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips network at quickanddirtytips.com.

Tune in for another business boost from The Digital Marketer, the host who’s not afraid to go under the Internet’s hood & get a little dirty!

Toply – Visit Toply

Friend of Follow – Visit Friend of Follow

TweetLater – Tweet Later

Splitweet – Visit Splitweet

Tweetchat – Visit Tweetchat

Tweetgrid – Visit Tweetgrid

MrTweet – Mr. Tweet

SocialToo – Visit SocialToo

TweetTake – Visit TweetTake

TweetVolume – Visit TweetVolume

TwitPic – Visit TwitPic