As we know, Twitter is a great tool to use to listen to and engage with your customers. There are additional tools around the basic Twitter.com interface that you should be aware of to make your use of Twitter more time efficient.
1. HootSuite (www.hootsuite.com)
I use Hootsuite to monitor all the Twitter accounts that I am managing as well as monitoring Facebook and LinkedIn. I have upgraded to the paid option, but I would recommend (and teach) the free option to get started. HootSuite is useful to monitor Twitter lists or groups, schedule tweets as well as monitor mentions of your own Twitter account. There are other tools including TweetDeck and SproutSocial, but I choose HootSuite as I like the user interface and the fact that you can access it from the internet. No downloads and the internet access means that I can access the same setup from my mobile, my desktop, my laptop and any other internet location.
2. Twilert (www.twilert.com)
I run Twitter workshops in Oxfordshire. I use twilert to inform me whenever anybody mentions similar workshops or training within 50 miles of Oxford. This means that I can keep an eye on my competition as well as see anybody who is looking for training. I can setup a number of keywords and receive a daily digest of tweets mentioning the keywords.
3. Tweepi (www.tweepi.com)
Shows
a) Who you are following who is not following you back and
b) who is following you that you are not following you back
There is nothing wrong in following people that are not following you back – you might find their tweets interesting. It is worth going through the list every so often to see whether you need to remove anybody from the list – spammers for example.
You might want to keep an eye on those people following you who you are not following – particularly if you don’t automatically follow back using tools like SocialOomph (see below).
4. SocialOomph (www.socialoomph.com)
I have used Socialoomph for a couple of years. I only use the tool for automatically following , setting up automated welcome messages and keyword email digests – but it can do much more. I personally prefer the user interface of tools like HootSuite. Setting up automated messages and automatically following are now paid options on SocialOomph – but I do get interest from my automated welcome messages, so personally I think it is worth the small fee.
5. Tweet Chat (www.tweetchat.com)
A tool which enables you to chat with others on Twitter in real time focused around a
particular #tag. For example, I occasionally take part in the #lrn monthly chat. If I setup Tweetchat to monitor the #tag, it will show all relevant tweets. You could use a search term to do this, but tweetchat allows you to pause the stream, change the speed of the refresh and automatically adds the # tag to any post that you send.
This isn’t an exhaustive list – there are other tools being developed all the time. What tools do you find particularly useful when you use Twitter?