Twitter is such a fast-moving social media channel that it can be difficult to manage with so much going on. The good news is that there are plenty of free to use tools that can help you manage Twitter accounts more efficiently.
Scheduling Tweets
Do you know that you can now schedule Tweets on the desktop version of Twitter? When you compose a Tweet you simply click on the calendar icon and the schedule options will appear.
You set the date and time you wish the Tweet to go out.
To view Tweets you’ve already scheduled, click on Scheduled Tweets.
TweetDeck
TweetDeck is a useful tool that allows you to manage a Twitter account. You can create columns to enable you to monitor your account more effectively. You could create columns of your lists, notifications, mentions etc.
Your columns are displayed on the dashboard so you can monitor the account much easier. It’s straightforward to create and schedule Tweets whilst retweeting and liking Tweets is the same principle as on Twitter.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is tried and tested by the Concise Training team and although its paid options can be quite pricey the free version of Hootsuite allows you to add and manage up to 3 social media channels. This is a big help if you are managing more than one Twitter account. Unlike TweetDeck where you would have to log out of one Twitter account and into another to manage a different account, on Hootsuite, you simply add each account once and create tabs and streams.
On the free version, you can schedule up to 30 Tweets to go out whenever you like.
Just like you would create columns on TweetDeck, you create streams on Hootsuite. These can be your mentions, likes, Retweets, scheduled Tweets etc.
Revive Old Posts – WordPress Plugin
Do you have a WordPress website? Do you write and post a new blog post and then have to take the time to create and schedule Tweets?
Revive Old Posts is a free plugin that offers the functionality to share your blog posts to your social media channels (Twitter included) as soon as you press publish. The free version works for Twitter and Facebook. You can set it up to automatically share your old and new blog posts to Twitter.
Some of the other options on the free version include:
- Choose the time between social media post shares
- Create common hashtags for post shares
- Automatically create hashtags for post shares from tags, categories or from custom fields
- Include links back to your site
- Compatible with URL shorteners
- Exclude specific posts
- Integrate with Google Analytics to track your traffic from your social media
You may have to speak to your website designer about how to add this plugin to your website.
Commun.it
Commun.it is a tool specifically aimed at small businesses. There are price plans, but the free version provides you with some interesting insights. Once you have signed up using your Twitter login, the dashboard shows you users who have mentioned you as well as accounts that regularly mention and engage with you. Retweets even appear with a prompt to thank the account that has retweeted your tweet.
Are there any tools you use to help you manage Twitter? Do feel free to share them in the comments below. If you want to learn how to get more out of Twitter, why not take a look at our Twitter for Business Online Course or our Twitter Workshop?