Twitter Tools for Marketing and Social Strategies

If you type “Twitter Tools” in a search query, you might be bombarded with tools that allow you to add followers to your Twitter account. A tool that helps you add random followers in large numbers might sound like a helpful tool, but I’m more interested in tools that can help me find out more about who I am on Twitter, with regard to my influence. I have been a member of Twitter for a bit less than a year, but I would say my profile has been on autopilot. I confess that I use Twitter the way many search engine marketers would; to syndicate content to drive traffic and generate backlinks. I attended Pubcon in Las Vegas and as I suspected, Twitter was a hot topic. I was unenthusiastic to learn that if you just “use” your account, you barely even scratch the surface when it comes to traffic potential.

To find out where you stand on Twitter, I recommend using Klout, which is a tool that helps you measure your influence on Twitter. Why is it important to measure your influence on Twitter? Well, it’s important to know how effective your sharing efforts on Twitter are. When I registered on Klout, I was given a reality check when I saw how low my score was. Klout also measures your influence on a neighborhood comparison chart. It also shows you followers you have connected with and are influential in order to grow your relationship with them.  You can also see your top re-tweets and how far the reach potential of those re-tweets are.

Apps like TweetDeck or Seesmic are popular for staying connected to Twitter and filtering key terms. I might have social media A.D.D., but these apps are a bit too involved for me. I was introduced to an easier way to stay connected through Twitbin. This cool Firefox plug-in lets you stream your Twitter feed on your web browser.  Most of my work takes place on a web browser so I really like this plug-in. The Twitbin app runs smoothly and simply allows you to tweet, see your @ replies, your direct messages, upload pictures, and search on Twitter. In the preferences, you can add custom tabs to follow up to five twitter profiles.

Last, but not least, CoTweet is a useful tool if you manage more than one Twitter account. I work at a full service internet marketing company (Optimum7) and one of the services we provide for our clients is Social Media Optimization (SMO). This tool is a great way to manage our multiple client Twitter accounts. For now, CoTweet is a free third party application, so hurry if you think you could benefit from this tool. This would also work for affiliate Twitter accounts.

What keeps me weary about Twitter is the spam tweets. For a long time I never realized I was sort of contributing to this spam. Even though I do not use an auto-tweet system, and do not tweet every hour on the hour, my tweets lack character and show low interest for any kind of conversation. After learning about these tools at Pubcon, I have a new outlook on Twitter and hope to increase my influence by at least 20 points. Look for my follow up on this post! I will be sure to let you know how my efforts are going.

November 30, 2009