14 Tools Or Services To Help You Get The Most Out Of Twitter

Using Twitter or any of the other social networks shouldn’t be a painful experience but yet many people find the thought of using Twitter to be a daunting and scary task. With that in mind I have come up with a list of 14 excellent tools and services you can use to help get the most out of your Twitter experience.

1. A robust desktop app – The Twitter website has come a long ways in terms of functionality since its inception but it still lags far behind many of the free desktop clients currently available on the market. You can find Twitter Desktop applications that are cross-platform and built using Adobe Air and you can find operating specific applications as well. The desktop apps include many enhancements and functionality over Twitter website including:
   • Image upload to supported services
   • Automatic URL shortening using third party services
   • Multiple account support
   • Access to other social media networks from one app
   • Multi-Column view to divide up your @ replies, direct messages, searches and keyword tracking
   • Quick use buttons for retweets, sending direct messages or @ replies

   Some of the desktop apps you may want to check out include:

   • Tweetdeck
   • Seesmic Desktop
   • Tweetie
   • Twitterrific
   • Destroy Twitter
2. A Good mobile app – Much like the main Twitter site the mobile version of the site is missing many of the features and functionality currently available in the different flavors of Twitter mobile apps available. Many mobile Twitter apps include features found on the desktop such as image upload and URL shortening. Since I currently run Windows Mobile and have experience using Windows Mobile I highly recommend looking at PocketTwit but if you run an iPhone or Android based device there are numerous apps available that you should consider looking at.
3. A different browser based app – In case you are unable to due to company policy, don’t want to install a new program on your computer or haven’t found a Twitter app you were satisfied with yet, there are many browser based alternatives available to use instead of the Twitter site. These browser based apps include much of the same functionality you would find in one of the previously mentioned desktop apps, but are available from any computer browser without installing additional software. Some of the best browser based apps to check out include:
   • Hootsuite
   • Seesmic Web
   • Brizzly
4. Bit.ly – If you plan on sharing any links on Twitter you need to get a bit.ly account and begin harnessing the powr of their api key. Bit.ly has become the standard URL shortener on Twitter and for good reason. Many app developers have already integrated bit.ly into their apps and an account with bit.ly includes free analytics so you can track just how well your shared links are doing.
5. Twitpic – Twitpic is my and many others Twitter picture sharing service of choice. It was the first image host dedicated to the Twitter platform, is very easy to use and is integrated into many third party apps already.
6. Listorious – Listorious is a directory of available Twitter Lists broken down into different categories for easy discovery. I have talked about the importance of Lists and how to create them in another post so I won’t go in to details here, but if you are looking to subscribe to or find new and interesting Twitter users or Lists; Listorious should be your first stop.
7. Wefollow – WeFollow is a Twitter discovery tool used to describe you using hashtags to the rest of the community. If you’re looking to be discovered on Twitter add yourself to the Wefollow directory under the appropriate hashtags or if you’re looking to discover other new and interesting people to follow start browsing Wefollow under the relevant category.
8. TweetMeme – If you are looking to discover the hottest and most shared links on Twitter look no further than the aggregate site TweetMeme. Categorized into categories and sub-categories Tweetmeme makes it easy to find exactly the type of content you are looking for and with their top Tweeted stories you can get a glimpse at what is currently trending on Twitter. Adding the Tweetmeme button to your own site can help your content become more easily shared.
9. Twitter Grader – Twitter Grader is a free Twitter analytics tool you can use to check and compare your profile with the other users who have used the service to help determine how influential you are on the social network. Grader will rank you profile, offer you Tips and Suggestions if they find anything odd about your account and they have a tool for checking if another user if following you back.
10. Twitalyzer – is another free Twitter analytics tool that offers many additional features over that of Grader. Twitalyzer looks at metrics such as: impact, engagement, influence and generosity. If you only look at one Twitter analytics tool make sure you look at Twitalyzer because in my opinion they are the best.
11. TweetStats – TweetStats is another free analytics tool that graphs your Tweet timeline, Tweets per hour, Tweets per month, most active Twitter days of the week and your reply stats. This is a good tool to analyze when you are most active on Twitter, the times when you are least active and who you have the most conversations with on Twitter. This type of information can help you decide if your Tweets could be sent out at a different time or day to further your engagement.
12. Search.twitter.com – There is going to come a time that you will need to either find something or monitor something on Twitter and at that point you are going to have to turn to search. The Twitter Search (formerly Summize) is a very good real time Twitter search engine with advanced search features such as location, dates, and hashtags to help you pinpoint exactly what it is you’re looking for. Looking for a review on that new restaurant near your house? Try the Twitter advanced search to find this information quickly.
13. Twitvid – I rarely need to post video to Twitter but when I do I have found myself turning to the easy to use Twitter video sharing service twitvid. Twitvid accepts video uploads up to a maximum size of 2GB in size and with no time restrictions in place. You can upload and share your videos directly from the twitvid site or by using one of the applications that currently have twitvid already built in. twitvid also shows you what the most popular videos are at that time, recent video uploads and who the most popular members are. Twitvid can be used to discover new content or to promote your own videos.
14. OneForty.com – Just in case you run into a problem on Twitter and are in need of a solution look no further than the Twitter app store OneForty.com. oneforty is extremely easy to use as it is broken down by category, essential apps and trending apps. If you can’t find what the Twitter app or tool you’ve looking for at oneforty chances are it hasn’t been built.

If you have used any of the above mentioned tools or services please leave a comment with your review or if you think I missed a crucial tool or service that all Twitter users should be using please let me know that as well.

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