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There are numerous ways of using Twitter for everything from business to fun. The key to using Twitter effectively is the use of tools. Without tools Twitter can be overwhelming and difficult to fathom. There are numerous tools though that allow you to sift through this massive resource of latest news, links and gossip.
So what are the Twitter tools that really make a difference for advanced Twitter users?
I selected just the best of them: 30+ Twitter tools that are most useful right now. Most of these tools have been around for years so they have a sound business model. They simplify manifold tasks but have one thing in common: you must be aware of these tools in case you’re serious about Twitter participation.
Standalone and Web Based Twitter Clients
CoTweet
CoTweet is a solid and free web based Twitter client with some useful CRM features aimed at business users. I use it quite often.
TweetDeck
Sleek Adobe Air desktop client for Twitter offering a good overview with several panes.
Seesmic
Seesmic is like both CoTweet and Tweetdeck, they have a web based client and and Adobe Air based app with similar features. They even support Facebook and other services as well.
twhirl
One of the more popular Twitter clients from the early days of Twitter. I can still recommend it.
Spaz
Cross platform open source Twitter client for Mac, Windows and Linux.
Hahlo
Web based iPhone (and iPod Touch) optimized Twitter app that works inside modern browsers as well.
Misc. Twitter Tools
ManageFlitter
An advanced twitter contact management tool I can highly recommend.
Twellow
Twellow is the “Yellow Pages” of Twitter.
iTweet
This is an alternative web based interface for Twitter and indeed it’s a little more usable than the default one on Twitter.com
TwitterCounter
This is a Twitter followers counter similar to the Feedburner count for blog subscribers.
Paper.li
Ever wanted to publish a newspaper? Paper.li does it on your behalf. Just pick the sources, be it people or hashtags.
Magpie
Magpie is an ad-network for Twitter. It boast that users can make something like 50 to 200$ a month just by tweeting.
Twitter WordPress Plugins
Twitter Tools by Alex King
I use this set of tools over on my own SEO blog and it works fine, you can even tweet from the WordPress backend and your blog address will be used as the client (software) link.
WP to Twitter
Twitter updater plugin using the SEO friendly Cli.gs short URL service for tweeting your posts.
Reliable Twitter
This WordPress plugin uses the Google Ajax API to get a reliable stream of tweets to your blog sidebar.
Firefox Extensions for Twitter
Echofon
Simple but effective and popular Twitter Firefox add on. I use Echofox as my main Twitter client for several years now.
TwitBin
Even simpler Twitter add on for Firefox.
HootBar
Let’s you post to Twitter right from the address bar of your browser.
Twitter Social News
Topsy
Search the most popular current stories shared on Twitter. Also available this week, month or all time search.
Trunk.ly
This is Delicious-like social bookmarking for Twitter but it’s automated. It collects the links you share on Twitter, Facebook, Delicious and everywhere, saves them as bookmarks with tags. You share them with others as well.
TweetMeme
Find out the most popular stories as as shared via the Tweetmeme button.
Twitturly
Social news like interface for the currently hot tweets.
MicroBlogBuzz
Shows you what’s most popular today, this week etc. on Twitter and across the other common microblogging platforms.
Twitturls
Shows the latest and most popular links on Twitter.
Twitter Analytics
Klout
Klout is probably the most widely used tool to determine a person’s (or account’s9 authority on Twitter. The sheer number of followers is a worthless metric.
bit.ly
Use bit.ly as URL shortener and you can loo up how many peopel cliecked the actual links along with some other stats. For shortening links you can also use j.mp – it’s even shorter and does not have a domain from Libya (.ly)
TweetReach
Tweetreach is an analytics tool that estimates the number of impressions you have received even listing the users who provided them. It’s quite biased though as impression by large numbers of bot followers do not mean much. So make sure to weed out the automated accounts when considering the numbers.
TweetStats
This statistic tool measures everything from when you tweet (weekdays, time of day) to who your real friends are by counting how often you address people.
Twist
Twist allows you to quickly view and compare popularity trends on Twitter. It’s similar to Google Trends.
FriendOrFollow.com
This tool compares your list of friends with your followers and shows you who does not follow you back.
These 30+ Twitter tools will allow you a seamless integration of Twitter in your daily routine but make sure you know what you doing on Twitter and have some business objectives.
This post has been originally published on November 14th, 2008. It was last updated: May 3rd, 2011. Numerous links have been removed and added. Many descriptions have been altered.
* Image by Noël Zia Lee
I’d like to add BigTweet to the list – http://bigtweet.com/
It’s a bookmarklet that lets you post up to 280 chars to Twitter from any web page. Also includes ability to shorten URLs and add special unicode chars from the bookmarklet window.
Thanks,
Scott
Great list of sites! With so many tools to go from twitter to wordpress, while also going from wordpress to twitter, is there a risk of an infinite loop?
And I’ve love to see the day when I can update my status in one place and have it spread to Facebook, LinkedIn, myspace, twitter, etc… More than some OpenID thing.
Thanks,
Dennis
You forgot a very important one for many of us; TiwitterBerry which is a fantastic BlackBerry Twitter application. There are some features lacking, but it is by far the most useful way to tweet on a BB.
http://www.orangatame.com/products/twitterberry/
Thanks for the feedback Scott. How do you add 280 chars to Twitter, adding 2 tweets?
Dennis: Infinite loop? Are you kidding me? The tool you wish to have already exists. It’s Ping.fm I did not add it to the list as I don’t recommend using it. Submitting the same message to several networks is cross posting and nobody likes that. Imagine people at FriendFeed receiving the same message via 5 or more channels.
Tracy: Indeed you’re right. I collect a few more and then add it.
I like to use Twuffer – http://twuffer.com – for future Tweets. I set tweets for my friend’s birthdays in advance :)
Found it on Sphinn. Great list and thanks for the guide. :p
I can suggest another great tool: Easy Tweets, great tool if you have many accounts (http://easytweets.com)
I just started using Digsby to connect to Twitter. The advantage is that it connects to all social sites and IM.
very useful information…thanks
How about http://www.pr140.com for public relations people and journalists?
Thanks for great list. very useful
You can see more tool for Twitter at: http://www.danhbaweb20.com/?p=332
I’d add Tweetie for iPhone, absolutely rocks.
Not free but the best 3 quid I have ever spent at the apps store.
It looks terrific with a lovely UI, has saved search, real depth of features, wonderful indispensable for the iPhoned twitterer.
Very useful info! Twitter is starting to be a mainstream tool. We’re excited to let people advertise on twitter. Launching next week!
Andy A.
CEO
Hi,
I’d like to recommend http://www.tweetconvo.com/ – it’s really help me to make sense of Twitter conversations I often don’t understand. I used to rely on @replies, but not anymore :)
Here’s a list I compiled myself, with all the most up-to-date tools
http://www.placona.co.uk/blog/post.cfm/my-top-favourite-twitter-tools
Twitter can be a very valuable link building tool but not for links on twitter itself. Its a kind of second order effect, I think this would be just as effective as some of the other social bookmarking sites, article sites and press release sites. So it could help but I would not put all my eggs in that basket.. Cheers keep up the articles.
Thanks for the list. I am just now getting into the twitter groove and this information is very helpful.
Check out Chirbit.com it is an online tool for recording, uploading and sharing short sound bites easily. You can record straight from a browser using a mic or webcam, then share it on twitter or other social media sites using our short URL. check it out. – Ivan
If you dont want to hand over your twitter usernames and passwords to a third party website but want to implement a “keyword” autofollow
Or
if you are running multiple accounts and need more than 100 api hits an hour (if you get your ip address whitelisted you can get 20,000 api calls an hour).
Then check out http://www.MyTwitterButler.com for $10 it’s a windows .net application that run directly on your pc instead of in the cloud.
It does two things;
1/ Auto Follows Users with up to 4 search terms per twitter account (allows multiple accoutns – I run mine with 11 accounts simultaneously but it slows it down).
2/ Direct Message Broadcast – you can send a direct message to all you users with just one click.
Cheers,
Dean
If you’re using Twitter and more people are by the day you have to check out the links in this article as they are very helpful.
I am yet to discover and find out how twitter can be useful for my news site
These tips are very useful. Twitter is starting to become my main source of advertisement and my clients are using this as well. Seems to be working out great!!
If you’re using Twitter and more people are by the day you have to check out the links in this article as they are very helpful. Also id recommend checking out this blog 201 Twitter Tools and Twitter Apps.
It’s a free pdf download on his blog here
http://www.dtalpha.com/talkback/?p=355
Very nice list!
I have also done up a list as well. The Ultimate List of Twitter Tools @ The Social Media Guide http://bit.ly/zhXUv
This is a good one! Adds/Removes friends, automates and searches by people not by tweets.
Great post! You should add Ref.ly to your list. It’s an amazing new tool for turning Bible verses into short URLs.
I just got a look at http://www.thetwittertoolbox.com at a conference. It is going to leave the six applications that I am currently using in the dust. I will be ending my 6 different monthly subscriptions (i.e. tweetlater, hummingbird, and twitstat) in July when it is released to the public. Everyone was VERY excited to be paying one fee for such an all encompassing tool!
As a top Twitter business user, I was sent an advance copy of the Tweet Adder System for my review. This is by far the best Networking Tool I have used for Twitter!
wow that’s is very good twitter tools…I will try this.. thankyou..
Gravity – Superb Twitter Client for your S60 Mobile Phone http://mobileways.de/products/gravity/gravity/
Hi,
We are DNOiSe, from Spain, and we have released the beta versión of “followthehashtag”, a twitter trends graph generator. You can find it usefull to find oppinion leaders, people to follow or track #hashtags
you can find it on http://www.d-noise.net/follow
Feel free to buzz our tool if you find it usefull
Thanks a lot and enjoy it! ;)
I use hootsuite.com to manage my twitter accounts. It’s easy to use.
I know I can’t be the only person on the planet using Twitzap.com right? It is great for using Twitter away from home or on another computer. Maintains your settings and of course the best part is nothing to download.
Just wanted to share that publicitweet looks promising !
Twitter is growing like any thing ,its user database are huge in no.so the micro blooging site is in a huge manner and we all can utilize those user for sharing information ,it can drastically increase in you traffic,but the most important thing is tweeting you info,its the most important.
I dont like trusting my identity to third parties, so I like the way this twitter follower widget is set up
Thanks for sharing useful Twitter tools .i am using WP to Twitter plugin for my blog
I know this is an old article but I wanted to plug my Twitter app which I think people might enjoy: http://toocoolfor.me/
It’s all about using a Bookmarklet whilst browsing twitter.com to see who’s following you and who is too cool for you.
This works really well. We use WP to Twitter which also does the job.
Reliable Twitter does the job for us. An absolute top plug in.